FROM JUICE FAST...TO BACON WRAPPED PORK!

 I have never been accused of being limited when it comes to food. I like a wide variety and try to continually come up with new and different taste treats. From Crubeens (Pigs Feet) to Rocky Mountain Oysters (Bulls Testicles) to any flavor of Cheesecake and everything in between! I actually have never tasted anything I haven't liked. That said, my husband and I generally go on some kind of a fairly austere diet in January. We have done Paleo, Vegan, South Beach, and many others. It doesn't always last all month, but we usually go 2 or 3 weeks. This year we decided to do a 4-day Juice Fast to kick-start the year. My neighbor and good friend, Lori Itule, once again loaned me her Dad's heavy-duty Champion brand (circa 1950's) Juicer and on January 2 we began. This is a quality piece of equipment and makes Juicing easy.

Ingredients for the Green Drink, which I call Dreamy Greenie!
The coconut butter is to oil the shaft of the Juicer before assembling.

DREAMY GREENIE

Pictured behind the drinks is a beautiful print, which our good friends Steve and Debby Vis gave us after visiting with us in Spiddal, Co. Galway, IRE in the summer of 2019. The artist, Martine Moriarty is from Cork and most of her work is in oils, watercolors, silkscreens, and animation. She primarily paints scenes from around Cork. This one is called The Dingle Hare.

We both like this one for breakfast
as it was very bright, refreshing and
almost gave you a little buzz, like coffee.

The beauty of making Juices is that you can really add any vegetable with some fruit that you like. Dreamy Greenie contains:

Ingredients:

Spinach

Mixed Greens

Celery

Broccoli

Cucumber

Fresh Parsley

Green Apples

Lemons

Ginger Root

Preparation:

Run it all through the high-powered juicer and voila!

Next, my husband, Jerry's favorite...

GAZPACHO

This Juice drink has all the ingredients of Gazpacho soup, except the bread and sherry vinegar. It is really yummy and a perfect lunch-time drink.

Gazpacho on the lefty and Dreamy Greenie on the right.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes, I used lots of Plums

Celery

Green Pepper

Red Pepper

Red onion, small amount

Cucumber

Garlic

Fresh Parsley

Dried oregano

Dash of salt, to taste.

Preparation:

Put all ingredients through the Juicer and you have a Juice version of Gazpacho. Taste and season with a little salt. This really makes the difference!

Next Juice recipe I will share I call...

SWEET BEET AND MORE

This drink we had in the evenings as "supper". It is hardy and not really that sweet because of the earthy flavor of raw beets and sweet potatoes, but still quite delicious.

Ingredients:

Beets

Sweet Potato

Carrot

Red Pepper

Red Apple

Red Grape

Pear

Preparation:

Same as above!

And finally, one of my favorites...

SPICY CARROT GREEN APPLE

I love the color of this Juice, as well.
The little bunnies around the Juice are from Hungary.
Each one is hand painted! Since 1826 the Hungarian
porcelain manufacturing company, Herend,
has been producing these exquisite hand-painted creatures
in the signature fish-net pattern.

Ingredients:

Carrots

Green Apple

Ginger Root

Preparation:

Blend all and taste for seasoning. Add more ginger to make it spicier. On one batch I added a very ripe pear, which gave it a little more sweetness, but carrots themselves are inherently sweet so this made a great snack-drink. So simple. So delicious.

Once our 4-day Juice fast ended, we continued to eat a lot of vegetable, but in their full form, both cooked and raw. We slowly added fish, shrimp, chicken and graduated last week to this luscious piece of pork.

BACON WRAPPED, FIG STUFFED PORK TENDERLOIN

Ingredients:

Pork tenderloin

3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

2-3 cloves finely minced garlic

Sweetened Dried Figs to cover inside of pork, cut in half, stems removed

Bacon to wrap. I used 3 strips of thick-cut bacon

Olive Oil for drizzling in pan

Salt/Pepper

Dried Sage, about 2 tsp.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Butterfly the tenderloin. Using your sharpest knife, cut through the side of the pork leaving the center intact so you can open like a book; meaning do not cut all the way through. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the pork. Spread the Dijon mustard evenly over both pork halves. Sprinkle with garlic. Cut each fig in half and place on the bottom half of the tenderloin (fat side is the top). Close the pork, salt and pepper outside of pork and wrap with bacon.

Drizzle olive oil (about 2 Tbsp.) in a cast iron or heavy bottomed skillet. Heat until it's nearly smoking. Brown the bacon and then place in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 145 degrees. That is the recommended doneness, but I usually remove once it reaches 140 because #1) I don't like dry pork; and #2) the pork continue to cook once you remove it from the oven. 

THAT'S IT FOR TODAY!

VERY HAPPY TO BE BACK TO EATING REAL FOOD, 

ALTHOUGH THE JUICE WAS GREAT FOR A FEW DAYS!

NEXT TIME I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT SOME VERY SPECIAL BEANS FROM A NEW AND LOCAL COMPANY, CALLED 'PRIMARY BEANS'.

STAY TUNED...

www.cookwithcindy.com

SUMPTUOUS SOUPS ARE SO SATISFYING!

I made this gorgeous soup as a first course at our Christmas feast, but it would be good any time of year. It is equally yummy both cold or hot---think cold Hungarian Borscht!

ROASTED BEET AND POTATO BISQUE

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion (1 cup), finely chopped
3/4 lb. baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces (about 2 cups)
1 stalk celery, diced (1 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
4 cups good, rich chicken broth
1 bay leaf
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. black pepper
4 large beets, roasted (Method follows*)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup light cream or half and half
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Sour cream or plain yogurt and fresh dill for garnish (optional)

Preparation:
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook onion, potatoes, celery, and garlic, stirring occasionally until veg are crisp-tender; about 10 minutes.
Add broth, bay leaf, salt, thyme, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 20 minutes. Add beets and continue to simmer until veg is very tender; about 10 minutes more. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaf. Puree soup in small batches in a blender until smooth and return to pot. At this point you may refrigerate overnight and finish next day. If you are doing so, return cold soup to saucepan and slowly re-heat. Stir in milk, cream and lemon juice. Stir to combine and heat until warmed through. Garnish and serve.

To Roast Beets:
I like this method of cooking beets because they are a pain to peel raw. Once roasted the skin practically rubs off. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry beets thoroughly. Cut off tops and bottoms. Cut into quarters (skin on) and place on baking sheet. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over beets. Salt liberally and rub the oil and salt into the beets. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until beets are just tender. Let cool. Remove skins and chop into 1/2 inch pieces.

CARROT, COCONUT, CURRY AND GINGER SOUP

...WITH A SPECIAL ADDITION!

To get this squiggly effect, once you drizzle on the yogurt,
 drag a knife through to make the design.

I have given you this recipe in the past and one of the things I love about it is that you can keep changing it up to give a slightly different flavor or texture.

http://cookwithcindy.blogspot.com/search?q=Carrot+ginger+soup

As with the Beet Bisque this soup is good either cold or hot. In this case, I used the original recipe (above link), but added vegetable/fruit fiber into the broth that I had saved from a 3-day juice fast my husband and I did recently.

This combo of fruit and veg is from Joe Cross's 3-day Juice Cleanse called, Sunset Blend Juice. It was truly delicious and the pulp is what I added to the Carrot, Coconut, Curry and Ginger Soup.

It seems such a waste to throw out all that good vegetable matter so I froze some for future soup stock and to another batch of pulpy fiber I added unflavored gelatin and turned the fruit/veg fiber into a cold vegetable cake. The cakes were surprisingly good!
What I learned in juicing for the first time is the combination of ingredients is not that important as long as you mix some sweet (beets, carrot, apples, oranges, etc.) with not so sweet (celery, kale, spinach, etc.).  And, fresh ginger root was a nice addition to all recipes.

Here is the Sunset Juice Blend all bottled and ready to drink!

Joe's Breakfast Juice: Carrots, green and red apples and ginger. Delicious!

Look at all that fiber!

To learn more about the benefits of Juicing, go to: http://www.doctoroz.com/article/joe-cross-3-day-weekend-juice-cleanse

Both Jerry and I felt great after Juicing for 3 days, but we were hungry for real, solid food!

That's it for today. Thank you for joining me

for another glimpse into my kitchen!

www.cookwithcindy.com