Fruitspirado

My son eats fruit like it's going out of style. Last night I bought a bunch more fruit to refill his fruit needs. And then I realized why he was going through so much fruit. It was me! I was eating about the same amount as he was! And then I realized why.

We usually keep fresh fruit (apples, oranges, nectarines) in a big bowl on a shelf on a small wall between our kitchen and our living room. But it's also in sort of a corner. I think it was "out of sight, out of mind" and I wouldn't touch the bowl as often.

Last week, I was trying to conserve even more space (and save fruit from going bad too quickly), so I put the bowl in the refrigerator. Every time I opened that door, the fruit was staring me in the face. I threw in some lemon cucumbers too. Guess what? That bowl was empty in just a few short days.

Sounds simple. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Please don't look at the frosting jar hiding behind the yogurt (We made cupcakes the other day and this is the extra frosting.)!

Sigh

Haven't juiced in a long time. *SIGH*

It's not that I don't want to...it's that I don't want to. Does that make sense? My brains tells me to, but my heart says, "nah." I should though. I really should. It's summer and there's some wonderful fruits out there right now.

Maybe if I write about it enough it'll happen?

I have two bags of apples sitting in my kitchen. I bought them to juice. We've been eating them instead.   I don't know why I did't just juice them. I really do love the juice.

Okay...maybe I'm feeling a little bit more like picking up the juicer than I did five minutes ago.

A friend recently sent me a pretty tempting looking picture of a juice she created in her juicer. She even sent the recipe. It was quite green. It had ice in it. As you know, ice makes EVERYTHING delicious! Well...that, and bacon.

I think I'll post the recipe here in hopes of maybe going out and getting some more fruits & veggies to start back juicing again:

1 bunch lacinato kale

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch parsley

5 granny smith apples

1 pineapple

A Little Spice to my Day

This afternoon I was on my second juice, and I felt that it needed something. So I added cinnamon to it. Tasted great, looked weird. Cold liquid doesn't separate cinnamon like warm liquid does.
Looking on Google has provided me inconclusive answers for "what are the health benefits of cinnamon?"
Some say it can lower cholesterol, other say it eases arthritis, and another says it can fight the e. coli bacteria found in unpasteurized juices! However, they want to make sure you aren't buying cassia, which is sold in stores as cinnamon. True cinnamon is what you need. 
Whatever the benefits, I'm just happy adding a dash here or there for the taste value!

Today's Juice

Today's juice is brought to you by the following sponsers:
2 red apples
1 green apple
1 mandarin orange
1 orange
1 pear
1 beet
2 celery stalks
6 carrots

My Candy Weakness

I was totally able to walk into the store, buy what I needed, and walk right past this display without a second thought of purchasing any. I love peanut M&M's. I can't resist them...like hardly ever. And the bags even said something like "buy two, get one free". I didn't even reach out for them.
The big huge bags are my favorites! They last longer than 45 seconds. Halloween size is just a workout...opening all those tiny bags. But the COSTCO SIZE! Oh gosh, I just felt a little rush of excitement there.
I like them because they melt AND crunch depending on how you eat them. I usually start off shoving a handful in my face hole, then the second round goes to the upper cheeks for a full melty routine: two in each upper cheek, one on the tongue. Then crunch. Drop down one from each side, then crunch. Repeat.
To get super technical, the cheek candies should be the same colors on each side. The tongue one should be a different color. Example: Left cheek- green and yellow, right cheek- yellow and green (in the same placement), tongue- blue.
Yes, I've had serious practice to make this into a habit.
In high school, I can remember them getting rid of the baby poo brown color. I voted like a million times by phone (corded, creamy white-colored, push button, phone) to have blue as the replacement. I'd like to think that I, personally, had something to do with blue winning. You're welcome.
A few years back, I wasn't able to resist that candy display. Not only did I end up buying the huge bag, I also bought a 4 pack of plastic M&M's plates. Yes, you read that correctly, freakin' PLATES WITH THE M&M's FACES IN THEM!!!
SOOO...It's kinda a big deal that I walked out of there with bags of apples, beets, mushrooms, asparagus, bananas, and chicken thighs...and no M&M's.

Proof

Here is proof that I did what I said I was going to do.
I also had enough juice left over to fill almost two ice cube trays. These I use for smoothies for my two year old and me. Add a banana, 1 cup of yogurt, and a bit of milk in the blender and you're good to go!
This recipe:
9 carrots
1 red apple
1 green apple
1 pear
3 slices of pineapple
3 handfuls of blueberries

Juicing Update

I haven't posted on this blog for a while. And for a few reasons. Not necessarily good ones, but reasons nonetheless.

A little bit of guilt mixed in with a little bit of stress, and a lot of "I don't feel like doing anythings".

I've been off the juice for about a week now. I've thought about juicing. I've wanted to juice. But something takes over my brain. Not sure what is going on here. When I analyze it, I'm thinking the longer I'm away from juicing, the harder it is to get back into it. I FULLY plan on juicing tomorrow morning. Freals.

So almost two weeks ago was our first day back from our winter break. I juiced the second day back and made a huge amount so I could take some to work with me. It went quite well. I even mentioned to my inquisitive students that there were fruits and vegetables in my juice. They didn't seem too weirded out by it. Hopefully when I bring the juicer to school in a few months, they will all want to try it.

After my Jack in the Box incident, it seems like juicing hasn't been as important. I've been consumed with work. I am always worried that I'll be unprepared and top brass will walk in and I'll look like a fool. Our superintendent came to my class and was actually quite impressed. Either stressing pays off, or I really don't have anything to worry about. Either way, it made me feel good knowing I'm doing something right.

The other thing is...I'm having withdrawals from the iPad. I no longer have access to an iPad at home. I used to use it almost nightly for drawing and relaxing, or drawing to post pictures on my blogs and TPT store. And so I'm having to think of more creative ways to make things to sell in my store. My ultimate goal is to purchase an iPad using only the money earned from selling items in my store. As frustrating as it is not having the iPad, it's slightly refreshing to not have the "addiction" sitting in front of me daily.

Back to juicing. I plan on juicing tomorrow and giving some to my son. I'll need to restock on my supplies soon since I haven't bought any in over a week. I still have a whole bag of carrots and about 7 or 8 apples, some pineapple, but I'm out of spinach, kale, and beets (my favorite!). I may throw some blueberries in there too.