My Zen & MORE JUICE

If there were no bugs in the world I would sleep on my porch.  I love the sound of my waterfall.  This week we somehow sprung a leak.. in a major way.  For this reason, I am glad I built the entire pond myself.  I know where everything is and how it is all laid out.  Problem was that it basically emptied all of the water from the pond.  The entire time I was scrambling to fix the problem I was apologizing to both my frogs & fish.  I'm sure that I looked pathetic.  Nonetheless, I got everything solved in about 30 minutes and I left everything open so that I could see that the problem was fixed for good.  Today I sealed everything up again.  There is peace in the world and I can go back to listening to my Zen.

So I am on day 6 of juice. STILL LOVING IT.  I did have one day that I had a headache but who knows what that was from.  Saturday I went to the market and got an overload of fresh organic veggies.  Its always a wonderful feeling to buy directly from the grower.  I am fortunate that I get much from my BIL the organic farmer, but I still purchase a lot.  I just wish I could grow everything.  It has really made me want to expand our garden for next year.  I got fresh beets, kale, cucumbers, a loaf of sourdough, some cheese, baby summer squash, green apples, and a ton of basil.  I went right home and conjured up a new recipe.  Its my favorite to date.


1 carrot
1 beet
6 stalks Kale
1 golden delicious apple
1/2" slice of ginger
1 cucumber


I am now doing 2 juices a day and a reasonable dinner.  Reasonable to me means that I have an average portion and its not fried or smothered in cheese.  Yesterday I made Chicken Enchiladas and tonight was spaghetti.  I had to find something to do with the boat load of basil I had so I figured that some pesto would go PERFECTLY with the sourdough.  ITS HEAVENLY.  I swear I could eat the whole loaf along with the entire bowl of pesto.  Oink oink. This, my friends, is why I will NEVER be skinny!


I was talking to a friend tonight and it has kinda stuck with me throughout the night.  I think if I am going to be AWESOME to my body and give it a ton of vitamins and minerals all day.. I am not going to completely throw the day out of whack for dinner.  I LOVE to cook... but it has given me more clarify about what I want to make for my meal of the day.  I now look forward to making a great meal.  I have made AWESOMELY good choices so far.  I know that I don't want to 'blow my day' on PB&J or some crappy cheesesteak.  I'd rather enjoy a fresh bowl of pesto and some great pasta.  Makes sense, right?

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts (I USE WALNUTS)
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

NOTE.... if you are going to freeze this (as I do) do NOT add cheese.... wait until you are ready to use it.