Mustard Green Smoothie

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Anita!
Update!  I’ve heard that a lot of you have alternate Green Smoothie recipes.  If you can, please comment on this post and I’ll put them as other options in the recipe!  Ari told me something about cilantro and celery that someone mentioned?

Conclusion: Start commenting on our blog instead of facebook!  I don’t get to see your comments you post on facebook anyway…

Special thanks to Ian Wong & Co. at TheFreshBag.com for the bounty of free apples we received from them last week!  They are featured in this recipe as well as in Ari’s delicious apple pie puffs.  Please visit their site, it’s a whole new way to pick up your fruits and vegetables (I think it’s Cleveland only though).

A friend of mine has ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease of the lower intestine.  A big part of his health routine (and what should be for all of us meat-and-taters loving Americans) is to add a lot of fiber to his diet.  One of the ways he does this is by drinking a smoothie in the evening with added greens.  If you study health or are interested in it, you know that fiber is the roto-rooter of the intestines.  Fiber, especially for those with irritable bowel disease, is one of the best ways to prevent colon cancer.
Here is a list of high-fiber foods.

Try the green smoothie, either for breakfast or a snack, for a few days in a row.  It’s super simple — banana, orange, apple, some green leafy vegetable, and a little milk or soymilk.  Add a little sugar if you like, especially if you get adventurous with mustard greens.  The mustard greens themselves are interesting on the first sip, peppery by the 5th, and either electrifying or jarring by the last.
Hopefully some of you will try it.  Let’s make a movement!  Literally.

Ingredients

  • 1 banana, sliced
  • 1 orange, peeled & sliced
  • 1 apple, sliced
  • 2 leaves mustard greens, kale, or spinach
  • milk or soymilk as needed
  • sugar, brown sugar, or honey as needed
Add the liquid to the blender first, blend at the lowest speed and then build up speed over time.  If it isn’t blending well, add more liquid.  Keep tasting to adjust the sweetness you desire.  Feel free to mix and match with different fruits.  Some people also add minced ginger or cooked carrots.
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Posted in Breakfast, Drinks, Snacks, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Sun Tea

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Ari

They say that patience is a virtue…well I guess that’s one virtue I’m definitely lacking. I am the epitome of an impatient individual. I fold my laundry when it’s still half wet because I don’t feel like leaving it in the dryer till it’s done. I fast forward through the boring parts of movies just to see how they end. I eat a normal sized portion of whatever I’m cooking even when it’s partially raw because my stomach can’t wait till the dish is finished (I guess that’s one of the good things about cooking mostly vegetarian dishes).
Luckily, this impatience hasn’t come back to bite me in the butt just yet. In fact, I’ve found a way around the need for patience – It’s called multitasking. I run errands while I’m doing laundry so I’m forced to allow it to dry. I study anatomy while watching movies so I can ignore the “boring parts” (this applies to both the boring parts of anatomy and the movie). When it comes to cooking, I’ve found that I can distract myself (and my stomach) while a dish finishes by doing practice questions, folding the now dry laundry or eating a pre-dinner snack. These techniques become especially important if you decide to make today’s recipe (if you can actually call it a recipe…I guess it’s more of a technique). While there is very little you need to do to actually prepare it, there is A LOT of waiting, which is why multitasking is the best tool I can offer you if you want to make this wonderfully refreshing summer treat.
So here are my recommendations for a few things you could be doing while your sun tea prepares itself for your enjoyment:
  1. Sleep
  2. Eat
  3. More sleep
  4. Go for a (long) walk
  5. More eating
  6. Study (I don’t actually recommend that, but it’s what I was doing while I waited)
  7. Watch a movie
  8. Read a book (I just finished The Help and loved it)
  9. Take advantage of the fact that Cleveland actually has sun during the summer and soak up some vitamin D
  10. Even more sleep
  11. Learn a new trick (Anita is learning how to slackline)
  12. Sit and ponder life (again, I don’t really recommend this, but some people are into it!)
  13. Sit and think about what you’re gonna eat for dinner (I DO recommend this)
  14. Sit and think about how refreshing your sun tea is going to be
Those are just a few ideas to get your started…now on to the recipe.

What you need:

  • A glass pitcher that can hold about 8-10 cups of water
  • 4 teabags (I used 2 Tazo Passion, 1 Lemon and 1 Mint) or a couple tablespoons of loose tea leaves
  • 8-10 cups of water

What you need to do:

  1. Add your water and tea bags to the glass pitcher, and set the pitcher in direct sunlight (indoors or outdoors).
  2. Multitask for about 4 hours (the tea should be steeping during this time).
  3. Revisit your pitcher, pour yourself a glass of sun tea and enjoy!
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Posted in Drinks | 4 Comments

This is a poem about longing, remorse, and the road

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Anita!

This stretch of I-70 is 400 miles
9 hours from St. Louis to Cleveland and
I’m about 5 hours in

Utter fullness never felt so defeating
and I’m beginning to regret that fleeting
craving for that McMuffin
and for you, dear Cup o’ Joe

Exit 63 was the devil on the shoulder of my road

Every bump on the highway
with you inside me, changing all the while

I don’t have time to stop again
but my friend
your persistence in escape blurs the lines on the road

I look at the empty cup and wish I were a guy,
that its golden arches might mingle with mine

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Posted in Non Recipe | 4 Comments

Lentil Sliders

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Anita!
A friend of mine wanted to make an eHarmony profile so I decided to also — strictly to be a supportive friend, of course.  The form is an online survey, with little bubbles you can fill in on a graded scale.  The problem is, most of the questions are more complicated than those in my Step 1 exam.  Exhibit A:
Then they got serious with questions about character and personality.  Unfortunately, I was crashing from a Phoenix Coffee caffeine buzz, so this only made me angry.  Exhibit B:
Just when I thought I was nearing the end, when I had been through hundreds of questions cutting deep into the core of my being, I looked at the status bar:

ENOUGH.  Seriously.  I don’t have the patience to learn what eHarmony thinks about me.  And besides, if you really want a personality profile, all you have to do is spend time with me in the kitchen.  This is why I present to you: the Braised Anatomy eHarmonizer eBlender 2000!  For a small fee you can take a short quiz that will help you find your perfect match.  Or, at least, a good cooking partner.  See a sample below.
Millions of readers have found their perfect partner with the eBlender.  And we hope you enjoy the love of your life, even if it only ends up being the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup of uncooked lentils.  Rinse them, then boil them until al dente, then drain them.
  • 4 Tbsp of olive oil, heated in a skillet and then used to fry the cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp of cumin seeds for 30 seconds
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian)
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced fine
  • salt as needed
  • As a sauce: not pictured, but a yogurt sauce such as Tzatziki would suit nicely.  It needs sauce, the burgers may be a little dry on their own (vs. meat burgers)

Food processor time!  Dump everything into the bowl of the food processor, and blend until some of the lentils are smooth and some of the lentils are merely broken.  I added about 1/3 cup water at the end to get the mush to move around the processor properly.  Then dump the mixture into a bowl.  Use your hands to shape the mixture into 8 small patties.  At this point, you can either lightly fry it in a skillet on both sides (much like a regular burger patty) or lightly spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and freeze it.  Later on these patties can be transferred to a zipper bag for long-term storage.

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Posted in Snacks, Vegetarian | 1 Comment