Hello loves! I have a special guest on the blog today. She was today’s juice du jour, but she’s no flavour of the week. Meet Ruby. She has been around since my very first days of juicing and she’s not going anywhere. She’s an oldie, but a goodie. A basic lady. Nothing fancy, just a good ol’ blend of all the right stuff!

I’m all about stocking my kitchen with ingredients that can be used in a variety of ways in order to avoid your groceries (and your cash) turning into an un-recognizable bag of goop in the bottom of your veggie crisper. This is precisely what makes Ruby such a beauty! She’s a great ice-breaker into the world of juicing because all these goodies are most likely hanging in your fridge anyway. And if they aren’t already kicking it in your kitchen, they should be. All her lovely ingredients are versatile, delicious nutrient dense gifts from our wonderful mother earth.

 In addition to her wonderful juice making ways, here’s a few other ways I like to use her basic ingredients:

Beets

Apples

Apples are such a cleansing and refreshing fruit. When I’m on the run, apples are my go-to take-out food. I toss one in my purse and hit the road. Snack attack? Slice up an apple, sprinkle it with cinnamon or dip it in almond butter. The high fibre content will help to keep you fuller longer and acts like a broom in your digestive system to help ‘move things along’. You can also find apples in my smoothies, sliced or grated onto my salad or with a date smooshed on them for a caramel-y apple treat.

Lemon

Lemons are my main squeeze! I start every morning with a warm glass of lemon water to wake up the system, stimulate the liver and get my digestive juices flowing. I’ve always got a bowl of lemons on my counter. They are a must-have for home-made salad dressings and flavour enhancers for soups, marinades, sauces and deserts. Many of my salads get dressed in nothing more than a little lemon, high quality olive oil and a dash of salt & pepper. That’s it. These sunshine vesicles are a great way to balance your pH with their alkalinizing effects on the body. This helps create an ideal environment for your cells to live happily ever after. Get your lemon on by squeezing a little in your tea or grating the zest on your morning fruit salad.

Kale

Strong. Fibrous. Course. Hearty. This “Man lettuce”  has been topping the nutritional charts for a few years now, and for good reason. This rich green veggie is packed full of nutrients and extremely versatile. I add it to my smoothies, cure snack attacks by baking it into kale chips, whip up some “stick-to-your bones” salads or sauté it with some garlic and lemon for a simple side to accompany any dish. Tip: When eating it raw, give your kale a rub-down by massaging it for a good 5 minutes before eating. This helps break up the fibres and release some of it’s bitterness. Who needs a boyfriend when you can have “man lettuce” hug you from the inside.

Celery

These refreshing stalks of fibrous goodness can be tossed in anything or eaten on their own. Skip the chips and get your crunch on with these bad boys instead. They are the prefect vessel for dips or nut butters. The childhood favourite, ‘ants on a log’ (which I hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing until a few months ago) is a wonderful, sweet & filling snack! If you are in the dark about this delicious treat, as I was, they consist of peanut butter spread into the perfectly crafted ‘boat’ of the celery stalks then topped with raisins. I gave this tasty snack a nutritionists makeover and filled mine with almond butter and goji berries. I’ve also been know to add cinnamon or coconut flakes if I’m feeling fancy. Feeling salty? Dip your celery sticks in hummus, baba ganoush, bean dip or pesto! But please don’t go dipping into one of those store bought, chemical and preservative packed tubs of ranch etc. found in the dairy aisles of your grocery store. Thanks in advance.

Now that you’ve gotten to know the lovely Miss Ruby and her wonderful friends, go ahead and invite her over for breakfast, lunch or dinner!  I wish you many years of healthy bliss together.

Enjoy 🙂

In health & love,

Heather

Betty

2014-04-26 19:29:15

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Ingredients

1. 1 Beet
2. 1 Apple
3. 3 Stalks of Celery
4. 5 Stalks of Kale
5. 1/2 Lemon

Instructions

1. Process all ingredients through your juicer and enjoy!

Notes

1. No juicer? No problem!
2. Dice ingredients into small pieces, add to blender (you may need to add a little water) and strain through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth into large bowl. Pour into glass. Drink. Enjoy.

By Heather Allen

Heather Allen http://www.heatherallen.ca/