Getting Juiced

Ok, so I have been doing it for a few days and I think it is helping me lose some weight, maybe just a little. It's a good substitute for eating a regular meal and it's high in nutrition.

I currently have a Juiceman Jr, which works fine for me. Now you can get them for several hundred bucks and they will grind everything up but this one works fine and only cost about $60. If and when this one dies, I plan on getting the regular Juiceman, it has a switch for firm or soft vegetables. I think that would be an upgrade for me. Now looking at how long I've had it and how much use it's had.

The Juiceman Jr. is several years old, but has not seen regular use. Last year, when I had a roommate of sorts, she went crazy over the Juiceman and was using it all the time. She was also pretty rough with it but it held up OK. So, for the price, I think it's a pretty good deal, maybe even a steal, but don't get caught stealing it out of the store.

So what do I juice. Well the number of different stuff juiced is growing. I have a book written by the Juiceman as my new found bible. So, I always have the insider info on juicing. But, generally, I use carrots as the base and add an apple or a stick of celery(mild items) and then maybe some more potent items like a clove of garlic or a piece of ginger. Last, I like to add some greens to the drink, so maybe some spinach or parsley or both.

I am slowly branching out, no really weird stuff quite yet and final taste is important, so want to keep it drinkable. I want to add cukes, beets and maybe some cabbage to the mix. I have no formula, so each day is a new drink, a new version of whatever I feel like choosing. With all the stuff to choose from, I may never have the same drink twice, but I do love the taste of ginger in the drink, so carrots and ginger are biggies for me. Plus your always guaranteed to get your minimum requirement of veggies each day and that is something I always had a tough time doing.

Be Happy Juicing

Juicing

Well it looks like I am back to juicing for fun and profit. I am hoping this will help me lose weight besides giving me super nutrition.

My recipe is as follows. 2 carrots, 2 cloves garlic, 1 apple, macintosh and a bunch of spinach. Hope the spinach was ok. This gave me a tall glass of juice. Only thing, was a bit strong on garlic. Maybe next time cut back on the garlic. Maybe next time do the ginger instead or a little bit of each.

Am hoping to do this once a day as a pick me up tonic.

What a little bread can do for you.

Not all bread machines are created equal, but the one I have, bought at Walmart for about $35 makes a decent loaf of bread and is still going after several years of substantial use. Ok, so the expensive ones will make sourdough starter for you, etc., but if you live on a budget and are just trying to get by, then the cheapo from Walmart is a good choice.

My breadmaker will make the basic styles, white, french, italian and whole wheat, plus has a knead the dough cycle, so if you want to finish the the bread in a real bread pan in your oven, you can do it. I also have the choice of making 1 pound or a 1.5 pound loaf. Why anyone would want a smaller loaf is beyond me. To me, it is always exciting to open up the breadmaker to see what you got and to tear open that fresh bread while it is still warm.

So now, if your not convinced, run out and buy that breadmaker. In the long run, you will save money, have the freshest bread possible and will always know what the ingredients were to make that bread.

So here is a basic recipe.

• 1 cup + 2 TBS of water
• 1 -2 TBS of butter or oil.
• 1/4 cup of honey, molasses, brown sugar, maple syrup or white sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp of salt, I use 1 tsp of sea salt
• 3 cups of white flour or 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour.
• 2 TBS or 1/4 cup of Wheat Gluten
  
• 1 pkt of quick rising bread machine yeast.

Follow the recipe guidelines provided with your breadmachine. I will use butter, honey, maple syrup or white sugar with white flour. I would use oil, molasses and brown sugar with whole wheat flour. For Rye breads or pumpernickel bread, I would use coffee instead of the water. For flour substitutions I would use up to 1 cup of flour for the substitution. 1 cup of rye flour or spelt flour and 2 1/2 cups of the whole wheat flour.

I always add wheat gluton to help boost the rising of the dough. Once the bread cycle has been started, never open up the cover to the bread machine until the loaf is done cooking. There is also a point in the kneading cycle, usually a buzzer beep, when you can add nuts and fruits to the bread.

One Bowl Brownies

• 4 squares Unsweetened Baking Chocolate Squares
• 3/4 cup(1-1/2 sticks) Butter
• 2 cups Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 cup Chopped Nuts, Pecans or Walnuts(optional)

In a double boiler melt the butter, then add the chocolate squares. Stir until the chocolate is melted and well mixed with the butter. Remove top pan from boiler and proceed to add sugar. Mix well. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and chopped nuts and mix well.

For extra rich Chocolate, add 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips with the chopped nuts. Or try one of the other flavor chips like peanut butter, caramel, butterscotch or white chocolate morsels.

For cake like brownies add 1/2 cup milk with the eggs and vanilla and increase the flour to 1-1/2 cups.

Spread Batter into a well greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake at 350F for 30 to 35 minutes. Test for doneness with toothpick. DO NOT OVER BAKE. Cool in pan. Cut with plastic utensils, so not to damage pan.

Yield about 24 large brownies.

Sugar Babies

You ever heard of Hypoglycemic or Low Blood Sugar, it happens when you have too much insulin for your sugar or food intake. Diabetics are kind of the opposite, they don't produce enough insulin for there food intake. Just one other thing, this is totally unscientific so don't go scientific on me. Another words, give the layman a break here.

Ok, so back to Low Blood Sugar, what causes it and how do you fix it. Most medical people will say through diet. So, here's what I was doing. I was getting a big coffee in the morn, cream and sugar, DD style and a donut or one of those sticks, etc. Probably was downing a half of a cup of sugar. About half an hour later would get real tired. One day, I got nauseous and broke out in a cold sweat. So I called my doctor and he agreed with my diagnosis.

Since then I have been playing around with different combos of sugar laden products to no avail. Finally, after admitting that some big change was needed, started looking at alternatives, such as nuts and dried fruits, etc. With these whole grain products I started noticing a change, I no longer was tired, but actually had some energy.

So, now I am reluctantly putting whole foods back on the table. I already know the results will be positive.

Just another word about the sugar. Those great tasting sugar babies were causing my insulin levels to sky rocket and then when it ran out of sugar, started taking it out of areas that needed the sugar to keep the body running. So, I was running on empty all the time, but was eating this stuff to get energy.

I guess we live and learn.

The New Drug, Brownies

So you think you've done all the drugs there are. Well I have come up with a new one, Brownies. Being that I am whatever I am, I tried making brownies, you don't even need that other stuff they talk about putting in them, yes, you might just barely be able to eat one.

These are made from deep dark chocolate or real cocoa, not this over the counter crap you buy at the market that all you need to do is to add water and bake. These 2 recipes came from the package and you end up with a product so powerful, you'd think you were able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet, etc.

But wait in order to receive your personalized copy, please send $14.95 to cover shipping charges to the following address. No it's now quite that bad, but you will have to wait a bit, I will have to put each recipe in their own blog. And of course that will take time. I absolutely guarantee that you will love these brownies, so ya just gotta wait a little bit more.

The New Year, 2007

It is a new year, My Blog has changed ownership and now is part of Goggle Blogs, hopefully a positive move for my blog. I haven't made a post to either of my blogs for close to a year or more. I still want to continue with my Cookin' For Fun blog. Not so sure on my on my other blog, Living in Hell, guess I am still living in my personal Hell. People ask me what that means and why do you feel you are living in Hell. Sigh. Are people still living in caves around here. I can't stand all this mental power.

So, here it is. You create whatever is around you. You live and are alive. You make decisions good and bad. It is you who is creating whatever situation you are living in. Accept responsibility for what you create. If it is Heaven, you created it, if it is your own personal hell, you created it. It isn't your spouse's fault he did what he did, you created the situation so he would do what you wanted him to do. And he obliged you. Accept it. Change it. Whatever. But the bottom line is you created your Hell, so now you cannot deny your Living in Hell!!!

I was going to scrap Living in Hell, maybe I will combine them into, Cooking for Fun while Living in Hell. So it's back to the Big Decision time. And once again it is at an impasse. So, I guess it must be, Living in Hell and Cooking for Fun.