Junque Food - We've become smoothie monsters!

Why is it I never take a picture of the marvelous smoothies DaHubster has been serving lately?  Probably because I've been sucking them down too fast!

He drinks them for breakfast, and I usually have them as a morning or afternoon snack.

They are pretty easy to make. There are multiple recipes out there, but I find that they are basically the same. Most of the Paleo recipes have a green tea base. So I brew up a pitcher of green tea, and stick in the fridge, it lasts most of a week.

We also use an egg protein powder, mainly because it's cheaper than using eggs. It also helps my squick-y factor knowing there's no raw eggs in my smoothie. We use this version of the egg white protein powder:
Eggwhite Protein - 100% Pure Unflavored 1 lbs, though I see there are many varieties that are also flavored. I might have to to talk DaHubster into trying a vanilla or chocolate the next time we order it!

After that, the fun begins. We almost always use bananas and strawberries. We buy 2-3 bunches of bananas at a time, and slice them and freeze them for easy use. Same with strawberries. It's just passed strawberry season for us now, but I stocked up, and we froze and dehydrated a bunch for awhile. I wish we'd gotten more!

If you want a smoother smoothie (heh), go for some coconut milk. 1/3 to 1/2 a can is all that is needed for a blender full of smoothie goodness.

Just a note for those of you who are trying  out the Paleo lifestyle: make sure you read the label on cans of coconut milk.  Thai Kitchen brand is the only in-store brand that I've seen that is 100% coconut, with no preservatives. Usually, the preservative is Guar Gum, which in the scope of things, isn't so bad, but if you looking for pure, Thai Kitchen is probably your most affordable bet. Unless you go organic, which is too rich for my blood right now. Or make Coconut milk yourself, which I haven't yet tried to do.  But here's a recipe for those of you that want to try! :)  Gluten Free Coconut Milk from Elana's Pantry

Unsweetened cocoa powder is another thing we've tried. Just remember a little goes a looooooong way.  It gets bitter if you use too much. Try a half teaspoon first, and add more if you like.

If you want more nutritional goodness, try some crushed or powdered flax seed.

And for those of you that want a sweeter smoothie, add some honey. I did that in the beginning, when my tongue was still craving sweets. Lessen the amount of honey over time, and watch your taste buds come to life with the natural flavors of the fruits you put into your very own homemade smoothie!

Junque Yard! NOMmy photos of what's going on...

Raspberries, strawberries, and Lilies, OH MY! :)

Junque Yard - year of the fruit

I am hereby declaring 2012 the year of the fruit.  While my tomatoes and peppers are doing all right, they are not growing as quickly as I'd like.

BUT

the fruits in my garden are doing gang-busters.

Strawberries - now that they can breathe from having been weeded, have so many unripe berries that the plants can barely stand up.

Raspberries - my canes are flowering and fruiting, and we will have the BEST harvest of them yet.

And even my poor old, decrepit peach tree, struggling to keep up appearances so I don't chop it down, has set an enormous load of peaches.

Now if the leaves would just stay on the poor old guy....

 

Junque Yard - Spring has Sprung Early!

It is amazing to me how early spring is this year.  We had a very mild winter (they say it happens every 10-11 years or so, and we were due). The weather man said on the news yesterday morning (friday) "3 weeks ago today we got 4-8 inches of snow.  I remember that, and the day after started a warm trend that has carried us through till now. Today will be the first day it doesn't quite reach 60 degrees. And we are only a few days into true spring!  It makes me feel humbled and grateful, even though it's weather, and really, who controls that? Who exactly am I being grateful to?

Anyway, before I got off on a theological rant, the end result of 3 weeks of BEAUTIFULLY warm and sunny weather is that the trees and flowers have fairly BURST into fruition. On my commute to and from work I see all manner of trees that look like they have split a gut flowering. It really does look like they violently pushed forth their leaves and blossoms. Particularly the younger trees. The older, larger trees seem to be holding back, as if they know not to rush these things.

Even in my own pitiful bulb garden, I have hyacinth that are so flower-laden they are falling over. I have one sprightly daffodil, and several tulips that bloomed before reaching their normal height. The result is shorter, yet cheerful tulips that warm my heart every time I pull into my driveway.

Last weekend, we started planting seeds. We started our tomatoes and peppers in old blister packs that we've saved from years prior. We also planted our lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, and kale in long planter boxes that are close to the kitchen door - which allows for quick access when making dinner.  The spinach and chard both have sprouted, and we should be able to eat those in about a month or so.

The only other thing I've done this early in the season is to remove about 50 strawberry plants from their bed. I did this so that daHubster could line the bed with timbers, and we dumped several bazillion gallons of compost, in effect raising up the strawberry patch a few inches, giving me a place to plant my butt while I tend the strawberries, and giving the strawberries themselves some good fertilizer.  I replanted them the same afternoon, so no strawberry plants were lost in the making of this project.  I predict that I will have tons of yumminess come June's picking time.

Yesterday it rained hard, though still pretty darn warm. It's foggy outside - I can hear the foghorn's going crazy on the lake. But it will soon burn off, and be another great spring day.

Junque Food & Junque Yard....Strawberries!

I didn't put in a reference point. What you are looking at is a HUUUGE bowl of strawberries. (duh, I mean you can see they are strawberries, but how big the bowl is -  is unclear. It's large. Trust me.)

It's always been a goal of mine to produce enough strawberries to make jam. Each year, I never think I'm going to, so I just eat them raw. Which is fine. There is nothing more perfect than a ripe strawberry just picked from your own stash. I've grown enough to make strawberry shortcake (I prefer Bisquick's Classic shortcake recipe for the biscuits) in the past. but mainly, I like to eat them fresh and whole. Taking a handful to work for breakfast is a sure way to have a great day.

That said, I've always wanted to make jam from my own berries. I've done it with store bought berries with absolutely fine results. But the news articles out there lately say that strawberries are one of the most pesticide laden commercially grown foods out there, along with celery, peppers, etc. The skin on the berries is so soft the pesticide sinks in, and sometimes normal washing isn't enough to get it off. Plus, you never know how long ago they were picked, how long they've been sitting in a warehouse, or on a truck, etc.

DaHubster's Aunt Carol makes a freezer jelly that is beyond great. every year we get a jelly jar from her, and it always goes way too fast. I want MORE! I want my own.

Actually, the last time I made strawberry jam, it didn't set up so well. It was incredibly runny, more like a strawberry sauce with chucks of berries in it. It's excellent stirred into yogurt or on top of ice cream. It did not go to waste, that's for sure.

Enough tangents..back to the point. I did a dumb thing, and assumed I wouldn't have enough strawberries for jam this year. LOL. I had about a half of of quart picked, and went to the farmer's market, where only one vendor was selling berries. At $4.50 a quart. That's not a bad deal, since most grocery stores sell theirs on sale for 2 for %.00 a pint. These berries were HUGE, and some of them were not quite ripe, which if not so diplomatically said out loud, and very kind offered to let me pick my own out of their stash behind the counter. I was embarrassed, though, sure they were thinking that I was one of the hard to deal with customers. I just took the best looking quart I could see on the table.

Then I went home and picked my own strawberries, and I could see that the quart I got at the FM was NOT needed. I had so many, that I had to inside to get a bigger bowl.  I picked until my legs were wobbly and my back hurt from bending over so much. then I sent DaHubster out to pick the rest that were ripe enough. Giant bowl. Huge amount of berries.

I should have picked first, *then* gone to the market.

Ah well, live and learn. I have a ton of strawberries, and there will be jam. And 3/4's of it will be from my own garden.

I can live with that.  :)