Serious Green Juice

Amy Morris gave me three Asian pears when I was at the Orlando Farmers Market on Sunday, encouraging me to juice them by themselves for a real taste treat. I let them ripen a bit on the counter, and this morning decided to use them in my morning green juice.

I juiced the pears by themselves, took a sip, it is delicious, no doubt about it.
But I wanted to expand on the subtly sweet flavor by adding some healthy fresh leafy greens.

Using an abundance of dark, leafy greens daily, is key to good health. I try to have a variety of greens throughout the day. Some juiced, some blended, and some whole in salads. Occasionally, others lightly steamed.

Keeping in mind that these were Asian pears, I added half a lemon, a couple of fennel sprigs, stalk and fronds, along with an inch piece of fresh ginger. All seemed in keeping with an Asian theme. Three big leafy dark green organic leaves of dinosaur kale provided the rich, nutrients that put this drink right over the top for taste as well as nutrition.

TA-DA - the finished product. . . smooth, silky, slightly sweet and filled with good nutrients that the body can use immediately, with no effort or energy expended.

Each ingredient provides its own digestive enzymes, leaving lots of energy to get on with my morning tasks.

Sunday Lunch

After a quick trip to the Orlando Farmers Market today, I came home with bursting bags of produce and immediately began preparing lunch.

Fresh red radishes and young yellow squash quickly grated, sliced cucumber and mixed wild greens along with freshly grown sunflower sprouts made a colorful, tasty plateful of highly nutritious veggies.

The greens glistened with a light drizzling of Myer lemon infused extra virgin olive oil and the flavors of all the vegetables popped with a few grains of sea salt judiciously sprinkled atop.

Quick, easy, tasty, healthy - a gal can't ask for much more!

Punicas Granatum

I have a vague, distant memory of eating pomegranate as a kid. Bittersweet hard little red seeds and rivulets of red juice running down my arms as I tried to pop the seeds into my mouth without getting any of the white pith. That has to be over 60 years ago. It's no wonder my memory of the incident is vague. Pomegranates were not a frequent visitor to the fruit bowl when I was a kid. Nor have they been part of my adult life.

The health benefits and high anti-oxidant content of pomegranates has been highly touted by the food industry of late. Rather amusing, as by the time the food giants get done with their processing, I can't imagine there is a single nutrient left. Not to mention that the processing has changed the molecular structure enough not only to remove all beneficial aspects, but has changed its profile to a product completely devoid of nutrition.
Yet another processed food promoting weight gain and ill health, while contributing significantly to the corporate bottom line. What a shame.

Eating live foods, in their natural form, meaning as found in nature, with no processing, is the only way to derive the benefits each has to offer. Once a fruit or vegetable has been processed: heated, cooked, canned, it has lost its life giving benefits.

Pomegranates are in season and on sale at my local supermarket this week. How could I resist bringing home a couple of red beauties. But how best to peel and de-seed them?

Ah, the benefits of the 21st century technology. I simply turned to the Internet and queried "how to eat a pomegranate". Wow, lots of advice, written, pictorial tutorials and even several YouTube entertaining spots.

After perusing several, I chose to use the advice from MidEast Foods. Check out the step by step tutorial for ease, efficiency and a no mess method of retrieving those dandy little red seeds!


Cut slices from top and bottom and then score around the fruit. Place pieces in a large bowl of cold water and let them rest for 10 to 15 minutes. The heavy seeds will fall to the bottom of the bowl, the white pith floats on the top. Scoop out the white pieces then retrieve the nutritious seeds.

Use caution: the juice stains easily.

Seeds from one pomegranate, ready to scoop into the mouth by the spoonful, or to use in smoothies or tossed with fruit salads. Make your own pomegranate juice, without heating or adding synthetic chemicals. Get the nutrition that Nature intended. It's quick, easy and good!

Ruby Red Pomegranate Seeds