Store It Foods

When most people think about smoothies, it’s usually the standard fruit and yogurt, and when I found this recipe, I thought, “Apple Pie Smoothie? Weird!”, but it’s amazingly delicious!

Ingredients:

~12 ounces vanilla yogurt
~½ cup pumpkin pie filling
~2 cups apple juice
~1 tsp. cinnamon
~1 tsp. nutmeg
~1 chopped banana

Directions:

Like most smoothies, this part is kind of self-explanatory. Combine all the ingredients into your smoothie maker or blender, and combine the ingredients until smooth. Serves 2-3; it’s a great treat for Thanksgiving or Christmas gatherings!

If you’re like most Americans you probably are used to drinking processed juices, soda pop, and other sugary drinks. You probably even think that glass of orange juice from concentrate you drink in the morning counts as a serving of fruits and vegetables. Well, you’re wrong – it doesn’t. The only thing that is as healthy and nutritive for the body as fresh fruits and vegetables is fresh fruit or vegetable juice. This type of juice isn’t usually available in the markets (unless it’s a juice bar or a health food store) because it doesn’t have much of a shelf life.

Eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every day can be time consuming. Not many people have the patience it can take to sit there and gnaw through two apples, a carrot, a cup of broccoli, and an orange. Try using an Omega juicer to make the process more user-friendly. It takes only a minute to drink a glass of fresh juice, while it may take ten minutes to eat an apple.

In many homes a glass of fresh orange juice is a morning favorite and it is certainly one of the most nutritious beverages available — assuming all of the nutrients are there. If they are, you can be assured that you are consuming something that is truly an excellent source of vitaming C (containing more than 10 times a much vitamin C as apple juice). It is also rich in potassium, folate and thiamin. Compared to many other juices, orange juice is usually higher in protein, vitamin A. B-vitamins, calcium, iron and potassium, placing it front and foremost in the list of nutritious fruit juices. Drinking an 8-ounce glass can be counted as one of your five necessary fruit and vegetable servings for the day. As far as taste is concerned, whether you are juicing oranges, limes, lemons or grapefruits, or whether you are using a reaming juicer or a citrus press, you are producing the best tasting orange, lime, lemon or grapefruit juice. Fresh, indeed, is best. You’ll also find that fresh juice straight from your citrus juicer to be at its nutritious peak. Tests have shown that thos freshly squeezed juices are best used within minuts of squeezing.I does not take long for some vitamin content to be lost and it can be lost by just sitting there.

Does your morning begin with a glass of “Not from Concentrate” freshly squeezed orange juice poured from that carton that was just sitting in the refrigerator waiting for you.  It’s tasty, it goes down smoothly, and it’s good for you.

All that is probably true, but it might not be as fresh as you might think.  It very likely had originally been stored in some gigantic tank.  It had been heated for pasteurization purposes, with oxygen having been removed in order to lengthen its shelf life.   Unfortunately, along with the oxygen went the flavor.  If you were to avail yourself of some of the liquid refreshment taken from that enormous vat, it is said that it would taste much like sugar water.

Weeks later it might appear on your grocery store shelf, but by then the flavor would have been restored – sort of.  Your orange juice supplier would have gone to a “flavor house” where “flavor experts” would have provided “flavor packets” to insert into that orange juice.  So now that orange juice once again tastes like orange juice, or at least like the flavor experts think orange juice should taste.  And, yes, to most people’s taste buds it really does taste pretty good.

This might help to explain, however, why some people have allergic reactions to the store bought orange juice, but not to the freshly squeezed juice produced at home.  It’s not so much the orange juice to which they are allergic, as it is the added ingredients that have been incorporated into that juice.

So if you really want the best tasting juice, the healthiest juice, and most natural juice; perhaps you should simply prepare it at home beginning with the oranges themselves and with the help of your very own citrus juicer.

It is common knowledge that pulp is the “garbage” part of juicing.  Right?

Wrong.  Pulp may be a by-product of juicing, it may look unappetizing, and many people do discard it, but they may do so without realizing that there is much food value also going into the garbage.  Pulp is high in dietary fibre or roughage.  It can also contain many vital nutrients. 

Pulp can be used to thicken soups or casseroles, used in the making of carrot and apple or other flavored muffins, or be “layered” into lasagnes or similar dishes.  Fruit pulp might be used as ice cream toppings.  It could even be placed in a bowl, topped with a meringue and baked for a simple dessert.  There are many recipes available, including ones which will probably come with your juicer.  Check them out.  At the very least, pulps can be used as a mulching or composting material.

Just to get you started, here is a recipe using carrot and pineapple pulp, from an online posting by Epicurious:

Carrot Pulp Muffins

Ingredients:

3.5 cups carrot pulp
1 cup pineapple pulp
3 cups whole-grain flour
1 cup canola oil
1 cup honey
6 egg whites
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup crushed nuts

Directions:Preheat your oven to 350 deg. Mix up the pulp from carrots and pineapple well. Add egg whites, honey, vanilla and oil to the mix. Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together and add it gradually to mixture, stirring until it’s blended. Mix in the nuts.

“Ah, there’s nothing like home made, freshly squeezed juice!”

Have you ever heard that before?  Probably you have, although many of us will have to take the speaker’s word for it.  After all, if you haven’t anything around with which you can squeeze that juice, then you’re a lot less likely to have tried it. Admittedly, it might sound tempting, but not everyone has a couple of hundred dollars sitting around with which you can invest in a juicer that would allow you to do that trying. And why spend all that much when you’re not sure just how much you’ll like it.

Hold on though!  Two or three hundred dollars might be what it takes to get a top end, high quality juicer, but you don’t necessarily need to start out with a top end, high quality juicer.  For a much more modest investment, you can obtain a functioning, manual juicer that will allow you to wade into the world of home made, freshly squeezed juices.

Considering the nutritional value and the delicious taste of such juices, this just may be the kind of step that would be very worthwhile to take.  Reconsider that more expensive juicer once the experimentation has taken place and you’re better aware of your own home’s juicing needs and wants.

A report at the American Dietetic Association’s annual conference held in October of 2008 highlights the fact that a good way of obtaining the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vegetables is through the use of vegetable juice.  In other words, you can drink your vegetables.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of California-Davis who recruited 90 volunteers and split them into three groups.  Using V8 Brand Vegetable Juice, one group was asked to consume two 8 oz. glasses of the juice per day, the second was asked to drink one such glass and the third was provided with dietary counseling.  Similar counseling was given the first two groups.

At the conclusion of the study it was found that everyone in the first group had met their RDA of vegetables, more than half of the second group had done so, and approximately one quarter of the third and final group managed to reach the “5 daily servings of vegetables” that represented the recommended daily allowance.

So why the difference when vegetables are so abundant and easy to obtain?  Well, perhaps many people do not find them “abundant and easy to obtain.” 

The study author, Carl Keen, has been quoted as saying, “drinking vegetable juice seemed to address some of the key barriers to vegetable consumption such as convenience, portability and taste, so individuals were more likely to meet their daily recommendations.” Participants actually enjoyed making the vegetable juice a part of their daily routine, and found it easy to do so.

In the study, of course, commercially prepared vegetable juice was used, and that use was restricted to one particular brand, V8 Juice.  No doubt other brands could have been used with similar results having been obtained. What is apparent is that the drinking of vegetable juice is an excellent way to get us closer to that 5 serving RDA goal, a goal that many are now missing. 

This should also be of encouragement to those who juice at home.  Fresh, home made juices right from your kitchen juicer will also have an added bonus. They will be free from the salt and other preservatives that are found in the bottles and cans of juices found on store shelves, making them an exceptionally healthy choice.

Many of the juices that are sold in supermarkets today are made of artificial ingredients. They also have too much sugar and are unhealthy for kids. The best option is to make your own juices yourself. It is not that hard to do. You could simply invest in gadget, such as an omega juicer, and voila! Healthy drinks around the house. The juices of fruits and veggies such as oranges, carrots, apples and mangoes are just a few that your kids would love to drink.

Another way for them to enjoy their juice is to make it into popsicles. You could simply use your juicer to extract the juices, add a little sugar, and pour the mixture into an ice cube tray. After a few hours in the freezer, you have a healthy snack to serve on a hot summer day.

A smoothie, especially on a hot day, can refresh your body. Smoothies are also nutritious and healthy because they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and protein. They provide liquid nutrition that is easily absorbed by the body.

Smoothies are also high in carbohydrates and fiber. Having a smoothie maker at home is convenient because smoothies are fast to prepare. This is perfect especially for kids who are picky eaters. Kids will never say no to smoothies.

Use of your steam juicer doesn’t need to be a “once a year” type thing.  Though they are great for making juices for jams, jellies, or concentrates, jobs at which they excel, these handy devices can also be used as cookers. 

In other words, you can use them to steam cook vegetables for an appetizing side dish, or even prepare an entire main course. Steam rice, fish, poultry, clams, cakes, puddings, and more. It’s a healthy way to cook and it’s a simple way to cook.

To transform your steam juicer into a steam cooker, simply remove the juice kettle portion of the unit.  That’s it.  You’re done.  You’re ready to go.  You will have left behind the water pan and the steamer basket, and those are what you require for steam cooking.

Would you like even more versatility?  Use the steamer basket as a colander for draining hot spaghetti or other pastas.  You’ll find it similarily useful for washing greens and other fruits and vegetables prior to meal preparation.  The water pan can easily be used to cook up soups and stews, or as an extra large pot for boiling potatoes or other vegetables for those special, family dinners.

Don’t limit your thinking.  Get your money’s worth.  That steam juicer really can become a kitchen utensil that is useful year round, rather than just seasonally.