Spring & Summer Compost Tips

With these past two weeks of juice cleansing I have had a ton of nicely shredded veggie and fruit scraps. What a great boost for my compost! I have been making daily runs out to the compost bin and it's quickly building up.

A few tips I have for you on composting in the spring and summer are below. These are just ideas that have worked well for me.

**********Spring and Summer Compost pointers***********

1. Take scraps out daily since the heat makes even the tightest pail stinky.

2. Separate your pile into two separate piles, winter till now, and from here on through the fall
( you will take the older pile and use now, I will be spreading mine on my garden as soon as its tilled in the next week or so). The newer pile is good to spread on your garden in the fall for good fertilization for the next years crop.

First picture below is my new scrap pile

3. Give your pile a weekly toss, with the heat, your pile will be "brewing" more. I try to get the new stuff mixed in well with the finer decomposed stuff for faster composting.

4. Make use of some free grass clippings after your lawn is mowed. My hubs usually rakes me a pile after he cuts and tosses it on top. Just can't forget to add your "browns" in the summer! (tiny sticks, leaves, grass, etc)

5. Just a little bonus to fill you in on, every year I get a ton of tomato plants that sprout up on their own in the garden from the seeds that are in the compost. Most of them in our case are cherry tomato plants.

6. Happy worms, happy compost! If you see lots of worms then that's a great sign you are doing everything right and the soil is getting finer and softer!

Any questions, just ask and I'll do my best to answer them!

Keep on juicing or smooth'n!

Today for the cleanse I'm enjoying the Passion 4 Smoothie. After watching Jason's video yesterday for Day 5 he mentioned that one Mom on the cleanse was also spoon feeding some to her baby too! Duh, why didn't I think of that?! I've made fresh baby food
But never thought of blending in fresh juices too.

So today after making mine I also made this for baby:

Juice 1/4 pineapple
1 carrot

In a Magic Bullet or similar blend 3 banana's and juice mixture together.

And voila fresh and healthy baby breakfast!!

Passion 4 Smoothie

So actually your not supposed to have the "passion 4" smoothie till day 3, but I had banana's that were perfect today, not too yellow, not too green, just right. So I couldn't resist! Just as Jason says on his books, do what works for you. Maybe your fruit is riper one day than another, just swap another day's juice.

This one will really fill you up too! Here is the pic below.

Avocados, Strawberries? Yes, Please!!

I do have to admit that Last night I was exhausted and hungry so with Jason's advice in the Day 1 video, I ate an avocado. I know, big cheater right? Not really, they are filled with tons of water and are the most nutritious fruit there is 😄. Just a squeeze of lemon or lime and dive right in!!!

This brings me to the strawberries. Yesterday I mentioned that the spirulina and wheatgrass can be a little bit hard to get used to. So today I subbed a small handful of strawberries for one of the apples to kind of "hide" the green powder taste. I picked up some gorgeous ones at the store till my garden "strawbs" (what my big kiddo calls them) are ready in another few months.

Also wanted to point out my love for The Magic Bullet! Love this sucker!! I used it for so much and the clean up is so easy since I can throw the cup and blade in dishwasher.

As you can see my spirulina came from the Vitamin shop and wheatgrass from there as well. Also on amazon too!

Have a juicy day!

Day 1 of The Big Juice Spring Clean!

Good Morning!

I'm starting of today with The juice master's "Super Juice". It is just one of 5 yummy juices I will be having today. Here is the recipe:

1/2 lime
2 apples
1/4 pineapple
1/4 cucumber
1/4 avocado
1 scoop of wheatgrass powder or 1 oz shot fresh
1 teaspoon of spirulina
4 ice cubes
Also calls for 1capsule of good bacteria, I like to take it separate though!

Juice all except avocado, then blend avocado, ice, juice, wheatgrass powder, & spirulina.

Enjoy!

Beginners beware that the wheatgrass and spirulina are a little tough to get used to at first but sooo good for you!

The big spring clean juice cleanse

If you have been following my blog you would know I love a food juice cleanse!

Well this week starting tomorrow I will be doing just that. If you are interested in doing it with me just go to:

http://www.juicemaster.com

Jason Vale, aka the "juicemaster" has a daily inspiration email, usually with a video, and he will get you motivated to get through this week. He is doing a two part/two week cleanse. I think I will do the two week but I don't like to commit to two weeks in the beginning since it feels too long, but I usually end up doing two!

Happy juicing!

My super easy shrimp egg rolls

I have been wanting to share this yummy egg roll recipe I created for awhile now. They are a much healthier alternative to take out!

So this is what you need:

1 pkg of egg roll's (I find mine in the produce section near the tofu)

1 bag of shredded carrots

1 bag of bean sprouts

1 really small cabbage, or 1/2 of a medium cabbage

2 small containers of fresh precut mushrooms

Hoisin sauce

Vegetable oil spray

Shrimp (this is flexible, sometimes I get fresh or in a pinch I use small frozen ones I keep on hand)

So I spray a large pot or wok and sauté everything except shrimp (I add shrimp at the end so they don't get too tough), I also add a tablespoon of the hoison sauce (can add teriyaki or any type of sweet Asian sauce you like)

Sauté for 5 mins or so until everything cooks down a bit. Then follow the pictures on how to roll up the egg roll. Spray a cookie sheet with pan spray, place rolls on it, give the top of rolls a quick spray too, so they come out crunchy. Bake at 375 for 10-15 mins.

Enjoy! Dip in sauce of choice ; )

Freshly pressed grapefruit juice

I am always trying to use up all of my fruits and veggies and not waste anything! Sometimes I get on a grapefruit for breakfast kick but lately here I have been having oatmeal.

So I noticed today I had four grapefruits starting to get a little old and I thought why not give them a good press with my citrus juicer!

A sticky mess of course, but really worth it in the end. Since they are in season in winter and early spring they are super sweet and even my 3 yr old was drinking it!

As far as citrus juicers I can't say that I recommend this one. You have to hold the base and the fruit at the same time. If only they made one with a suction bottom...now that would be love!

I am going to do another juice cleanse for 2 weeks starting next Monday, but I will be posting about it soon!

Happy Easter!