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Tag: raw (Page 3 of 9)

How to Juice a Pomegranate (without a juicer)

Have you ever tried fresh, raw pomegranate juice? It’s incredible! Pomegranates are in season now, so give it a try sometime!

You can easily juice a pomegranate without a juicer; in fact, even though we have a juicer, I prefer to do it this way. And it’s only a little more effort above and beyond the task of separating the seeds from the pith. One large pomegranate will yield roughly 1 cup of juice.

Now when you’re doing this, I suggest wearing black — or at least a big apron. The distance a juice splatter will travel seems to be directly proportionate to how much you love the shirt you’re wearing; this phenomenon also appears to be heavily influenced by the color of the shirt — with white inducing bigger and more far-reaching splatters than any other color.

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1. To peel your pomegranate, make perpendicular cuts (both going all the way around the fruit) — deep enough to cut through the skin, but not through the seeds underneath:

2. Grab a section and break it away:

3. Over a large bowl, gently separate the seeds from the white pith. This is the most time-consuming step.

4. Discard the pith & peel:

5. Empty the seeds into a blender or food processor:

6. Pulse them quickly about 8-10 times; we just want to burst the juicy outer red part without grinding up the crunchy white inner seeds:

7. Empty the contents of the blender into a mesh strainer over a bowl:

8. With clean hands, squeeze the seeds to get the rest of the juice out:

9. Pour the juice from the bowl into a glass. Enjoy it!

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Indian Summer Watermelon Slushie

There are still watermelons at the farmer’s market, and the weather is still hot enough to crave them!

My Hubby’s sweet sister created this awesome recipe and sent it to me a couple weeks ago. We love it and have been making batch after batch of it! You don’t even have to be a watermelon lover to enjoy this. I’m not; they’re usually too sweet for my liking. But this…this is just right. It’s so refreshing.

I should add, too, that this is a really good drink for someone who’s sick; it’s very light and hydrating, which is important when you don’t feel well enough to drink or eat much of anything. It’s like a popsicle only better for you! Right now, this slushie is sometimes the only thing that my incredibly delicate tummy will tolerate. I’ve been so grateful for it!

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Watermelon Slushie

3 cups of watermelon chunks, seeds removed

2 large (or 4 small) strawberries, fresh or frozen

7 raspberries, fresh or frozen

6 ice cubes

1 cup water (or less for a slushier consistency)

squeeze of fresh lime juice (optional)

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Remove the seeds from your watermelon. (Don’t worry, this is a quick task if you cut the melon into smaller chunks first. I like to save the seeds & dry them on a plate to snack on later). One time, I didn’t remove the seeds before making the slushie. It makes for a richer, thicker (and even more nutritious) slushie, though the seeds definitely reduced the sweetness. I do like the slushie better without seeds. 🙂

Blend everything till smooth. If you’d like a slushier consistency, reduce the water, or add more ice. Also, it’s easy for the strawberry flavor to overpower, so if that happens, just add more watermelon.

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Mint Water: The Simplest + Most Refreshing Drink of Summer

I’m in love with mint water. It’s the very easiest thing to whip up, with the most cooling and refreshing taste I can think of.

All you need is fresh mint — out your back door, down at the far corner of the yard where you planted it once and now there’s enough to make mint water for everyone in your state. Pick a long sprig or two of it.

Whack ’em against your hand to dislodge any little crawlies. Rinse them off too, if you like.

Pour a glass of water, add ice, crush the mint sprigs in your fist, and submerge them into the water.

When the water gets low, top it up. If you have nice strong mint, it’ll last you through many glasses.

I love this stuff!

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Make Your Own “Green Smoothie Frozen Concentrate”

Green smoothie frozen concentrate made with lettuce, spinach, and lambsquarters.

So I peeked into my remaining three bags of lettuce from the garden this year, and discovered that they were starting to go south and needed to be used right away. I separated out the slimy leaves, washed the rest, and had an idea! I’ll make green smoothie frozen concentrate cubes!

To make the concentrate:

1. Pour some kefir, water, juice, or watered-down yogurt into a blender. You won’t need too much — just enough to get everything to blend together smoothly.

2. Add lots of greens. Ideas are: lettuce, spinach, beet greens, chard, lambsquarters, purslane, mint, parsley, cilantro, edible flowers, etc. (Kale is the only one I don’t like in a shake, but if you do, go for it!)

3. Start the blender and let it run until you have a uniform slurry.

4. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze.

To use:

When you’re ready to make a green smoothie, thaw out some cubes; I usually use 2 cubes when I make a shake for myself. Add the green liquid to your blender containing the rest of your smoothie ingredients — I like to use fruit and kefir with some ground flax seed and vanilla extract. Blend & enjoy. Yum!!

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If you’re curious about green smoothies, you might check out the book Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko, or the related website. My friend Sasha recommended this book to me, and I loved it! While I don’t agree with absolutely everything in the book, I’m glad I read it.

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Free Shipping Today Only (Monday, June 13) at Tropical Traditions!

It’s a Free Shipping Day at one of my very favorite companies, Tropical Traditions! The free shipping will save about $10-15 off your order, so it’s a good day to stock up, or try them out if you haven’t before. I really love this company’s products, and use them daily. Today only, Monday, June 13th through Midnight EDT, they’re offering free ground-only shipping when you enter coupon code 61113 at checkout.

Click here to read about which products I love most.

And if you’re a new customer and have never bought from them before, you can also get this Virgin Coconut Oil book, with information  & recipes, for free (any time, not just today) by entering my User ID, which is 6032410. When you’re going through the checkout process and you’ve added your shipping address and phone number, you will see the question “How did you hear of us?” Just choose “Referred by a friend” and then a new “User ID” field will appear below that where you can enter my User ID. I also get some sort of little gift if I refer a friend, so that’s nice too.  🙂

(screen shot below)

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