Tag Archives: fruit

The Jenninator goes healthatronic

I’ve been wanting to use the word ‘healthatronic’ more ever since I coined it one fateful, vegetarian night.

And now, I am. Because I am engaging in a veeeeery healthy endeavor these days: juicing!

One day, as the story goes, a free juicer showed up in the mail. I cackled with glee, took it home, and it sat there for at least a month . . . my excuse is that I was in Alaska.

Alaska, Alaska . . . always putting a wrench in things.

But let’s rewind and go back to the very beginning of the story. How did this ‘juicing’ thing even come on to my radar? Well, it all started one summer evening at our church’s summer women’s Bible study. As we sat around a table munching on Caesar salad and cupcakes, our pastor’s wife, Traci, started talking about how juicing had helped calm her arthritis many years ago (along with going gluten-free). She described how much better she felt when she was juicing, and recommended that if we were interested in learning about the health benefits, we should watch a documentary called ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’ (on Netflix instant play last time I checked).

Then I got the free juicer, and went off to Alaska without ever using it. Thankfully, soon after our return, our church had a community lunch. And as I talked to the ladies, it turned out the the juicing fad was spreading like wildfire in our small church. All the cool kids were juicing. Hearing my friend Sarah describe a morning juice made of apples, pears, and a slice of ginger, my desire for fresh juice was again reignited. It was time to delve into this juicing thing and put that machine to use!

So that night, I queued up the documentary, popped some popcorn, and ordered my husband to join me on a pile of pillows. He was skeptical about the documentary, thinking that it was just a sales pitch for a juicing company–but by the end, he was saying “So let’s talk about the lunch that I take every day–is it healthy? Should I substitute something else for the lunch meat?” and deciding that he didn’t need an egg over his lentils because we eat too many animal products as it is. I love that man. Open-minded, kind, smart–he’s the whole package. But I digress! Micronutrients, people! That’s what we were after.

That very night, after watching the documentary and carefully reading the instruction manual for the juicer, I juiced an apple. Then I juiced a carrot. And I was addicted.

Have you ever had fresh carrot juice? Becuase you will soon be addicted, too.

The following day involved a late night trip to the grocery store, where I purchased two bags full of fresh stuff: apples, pears, 5 pounds of carrots, ginger, oranges, lemons, grapefruit. That night we tried the apple/pear/ginger combo, and I decided I was a true convert. I love fresh juice. It tastes so dang good. It delivers micronutrients to my body. It makes me happy to be alive.

This ain’t no advertisement: I love juicing. And after approximately 1 month of operating it, I love my juicer. I love life, I love bunnies, and I also love small and fuzzy kitties. Oh, and that baby James.

A couple notes about the pros and cons of juicing:

-You gain the benefit of the micronutrients of a whole whoopload of fruits and veggies without eating that much (and thus feeling full). So there’s a higher micronutrient to calorie ratio, as I understand it. In other words, by the time your stomach says “I’m full!” you will have consumed a lot more nutrients than if you were just eating the fruit and veggies directly.

-A direct cause of the above: it’s expensive to juice. Instead of eating one or two carrots, you juice eight of them. So it costs more money to fill your stomach. You’re reducing a lot of fruit and veggie weight into a small cup, so more money–but again, more micronutrients.

-Eventually I’d love to do a 10-day juice cleanse–but maybe when my husband and I can do it together. Like, during his summer break, when he can have access to the juicer for his lunch as well.

-If you start juicing hard core, it can cause some . . . ‘action’ in the stomach/intestines. So Traci recommends ramping up to it instead of jumping in no holds barred. Especially if you use kale (I haven’t gone there yet), which apparently makes things ‘move.’

-One of my concerns was how long it would take to clean the juicer. I’d always heard those things were a pain in the butt to clean–and it has to be done right after using the machine, since the vegetable waste will discolor the machine if left sitting too long. So I timed myself cleaning it at a regular speed (not hurrying, and dawdling a little as I am wont to do):

Five minutes. And that’s counting the pauses to take pictures of the cleaning process. I could probably get it down to three if I were a little more focused.

Most of the parts just need a quick rinse–there’s very little scrubbing action.

I’d love to get up earlier and juice every morning, and then have a small juice at night after dinner for my ‘dessert.’ The problem is, I am a sloth in the mornings. Things that seem absolutely worth getting up for just don’t have the same sheen at 7-something a.m. Know what I mean? So we’ll see. My plan B is to convince my boss to get a juicer for the office, in exchange for sharing my juice-making skills. Then I can juice for breakfast and lunch, and eat a regular dinner.

And see that fish oil there in the background? Yes, I’m now taking those little capsules daily. I’m telling you–totally healthatronic, man.

Anyway folks, this juicer was in the $60-70 range, and I’m quite happy with it. I’ll keep you posted once I try the Big Kahuna: kale.

Have any of you all tried juicing? And has it made a difference in your general health and energy levels?

Blueberry Port Cobbler

Blueberries were recently on sale at my grocery store–$5 for 2 pounds! This blueberry cobbler was the result. I had seen it just a few days prior on Soup Addict’s blog (who in turn took her inspiration from Paul Deen), switched out the Grand Marnier for Port and called it Rin Tin Tin.

Of course, this cobbler didn’t take care of all those blueberries, so I did what any other rational, sensient being would do and simply drowned the rest of them in heavy cream. With a sprinkling of sugar. Ahoy mateys! What ho! It looketh to me piratey eyes like we’ve spotted a cream-lovin’ land-lubber! With all that cream she will turn into blubber! Lubber-blubber! Oh hoh hoh and a bottle or rum!

I realize that little flight of fancy made no sense. For accuracy’s sake, please strike the ‘sensient’ and ‘rational’ descriptors above, and for heaven’s sake let’s move on before this post completely disintegrates into nonsense.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
3 TBS cup water
1 cup sugar, divided
1 TBS corn starch
1 TBS Port
1 pinch freshly ground nutmeg

4 TBS butter
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk

Yikes! I’m already forgetting ingredients.

This guy was hiding out in the liquor cabinet. Yo hoh hoh and a bottle of port, say I.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Put the butter in a 1 1/2 quart baking dish, and place it in the oven to melt.

Grab yon cute yellow pot.

Pour in the berries, 1/2 of the sugar . . .

. . . and the water.

I should note that though I used 1/4 cup of water when I made it, I reduced the amount to 3 TBS in the printable recipe (linked at the bottom of the post) per Soup Addict’s recommendation. You’ll see why later.

Heat the fruit over medium high until it’s boiling, and add the cornstarch.

Stir in the cornstarch, and add the nutmeg . . .

. . . and port.

In fact, next time I’ll probably just substitute the water for port.

Now turn down the heat to low, and simmer it for 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl, combining well so that there are no lumps.

(I gave it a quick sift with my fingers to make sure–no one wants a baking powder surprise hidden in the batter)

Add the milk in slowly, stirring vigorously, to prevent clumping.

Pour the flour/milk mixture into the baking dish over the melted butter. I should note that Soup Addict’s batter looked much thicker than mine. I have no idea why. I think I’ll blame the kitchen imps–the same ones that try to cause something to fall out of the freezer every time I open it. I’m not naming names–but they know who they are.

Don’t stir the batter and butter together! Just let them coexist–together, but separate.

Spoon the fruit over top, ladling in the syrup at the end.

Beautiful!

And I love the deep magenta color of the berry syrup.

Mmmm. I want to bathe myself in it. Or possibly have a dress made in that exact shade.

Bake the cobbler for 40-50 minutes. The batter should rise to the top . . .

Mine didn’t.

It stubbornly decided to bake up differently than Soup Addict’s cobbler.

But it was still awesome.

The sides pulled away easily from the baking dish.

It’s the butter at work, I can tell you that much.

My cobbler turned out more like a berry sauce with floating bits of deliciously spongey cake. See? It’s like a (thick) fruit soup in there.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. But this is the reason behind the after-the-fact reduction of the water to 3 TBS in the printable recipe, which will hopefully reduce the soupiness of yours.

Serve with ice cream!

It stores well in the fridge, and when you reheat it the next day, the cake is just as spongey.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Blueberry Port Cobbler