green

My Favorite Healthy (and super easy) 3 Ingredient Green Juice

~ agustinaskitchen ~ Leave a comment

 

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Happy New Year! Is anyone else super excited for a clean slate!? I can’t quite remember the last time I was so happy for a New Year.  At the end of 2016, I was so ready for the New Year, that I overindulged like mad.

I’ll try and justify myself by telling you that for a big part of the holiday we were all fighting some cold or other so we stayed inside a lot and ate, slept, ate more, watched movies, and did a lot of reading.  Honestly, it was actually quite nice to fully enjoy cookies, cakes, spaghetti, steak, lasagna, an endless flow of chocolates, bacon, sausage and eggs. Of course, the only downside is that I’ve now begun 2017 with a few extra pounds, which don’t feel so good!!

In an attempt to counteract these extra pounds, I’ve been juicing a bit. Last year I did not use our juicer at all, not once! However, after pulling it out of the garage and putting it back on the kitchen counter, I realize that I forgot how much I like having fresh, alkalizing, and nutritious green juice to get my digestion, mind, and body to feel alive and alert again.  Moreover, I love how drinking 100% makes me crave more fruits and vegetables in my diet.  Also, the broccoli, apple, lemon combination does wonders for your immunity from to all the vitamin C they provide! Cheers to 2017 and more fresh fruits and veggies! Oh, and maybe a trip to New England, I lived in Boston years ago and haven’t been back in 5 years… 😉

INGREDIENTS:

4 heaping cups of broccoli (stem included)

1 1/2 – 2 green apples

1 lemon

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Put all the ingredients through the juicer, stir, and enjoy!

*Makes about a cup and a half.

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Cheers!

A Summer Basil Vinaigrette

~ agustinaskitchen ~ Leave a comment

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Basil is the herb of summer.  It’s refreshing, light, and has that wonderfully cool scent – perfect for a late summer evening. You can throw it in a salad, top it on pizza, turn into pesto for pasta, even put in water with sliced strawberries to drink. Recently, I saw it turned into a vinaigrette,  and immediately had to give it a try!

We went through two batches in one week. Currently, I have a bunch more basil sitting in the fridge that I’m going to turn into this vinaigrette to use for dinner tomorrow. We used it as the sauce for pizzas (it was better than pesto!) I also drizzled it over salmon a couple of weeks ago, and used it for a mozzarella tomato panini.  It’s so easy to make, versatile, and so good for these summer months.

Without further ado:

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INGREDIENTS:

2-3 heaping cups of basil

2 garlic cloves

1 shallot

juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

*salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place all the ingredients in a food processor/grinder/chopper/blender until it comes out smooth – about a minute or two.

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 Cheers!

A Smoothie Green St. Patrick’s Day to You

~ agustinaskitchen ~ Leave a comment

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! On St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish!  Except, I didn’t wear green.  Nope.  Every year I “forget” to wear green.  Mostly I’m too lazy.  You see, I don’t have a lot of green in my wardrobe.  I just don’t.  Don’t judge.  Maybe next year, alright?

That said, I always love to consume something green or “Irish” on this fun day!  Today it was so incredibly hot out, that by the time we got home this afternoon, all I wanted was a smoothie.  Do you remember making smoothies on hot summer days when you were a kid?  I would make my smoothies with strawberries, milk, and ICE CREAM! And I called it a smoothie!? More like a milkshake!  So, I made myself a smoothie sans all the dairy…

I pulled these ingredients right out of my fridge, and within minutes voila!  What I most like about this smoothie, is that the banana really masks the spinach, yet you still get all the great health benefits of the spinach.

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INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 c. ice

1 large banana

2 large handfuls of fresh spinach

3/4 c. almond milk

INSTRUCTIONS:

I always put all the ingredients in the blender in that order. And give it a good long blast until it’s smoothie delicious! Pour it into a fancy schmancy glass. Add a straw and enjoy!

*Makes about 2 cups

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