Cream of Broccoli Soup... with a Twist!

It's dairy and animal-bi-product free, and soup-er good for you!  Cream of broccoli soup made with... cashews?  Yes!  A big shout out to Joy the Baker for this hearty, healthful and heart-warming recipe.  This soup is ri-goshdarn-diculously good!  Not to mention easy to make.

What you'll need:

• 1 medium onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups raw, unsalted cashews
• 1 large head of broccoli
• cumin
• nutmeg
• pepper
• sea salt 
• 1 small lemon
• 3 cups water

First, soak your cashews in water for an hour. 



Grab your onion and 5 cloves of garlic.  Chop the onion and fry until clear in 2 tablespoons of coconut oil - about 5 minutes.  Press your garlic and add it to the onions.  Fry for one more minute.  Add nutmeg, cumin, sea salt, and black pepper to the onion and garlic.  Turn off the heat.



Chop your broccoli into little bite-sized florets.  Steam until bright green, but don't let the water turn green!  Add your broccoli to the onion-garlic mixture and toss it around over low heat for 1 minute.



Divide the broccoli mixture into two.  Scoop one half into a blender and add 1 1/2 cups water.  Blend until smooth.  Pour into a soup pot.  Repeat with the rest of the mixture.  Add 2 tablespoons of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and heat your soup until steaming.  Serve with bread (I used 2 gluten-free whole grain slices) drizzled with avocado oil and balsamic vinegar.



Enjoy!

"Banango" is my new favorite word

I woke up at 5 AM for a round of point count surveys along the western edge of Starr Ranch Sanctuary.  I enjoyed a steaming cup of cherry bancha green tea in the dark quiet of the morning, but couldn't bring myself to eat anything so early in the day. 

By 6:20 AM my field partner and I had hiked a few miles to our first site and recorded some great birds - California Gnatcatchers, Cactus Wrens, California Thrashers, Rufous-crowned Sparrows, Anna's Hummingbirds, California Quails, and a Roadrunner.  We finished up by 7:30 and headed back to ranch headquarters.

By 8 o'clock my stomach was screaming for food.  I needed something quick, satisfying, and delicious.  This smoothie has it all - vitamins, minerals, protein, good fats, and it's absolutely decadent! 

Tropical Banango Smoothie

• 1 ripe mango
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup cashews

Blend. Gulp.  Carry on with your day!

Rise n' Shine!

I don't know about you, but my breakfast was bangin' this morning!  Rolled oats, blueberries, flax seeds and a little maple syrup.  And to drink - a very berry smoothie!  This meal is incredibly satisfying, super nutritious, and a snap to make.  Only a handful of ingredients make it something you can whip up a few mornings a week - and it'll keep you going until lunch-time.


Blueberry Oatmeal:

• 1/2 cup thick-cut rolled oats
• a handful of dried, frozen or fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup

Throw everything except the maple syrup into a pot and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat and allow to simmer until oats are soft.  Remove from heat and let stand for 3-5 minutes.  Scoop into your favorite bowl and top with maple syrup.


Very Berry Smoothie:

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Throw all above into blender and liquefy on high until completely mixed.

Enjoy the day!

I Bought a Juicer: Cave-in

Well, one solid meal out of 9 liquid ones isn't so bad, is it?  Honestly, I'm getting sick of juices and shakes.

Cypress came home a day early so I had to celebrate by making black-bean burgers, oven-roasted rainbow potatoes, and cucumber blueberry salad. At least my cheat-dinner is healthy.

This meal is super fun to make, colorful, and absolutely delicious, if not a tad time-consuming.  It typically takes me 40 mins before I get the burgers in the oven.

For the burgers you're going to need:

• 1 can black beans
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1/2 white or yellow onion
• 1 cup cashews
• 2 large carrots
• 1 egg
• a blender or food processor

For the potatoes you'll need:

• 5-6 medium potatoes (which ever ones float your boat)
• 2 tbsp avocado oil
• Cajun spices

For the salad:

• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cucumber
• 1 1/2 tbsp avocado oil 
• 2-3 tsp balsamic vinegar 

The potatoes are the easiest part.  Rinse, and quarter the potatoes and place in boiling water until soft.  Drain the water and let taters stand until dry.  Place in a glass oven-safe dish, coat with oil and sprinkle with Cajun spices.  Set aside.



Burgers:

(1) Preheat oven to 400 F






(2) Rinse your beans with cold water and set aside

 

(3) Grate carrots and place in a mixing bowl.  Blend the cashews in a blender until they resemble a fine powder.  Throw nut flour in with the carrots.




(4) No need to rinse the blender, just throw in your spinach, half the beans, and one egg and pulverize.  Scoop contents into bowl with carrots and nuts.

 

(5) Mix, mix, mix!

 

(6) Form into patties and place on a greased (or wax paper-coated) baking sheet. Throw the potatoes in with the patties.  Bake burgers for 15 minutes or until golden.  Flip and bake until brown.  Bake potatoes until golden and crispy - about 20 minutes.

(7) Whip up the salad while your potatoes and burgers are baking.  After rinsing your cuke and berries, slice up your cucumber and place in a bowl.  Add blueberries, oil and vinegar and toss.





Arrange your food all pretty-like (I use nori sushi wraps on the bottom) and enjoy!

I Bought a Juicer: Then There was Light (Wednesday)

6:22 AM.  It's hot in my room.  Sweltering actually.  For a moment I think I have a fever.  I listen.  Humming coming from the kitchen.  The fridge!  It's on!  I leap out of bed and start turning on all the lights.  I hover over my warm heater, absorbing a little more heat before running into the kitchen to blend my breakfast shake.  Two days and feeling good!

I'm currently enjoying the same fruit smoothie I prepared on Monday - raspberries, spinach, banana, almond milk, flax seeds and lemon juice.  I also added blueberries this time but omitted the peanut butter since I had so much of it yesterday.  I'm gulping it down as I type this.

Still no water, but I can't complain when my food is refreezing!

Lunch:

I spent the morning out in the field flagging new sites for Starr Ranch's Coastal Sage Scrub point count surveys and catching up on all the computer work I couldn't do yesterday.  I'm feeling really hungry today and hope that today's lunch does a decent job of filling me up.  I didn't feel like going the lawn route today so I invented my own juice.  In retrospect, I should have used kale or chard to give this drink a nicer color.



I juiced the following:

• 2 cups cabbage
• 4 carrots
• 1 cucumber
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 apple
• 4 celery stalks

Then added:

• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• cayenne pepper

What resulted was a brownish juice (I blame the carrots) that didn't look particularly appealing.  I know, I didn't want to drink it either.  But it actually tastes pretty good.  Cabbage and carrots are surprisingly sweet, and once you add the lemon juice and cayenne pepper it gives it a little kick.  So I'm slurpin' on my brown sludge and then it's back to work.  No crosswords today.







Dinner...

I Bought a Juicer: Tuesday

7:00 AM.  I wake to a still and quiet house.  The air is cold and I know precisely why.  My heater isn't on - because the power is still out.  

It went down to about 35 F last night and it is nippy in my little cabin today.  Luckily  the stove is propane-fed so I could make some hot tea.  I still can’t juice but I’m eating an apple with peanut butter and a few strawberries for breakfast.  

Without my blender or juicer I just feel like I'm starving myself.  One of the questions I asked before starting this detox was 'why juice when you can just eat all the fruits and veg?'.  Well, I have discovered that it's a lot faster and easier to drink your produce rather than eat it.  Plus, everything tastes better as a medley, especially spinach.  

My office was dark and my desktop obviously wouldn't turn on so I did what work I could using on my laptop.  We received word that the power would be back on by three, but we needed internet in order to respond to emails so my co-worker, Beard, and I headed to Starbucks for a few hours.

We spent a few hours sipping tea and coffee and clicking away on our keyboards.  I had a meeting at 1 so we left a little before so Beard could grab lunch.  It was only slightly excruciating as we walked into Los Primos Mexican Grill, and I tried not to drool as he ordered two bean and cheese burritos.  "Aren't you getting anything?" Beard asked.  I shrugged and told him about my juice detox.  "Good luck with that", he laughed.  "I'm gonna enjoy my tox diet."

Back at the ranch I downed a handful of cashews, a banana, and an apple for lunch before my meeting.  The power was back on in half of the ranch buildings so I spent the rest of the day in the main office.  

Around 5 we received new word that the power would be back on by 10 PM "south of the bridge" - that meant me.  

The sun sets around 5:30 these days and it gets dark quickly down here in Bell Canyon.  I was chopping and slicing by lantern light before 6.  I had to eat quickly so it was 3 carrots and a banana slathered in peanut butter for dinner, followed by a glass of almond milk.  I was getting bored of this and wanted to incorporate more veggies but I was in a rush.  I was attending a lecture on the San Joaquin Marsh Tree Swallow Nest Box Breeding Program at the Sea and Sage Audubon chapter up in Irvine at 7.  I'm helping train banding volunteers this Sunday so thought I should get caught-up on the history and summary of the project.

9:47 PM we arrive back in the canyon but the road is blocked by Edison Power Co. vehicles and we can't pass.  One of the workers, Brian, approaches yielding a flashlight and tells us we can't go any further.  I tell him I need to get home so he escorts me the rest of the way while my ride turns around.  

Brian doesn't "do" nature, as he put it.  I tell him it's easy, "but just don't run when you're out in the wilds of Southern California.  Mountain Lions love to chase things that run."  I make it back to my cabin, which is still dark.  I let out a defeated sigh, thanked Brian for walking with me, and went inside.

I decided to hit the sheets rather than stay up in the dark.  But, when I went to wash my face, the tap sputtered and the pipes shuttered. The water had been turned off.  

Perfect. 

Thanks to my clever boyfriend there were three jugs of water in the closet - in case of an emergency.  When he first bought them I figured we'd never use them.  Boy was I a silly.  I lit up my stove and boiled some of the reserve water so I could at least wash my face before bed...

I haven't experienced any of the negative side-effects since beginning this crazy detox plan - dizziness, nausea, not even the diarrhea!  Actually I'm noticing a lot more perks with this detox.  My face is looking better these days.  My skin tone is even and my skin is glowing despite the fact that I haven't changed my cleansing routine.  I'm feeling upbeat, energetic and positively chipper, even though C is away for work, the water is out, and my precious food is rotting away in the refrigerator.


 

I Bought a Juicer: Dinner Mishap!

It’s a funny thing when the power goes out.  At first you just sit there, wondering what happened.  Then it clicks.  The power is out.  Ah-ha!  Well, what do I do now?  Read? I definitely couldn't juice or blend.  So typical, I was just beginning my three-day juice detox that requires precious electricity to power my blender, juicer, and my refrigerator to keep all those perishables fresh!

Around 3:30 this afternoon everything went silent.  I went to the gym with a friend for two hours and cycled, rowed, elliptical-d(?) and lifted weights .  I came home, starving, and hoping that we would see lights as we drove down into the canyon.  But all was still, and dark.

Once in the cabin I lit every single candle I could find.  They were all pine-scented and made the place smell lovely and helped in heating it some.  There was still hot water left over so I took a quick shower.  Clean and sufficiently hungry I began preparing my dinner detox meal.   Okay, this is the point where my willpower started to crumble.  After a two-hour workout all I wanted to eat was a cheesy pizza slathered in ranch dressing. But no.  I stuck to my guns.  And even though I was unable to make my original dinner shake consisting of the following:

• 1 cup carrot juice

• 1 cup blueberries

• 1 cup spinach

• 1 tbs lemon juice

• 1/4 avocado

• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 tbsp flax seed

I improvised instead.  I couldn't recall the recipe and with no internet I was unable to look it up online.  So I just ended up slicing one mango, two zucchinis, half an apple, five strawberries and ate those with a tablespoon of peanut butter and one cup of almond milk. It was no Domino's but dinner was tasty and satiating.  I'm definitely feeling on the lighter side but I haven't experienced any of the nasty side-effects.  Around 8 PM I had friends over to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It was a good idea to have company.  Not only did I feed them chocolaty bundt cakes so I wouldn’t eat them, but their presence ensured I wouldn’t creep into the kitchen to snack.

Around 10 PM, the movie ended and the power still out, my company hit the road and I was left all alone with my bad habits.  I didn’t sneak into the kitchen, though.  I typed a little in bed then blew out the flames. 

What bad luck.  But I suppose it’s good for us to see what life is like when the lights go out.  People come over, you go to bed early, you eat raw food.  That’s not so bad.  I just hope my refrigerator keeps things cold enough until the power kicks-in.