Citrus Power Juice

After we recently watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, we were inspired to jump on the juicing bandwagon. My husband had been wanting to try it for a while anyway and since they were not pushing a product other than fresh produce, we were convinced. If you haven't seen it, I recommend checking it out. Their results are amazing!

Anyway, we bought ourselves a juicer and have been making about 2 batches of juice every day. The following recipe is one that I came up with yesterday and is possibly my favorite so far.

Ingredients:
1/4 of a pineapple
2 oranges
2 limes
2 granny smith apples
4 carrots
1/2 of a large cucumber
2 stalks of celery
1 inch piece of ginger
about 2 cups of chard (or spinach or kale)
about 1/2 cup of coconut water

makes at least 4 8oz. servings

It turned out tangy and sweet like a summer cocktail and it's full of vitamin C among other things. Sometimes our juice ends up ugly brown due to the mixture of bright reds, greens, purples, oranges, etc. While the color doesn't make it any less delicious or nutritious, this one turned out particularly pretty. Just a light yellow/orange. Beautiful! Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, I'm not good about getting photos of my recipes before we devour them.

Summer Veggie Chili

I came up with this on the fly the other day. I did a super quick trip to the grocery store and wanted to get something I could combine with fresh veggies for a quick dinner. I picked up a can of kidney beans in chili gravy and a can of chili-ready diced tomatoes. I ended up kinda/sorta following the recipe on the back of the Red Gold tomatoes can (Potato Chili).

Ingredients:

• 1 can chili ready kidney beans
• 1 can chili ready diced tomatoes
• 1 diced bell pepper (any color)
• 1 diced onion
• 1 small zucchini sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 can diced potatoes - drained
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• about 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• about 1/2 cup water or broth

Directions:

• heat oil in a soup pot and saute onion until softened. Add peppers, zucchini and potatoes and saute until slightly browned. Add chili powder and garlic and stir to cover veggies.
• Stir in beans, tomatoes and salsa. Add a little water or broth if it seems too thick.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until all veggies are as soft as you like them.

note: top with shredded cheese, fresh cilantro, sour cream or all of the above! It's also good served over rice or with cornbread.