Beet Juice

I’m proud to say I’m still juicing! Ever since I’ve taken my oath to be a bit healthier back in September, I’ve actually been trying to drink a glass of fresh juice a day. I can’t honestly say that I’ve felt a huge surge of energy or a difference in weight since I started juicing, but it definitely helps cleanse my system, if you know what I mean *wink*. That must be a good thing right?

I find cleaning the juicer machine to be such a pain. So instead of juicing every day, I actually make enough for four glasses. One glass for myself, another for my husband. Store two other ones in mason jars and leave them in the fridge for the next day. That way I have to clean the juicer every other day. Pretty genius, if I do say so myself.

We have so much leftover pulp that I’m trying to figure out whether or not I should start composting. We live in a town home with a patio but no backyard. Composting seems a bit silly to do since we don’t need fresh soil. But it would be an environmentally friendly way to dispose of waste. City folk, any tips?

Here’s another great juice recipe that I’ve put together – beet juice. Costco has some cooked organic beets in the fridge section. Go take a gander!

Beet Juice

Ingredients: 3 beets, 4 carrots, 1 cucumber, 2 apples, half a head of romaine lettuce, 2 kale leaves, 4 celery stalks

So delicious and nutritious!

Do you know of another great beet juice recipe? Please share!

Cheers to your health,
Jay

The Legendary Steak

Who doesn’t love a nice piece of meat?

Steak with butter

If you’ve ever been to our house, you might have been lucky enough to have MG’s fricken awesome steak. After having this for dinner, I honestly don’t care to go to steakhouses. We’ve been to a few restaurants for steak since, but I still compare it to the one we eat at home.

I’m finally willing to share the recipe with you! If you follow these steps, your steak will turn out amazing every time.

First off, get a nice piece of meat. I love bone-in ribeye – it has a good texture and enough fat for a flavorful steak. If you’re willing to splurge, get the Prime cut at Costco. If you’re really willing to put some money down, find a butcher for a dry-aged piece of meat. Whole Foods sells their dry-age ribeye for ~$22/lb. Five Dot Ranch has mind-blowing cuts of meat, you can find them at the Oxbow market in Napa Valley, ~$25/lb for dry-aged, but totally worth the cost.

Whole Foods - Steak^^^ This is at Whole Foods

Let’s get started! Preheat the oven to 500° F.

As you’re pre-heating the oven, sprinkle McCormick’s Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning onto the steak, not too much because you want to still taste the meat flavor. I also love Gibson’s Seasoning Salt (a steakhouse located in Chicago), but for this recipe, we’ll stick to McCormick’s.

Favorite Seasonings
^^^ My two favorite seasonings

Sprinkle

Once the oven hits 450° F, heat up your cast iron skillet on high. Get it as hot as you can (if this is a used skillet, the previous oil residue will start to steam, which is a good indicator that it’s hot).

Once the skillet is hot, hot, hot, add a slice of butter onto the pan. When the butter is melted, place the steak onto the skillet. Sear each side for only 30 seconds. Searing helps to keep all the juices in.

Melt the Butter

Sear the Steak

Other Side

The oven should be at 500° F at this point. Place the entire skillet into the oven. Bake the steak 2 minutes on each side (this is for 1 inch steaks only). If the steak is thicker than 1 inch, place the steak in the oven for 3 minutes on each side.

Baking

Last step, after taking the steak out of the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes. Basically this lets the steak soak up all the juice. And yes, a juicy steak is where it’s at! This is the hardest step since your house probably is filled with mouth-watering smells of steak.

SteakLook at that char!

Now savor every bite of steak because it’s probably amazing, and juicy, and flavorful, and all kinds of goodness. As I’m typing this, I feel like I can smell the deliciousness.

Delicious Steak

Dinner is served!

Dinner is served

Few tips:

  • A cast iron skillet is best because it allows you to sear the steak with some char, which adds some crispiness to the texture.
  • This is a little trick I learned from an outdoors man that I used to work with. Poke at your thumb nugget to gauge how well done the meat is.

Doneness of Steak

  • Wine? Pshhh… I love eating steak with milk. The milk is so sweet, and steak is the perfect match. Anyone else like to do this?
  • To clean your cast iron skillet, soak up the oil with a paper towel. Simply use hot/warm water and scrub off residue. Add some salt and scrub to get stubborn food remains. Do NOT use soap. You want your cast iron to become “well-seasoned” to prevent rust.

Washing the cast iron

What do you think? Is this something you will try?

Are you hungry now? Cause I am!
Jay
—–
I have the Le Creuset Cast Iron Skillet in Caribbean from Macy’s

Healthier Living

Produce

After the retreat (retreat post here), MG and I felt like we needed to change our eating habits. Why after retreat? Probably because we scarfed down sandwiches, extra bowls of soup, ramen, popcorn, and other junk food like it’s no one’s business because we felt deprived of our snacks at home. We weighed ourselves after the weekend, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

A friend of ours has changed his own life to consume more raw foods (he dropped weight and looks awesome). What spurred his change were food documentaries like Hungry for Change, Food Matters, and Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. MG and I decided to check these films out, and it’s turned our worlds upside down. Now we are trying to eat healthier and add more fruits and veggies into our diets.

Just a few facts from the documentaries:

1. When you stress, your body automatically goes into “famine mode.” As a result, you continually crave food and your body goes into survival mode even though a famine will never actually happen. It always wants more and more. That’s the main reason why many people overeat.
2. You don’t necessarily need to eat less and diet. Instead add healthier foods to your daily intake right now. Eventually you’ll feel so good about yourself and your body becomes nourished that you’ll snack less on unhealthy foods. Ultimately, you’ll push away most of the “bad” foods. It’s a lifestyle, not a diet.
3. A person needs to consume 5-6 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (more veggies because fruits have high sugar levels). This means approximately 20lbs of fruits and vegetables a week per person.
4. It’s pretty difficult to eat the suggested fruits and vegetable servings, which is why juicing has recently become so popular. I can easily juice 5lbs in a day and drink it in the morning. Buy organic so that you do not have a high intake of pesticides.
5. Aloe Vera and Chia seeds help detox your body and clean out your intestines. Add these to your drinks for detoxification.

I really encourage you to check out these documentaries to help kickstart a healthier lifestyle.

Invest in a good juicer. Some are cheaply made, which won’t last long. Some are difficult to clean. And some do not extract juice well so you’re throwing money away when there are still good nutrients left.

Juicer
I own the Breville juicer from Macy’s, and it does a great job extracting all the juice. There are some other great selections at Macy’s, but I really like the Breville brand.

If you’re going to juice, here are some suggested produce to purchase that will last you the full week (based on one glass of juice a day).

  • 1 head of romaine lettuce
  • 2 heads of kale
  • 4 cucumbers
  • 6 apples
  • 2 lemons
  • 5lb bag of carrots
  • Celery
  • Parsley
  • Cilantro

Few tips: Cucumbers and apples provide a lot of juice. Apples and carrots help sweeten juice. Lemons help take some of that “raw vegetable” taste away. Kale is rich in antioxidants. Lastly, parsley and cilantro help with body odor.

Chia seeds can be added to your juice for extra health benefits. The seeds provide a range of advantages: high in omega-3 fats, calcium, fiber, manganese, phosphorus, and protein, and chia helps stabilize blood pressure. Once you soak them into liquids, they become slimy and gooey. Makes for a fun drink, more importantly, you’ll have amazing poos! For all you pet parents, chia seeds can also be given to your pet children. I’ve been adding 1/4 teaspoon of chia seeds to water and mixing it until it forms a gel. Then I add it into Chubs’ dry food. Since chia has no taste or smell, it is not invasive, and kitty eats it all up.

Chia seeds

Here are delicious and fun recipes that you can try. Maybe this will get you excited to eat healthier.

Strawberries

Strawberry Chia Jam
Makes 5 servings, lasts up to 7 days (more like 2 since it’s so delicious)

What you need:
1.5 cup of ripe strawberries, chopped into small pieces
1/8 cup agave nectar
1/8 cup chia seeds
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Combine the strawberries and agave into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until berries soften (about 5 minutes). Then smoosh up the berries.
2. Add chia seeds to the mixture and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring often. Mixture will thicken to a jam.
3. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla extract.

Strawberry Chia Jam

Strawberry chia jam on crackers
So yummy with some multigrain crackers!

Here’s a juice recipe (it’s sweet!):

Sweet Green Juice
3 full glasses

What you need:
6 kale leaves
3 carrots
2 apples
1 pear (can be substituted with an apple)
1 cucumber
4 ribs of celery
Handful of spinach
Handful of cilantro
1/4 of lemon

Directions:
1. Juice all ingredients except for lemon.
2. Hand squeeze lemon juice into the mixture (don’t juice the lemon because the rind and white spongey layer, called the pith, are bitter).
3. Add chia seeds and mix them into the juice.
4. Pour and enjoy!

Juice

Juice with chia
Crazy green color right?

Here’s a 5-minute breakfast you can try. It doesn’t look like a lot of food, but I guarantee you’ll be full.

Breakfast

5-minute breakfast of champions!
Cut half a grapefruit, cut half a pear, and half an avocado. Stuff some cooked chorizo into the avocado to use as flavoring. Pair with a glass of sweet green juice. Yum, yum, yum! The chorizo avocado is so good, I want it for the next 3 meals.

My body feels more energized based on the past three days. I’m trying to eat like this for at least a month. Keep me accountable!

Have I enticed you yet? What are your thoughts about juicing, organics, and ooey, gooey chia seeds? Which recipe are you excited to try?

Happy (healthy) eating, Jay