Refreshing Summer Detox Iced Tea

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If you’re anywhere that’s incredibly hot and muggy (96 degrees today with 98% humidity and no rain in sight), it’s great to have a drink that’s refreshing, cold AND healthy.

Enter Detox Iced Teas. 

I love to mix them up based on what’s in the fridge and which herbs need a trim and Detox Iced Teas typically include (as many as possible are organic):

  • Fresh or frozen fruit (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, kiwi, peaches, oranges or…)
  • ½ a citrus fruit (usually lemon or lime)
  • Whole cucumber sliced with skin if organic/from my garden
  • Sprig or few leaves of an herb (rosemary, mint, lemon mint, basil, etc.)
  • 2 tea bags. I like to use one green and one something else since I don’t like green tea and want all the benefits without the flavor 😉
  • Dash of turmeric or cayenne pepper or both

Then add enough filtered water to fill the pitcher, chill for at least an hour (I like to do overnight). 

Here’s today’s Detox Iced Tea concoction:

Grab a glass pitcher. Mine is about 80 ounces and add the below:

  • Fresh or frozen blackberries (I had frozen so used them)
  • Whole cucumber with peel (from my garden) and I’ve got so many cukes!)
  • Large sprig of rosemary clipped from bush in yard
  • Half a lime (skin on since it’s organic)
  • One hibiscus tea bag
  • One green tea bag (I dislike green tea AND know how amazing it is for me so mix it with another flavor: peppermint, hibiscus, etc.)
  • Dash of cayenne pepper

Add the water and chill.

The best part is that you can’t go wrong. While the above may look a little odd, the flavor is very light and oh-so-refreshing! 

Next time you’re craving something cold and refreshing, make one and let me know what you think.

Filed Under: Healthy Eating Tagged With:

Healthy Eating Day 5 (South Carolina Travel Edition)

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Breakfast:  Seems lately I haven’t really been hungry, of course it’s been really hot and muggy here so that’s likely the reason.  So be it, another berry and green smoothie, albeit a small one.

Smoothie

 

Lunch:  Salad, salad, salad…they’re just so refreshing when it’s hot out.  Arugula (I love it’s gentle bite), tomatoes from my little patio plant, spinach, romaine and walnuts with Skinny Girl Balsamic Vinaigrette (they have several sugar-free versions).  It hit the spot perfectly!

Green salad

 

Dinner:  Finally, true hunger returned.  And I wanted comfort food!  Gluten-free pasta with tomato sauce and a side of salad (otherwise I’d have eaten WAY too much pasta).  The great thing about pasta is that it’s easy to make for one person.  And it was perfect, exactly what I wanted.

Pasta and Salad

 

And afterward, a strong cup of peppermint tea (I don’t know where you shop, but for me, the Twinings is almost $2 cheaper per box on Amazon than in my local stores).  It’s amazing how it can be both refreshing and soothing at the same time.

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Healthy Eating

Healthy Eating Day 4

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Breakfast: Have to admit I’m really missing the coolness of Massachusetts’ mornings when I’d sit outside on the deck with a cup of tea and my journal.  It’s just too hot to really enjoy here — hopefully that’ll change soon.  Another smoothie it was, replacing greens with raw broccoli today.

Broccoli Berry Smoothie

Lunch: Looking for some comfort food between client projects, I went with an asparagus risotto from Trader Joe’s.  It was just what I was craving — filling, nourishing and creamy.  More carb-heavy than I usually have, but it’s what my body wanted and it felt wonderful. The closest Trader Joe’s is about 90 minutes away so I stock up and then save for when I really want something. 😉

Risotto with Asparagus

Dinner:  Looking for veggies this evening, I went with a simple brown rice, beans, guacamole and veggie tortilla.  I ended up devouring the first and quickly making a second.  Note…since I’m here on my own, I find myself with leftovers when it comes to rice and beans and have discovered that they freeze well together.  Personally I don’t like to freeze in plastic so invested in some small freezable mason jars that work beautifully for individual sizes (I also freeze lots of homemade soup and freshly made primavera sauce with tons of zucchini from the garden).  Just be sure that you get ones that say they’re for FREEZING and fill only to the fill line.

Veggie, Bean & Rice Fajita

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Healthy Eating Day 3

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Breakfast:  The hotter it is outside, the less I want to eat — do you find that’s true for you?  And, just as importantly, the less I want to cook or spend time prepping.  So today’s breakfast was quick and easy.  One of my “go to” smoothies.  They’re simply coconut water, frozen berries, greens, either seeds or nuts (chia seeds today), turmeric, black pepper, coconut oil and vegan protein powder.  Whipped up in my NutriBullet and a healthy breakfast awaits. For some reason, I just love drinking them from a big mason jar.  🙂

Smoothie Overhead View

Lunch:  Still full from breakfast and heads down on work projects, I kept it simple with banana and peanut butter.

Bananas & Peanut Butter

Dinner:  Still “icky” out (you know that mugginess you can cut with a knife?  That’s it!), I opted for dinner out at Moe’s.  I got the Band Camp (their veggie meal) with very little rice, a lot of mushrooms and extra guacamole.  While I love all their veggies, I really wish they offered brown rice.

Moe's Band Camp

Evening:  It was a perfect evening for a cup of cold-brewed peppermint tea.

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Healthy Eating — Day 2

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Breakfast:  Craving something warm after a hard workout and cold walk, I headed straight for a “Detox Tea”.  Some people like to put honey in it, but I find them perfect “as is” and usually make 2 cups with the same tea bag as they have enough flavor and I don’t like my tea super strong.  The tea was perfect outside and quickly followed by a pink grapefruit and a Vann’s Ancient Grains Gluten-Free Waffle (keep in freezer and just toast — I’ve found the best deals on these at either Target or Walmart, often a couple dollars less than the grocery stores) with some Peanut Butter Cream.

Traditionals Detox Tea Ancient Grains Waffle and Pink Grapefruit

Lunch:  Nothing can beat the freshness of a greens and berry salad with some crunchy walnuts and that was for lunch today.  The berries were so juicy that I skipped the dressing.  How about you? What’s your favorite dressing?

Strawberry Green Salad

Dinner:  Still looking for salad today, but something a little heavier, I went with farmer’s market tomatoes (YUM!) and lettuce over roasted garlic and pecan brown rice.  Nothing beats my little rice cooker which makes SO MUCH MORE than rice (can we say the best oatmeal ever!).  Since I’m on my own here, we’ll be seeing the leftovers of this rice again.  🙂

Salad over roasted garlic and pecan rice

Filed Under: Healthy Eating, South Carolina Travel Edition Tagged With: ,

Peanut Butter Cream Recipe

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Sometimes you want that peanut butter taste without the heaviness — that’s where peanut butter cream comes in.

I use about 2 teaspoons organic peanut butter and, using a fork, mix it with just over a tablespoon of hot water in a cup.  That’s it.  I suggest using less water at first and adding more to get the consistency you want.

It’s lovely, light, peanutty and warm, especially atop a warm gluten-free waffle!

Waffle with Peanut Butter Cream

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Healthy Eating — Day 1

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For whatever reason, I haven’t been hungry at all when waking up, so my routine’s become: wake up, let Buddy out or take him for a walk if warmer with a 25oz bottle of water w/ a peppermint tea bag in it (cold-brewed mint tea).

Then home…Today:

Breakfast: Pink grapefruit and about an ounce of raw nuts.  It’s a perfect combo for me when I know I should eat something but am not feeling super hungry.

2016-5-14-grapefruit

Lunch:  Busy day heads down on some big projects for work meant a quick  lunch — not something I do often, but they’re good to have in a pinch.  Today’s was Portobello Mushroom Ravioli with spinach and red pepper in a basil sauce.  The sauce was a little rich so I ended up scraping it off and eating the raviolis and greens.

2016-04-15-17-30-18

Dinner:  Lunch was pretty heavy so I went with a simple smoothie for dinner: Frozen organic berries, raw broccoli, chia seeds, coconut water, vegan protein powder (this is vanilla and my favorite as it doesn’t have an aftertaste where a lot of others do — it also doesn’t really affect the flavor of the smoothie), and a little cucumber from the local Farmer’s Market (or soon, from the garden!!!).  Put all of these into my NutriBullet and voila! no chunks and a quick smoothie.

Frozen Berry Smoothie

I track my meals using the My Fitness Pal app (free edition) to keep an eye on calories and ensure I’m getting enough overall.  One thing I’ve realized is that with the South Carolina heat and humidity, I often don’t crave as much food.  Today was one of those days.

Filed Under: Healthy Eating, South Carolina Travel Edition Tagged With:

Healthy Eating — South Carolina Edition

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I’ve been living in South Carolina for the past few months clearing out my Mum’s home after her passing while continuing to run a full-time business and serve my clients. Mum had previously cleared out a lot of her kitchen items so I find myself with a full kitchen but without all my usual “tools”.

I’m often asked if I eat out a lot.  I don’t.  My goal while here is to eat as locally as possible (I’m really missing my usual garden back home in Massachusetts!) while keeping my SC expenses minimal, after all I’m still paying for my Massachusetts home where my husband and 5 furr-kids are.  🙂

Here in SC, it’s me and my Mum’s 4 furr-kids for probably a couple more months.

Two things I keep getting asked:

  1. What do you eat and how do you find time with everything else going on?
  2. It’s just me and I can’t be bothered to cook for one person and have so many leftovers, how do you do it?

This blog is veering a tad off it’s original purpose to answer these questions and share pics/recipes that work for one person or your entire family.  I welcome any suggestions you have and hope you enjoy what you find here.

Filed Under: Healthy Eating, South Carolina Travel Edition

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Craving something sweet and yet healthy?  That was me yesterday.  I knew it was “time” for dinner and yet I was craving sweet rather than savory.  After rummaging through the cupboards, I came up with the following and have to admit, they tasted fabulous!

Only tweak I’d make for the future is to add some raw walnuts to the batter.

No Sugar Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

No Sugar Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats (I use these organic rolled oats or these gluten free oats)

1 heaping tablespoon creamy peanut butter (I prefer this organic peanut butter with only peanuts)

1 ripe banana

45 dark chocolate chips

No Sugar Added Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease baking sheet (I use coconut oil as I don’t like the non-stick sprays).
  3. Mash banana in bowl.
  4. Add rolled oats and peanut butter.  Stir until well combined.  (I used my hands to ensure that all the oats got their share of the banana/peanut butter.)
  5. Fold in chocolate chips.
  6. Using tablespoon, place on baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until light brown.
  8. Let cool a few minutes before eating.

Enjoy.  Leftovers (if any) freeze well.

Options:

  • Replace peanut butter with almond butter.
  • Replace peanut butter with a second banana (thus making it nut-free).
  • Add raw walnuts or macadamia nuts to recipe before baking.

What other suggestions do you have for tweaking the base recipe?  Please share in comments below.

 

Filed Under: Energy Foods, Healthy Eating, Recipes Tagged With: ,

The Path to Reversing Diabetes

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Reversing diabetes or lowering your blood sugar isn’t about a diet or doing something for a week.  It’s about lifestyle changes and, as I’ve discovered for my body, changes within those changes.

Once I saw that my A1C had increased to a 7.2 in May, I freaked.  What was I going to do?

I had the stress that anyone providing full-time caregiving away from home and running a business has.  That wasn’t changing.  Your stressors may be different, but they’re there.

First thing was to sit down with a notebook and answer the question: “What can I do to get healthy?”

I was already eating very well by any standards.

Here’s what went on my list AND got done:

  • Exercise.  Since I prefer to *do* something (not simply walk on a treadmill, for example), each day I walked to a local gas station and bought a water.  That gave me a destination and each day I told the clerk that I’d see her tomorrow (creating accountability for myself in a place where I knew no one).  The gas station is 1.5 miles away and served as both exercise and my “sanity walk” each morning after I got Mum set up so she’d be comfortable for the hour I was gone.
  • Lowered the amount of carbs I was eating.  While I was sticking to about 1,400 calories a day, I noticed that I was eating a decent amount of lasagna (one of Mum’s favorite meals).  I had become the “clean upper” — whatever Mum didn’t finish or didn’t want as her taste buds changed, I finished.  I learned to be okay with tossing as it wasn’t going to help anyone if we had clean plates and my health got worse.
  • Committed to getting my A1C checked monthly.  On June 3rd it was 7.1, on July 3rd it was 6.9 on August 3rd it was 6.8 and on September 3rd it was 6.5.

What I was eating May – early August:

  • Largely vegan, although I had seafood and ice cream when a friend was visiting
  • About 1,400 calories a day which included a morning protein smoothie with fruit, greens, vegan protein powder, coconut water and nuts or seeds
  • No pasta, no “whites”, very little grains aside from Amy’s Ravioli or Amy’s Bean Burrito (quick lunches when needed — about once a week) — I’ve found the burritos at Walmart for $2.19 each, they’re perfect with a salad and guacamole or salsa added.

Throughout this post and the last, I haven’t mentioned weight.  Since late March, as of today, I’ve released 48.7lbs.  Most of that after I started the walking.  The weight loss plateaued in early August and. . .

When the weight loss plateaued:

  • I started eating much lower net carb (total carbohydrates less fiber) and higher healthy fats — think nuts, coconut oil, avocado.  There are only 3 nutrient categories: fat, protein and carbohydrate.  So if you start eating lower of one, something else has to increase.

I would define my current eating as mostly vegan, low carb, moderate protein, higher healthy fat.

While I haven’t gone on the “gas station walk” every day since May, I’ve made an effort to get 10,000 steps using my FitBit.  And you don’t need a top-of-the-line one, here’s the FitBit I use and love.

Going forward, I’ll share what I’m eating and the exercise I’m getting and hope that it helps you and those you love.

* Remember to check with your health care practitioner before starting any new eating and/or exercise plan. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV — this is simply my personal account of what’s working for me.  🙂

Filed Under: Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: ,