Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead & My 3 Day Juice Fast

I watch a lot of documentaries and I always try to take them with a grain of salt, but this one really struck a chord with me.Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is a film about Joe Cross (who also happens to be the director) and his journey to better health. At the beginning of the film he is overweight, tired, on multiple medications and basically feels fat, sick and nearly dead! Since he is so drastically overweight (about 100 lbs) he decides to attempt a 60 day juice fast. The requirements on the juice fast are that he cannot consume any solid food, only fruits and vegetables in juice form. We're not talking about store bought juice either. We're talking about freshly juiced fruits and veggies for maximum nutrient intake.

Aloe Vera Lemonade

I was doing some blog surfing when I came across this recipe for aloe vera lemonade and since I have an aloe plant I decided to give it a try. I found the recipe over at The Thrifty Mama and, as usual, deviated from the recipe a bit. The recipe calls for lemon juice and of course I couldn't just pour it out of a bottle. I had to buy lemons and squeeze them myself. Since lemons are in season right now I was able to buy them at a fair price. If you'd rather used bottled lemon juice, like the original recipe suggests, I would advise against buying Realemon (no offense meant to Thrifty Mama!) Firstly, Realemon comes in a plastic bottle (my awareness of plastic and avoidance of said plastic is ever increasing) and secondly it's lemon juice from concentrate. We can do better! For cooking I purchase Italian Volcano Lemon Juice which is also available at Costco. It's in a glass bottle, it's 100% juice AND it's organic... sold!

Mint & Lime Mojito

The first time that I had a Mojito was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in 2008 while I was on vacation with a few of my girl friends. It somewhat become our signature drink of the vacation as we ordered them every time we were at a bar. Here is 20 year old me enjoying a Mojito in Mexico...

When we came back from vacation we started to ask for Mojitos at bars and restaurants, but most of the time our server would give us a puzzled look. After being disappointed with the few Mojitos that I could find, I decided to make my own Mojito recipe. Some people like granulated sugar in this drink, but I prefer simple syrup (which can easily be made at home and I will include this recipe as well). You can substitute granulated sugar instead of simple syrup if you like.

Cucumber-Mint Water

Earlier this year I purchased a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. My thought process was that it would help me drink healthier, because I rarely drink water and I'm usually drinking some sort of artificially flavored juice. I don't know what it is about the taste of water, but I just don't like it! I like something with flavor. So I started juicing and I juiced everything under the sun! Let me tell you, fresh fruit juice is way better than anything you can buy in the store. I then experimented with mixing some veggies into my fruit juices and I discovered that cucumber added a very cool and refreshing note. So when I came across a cucumber-mint water recipe in my Fine Cooking magazine I just had to try it out. You don't necessarily need a juicer for this recipe, but you will need a blender.

Grapefruit Infused Tequila

I love infusing liquors with my favorite flavors and so far I've made bacon infused vodka (which I used in a Bloody Mary) and also ginger infused vodka (which I used in a Saketini... upcoming blog about this recipe!) So when I came across a recipe in my Fine Cooking magazine for Tequila-Grapefruit Cocktails, I couldn't resist! This recipe features grapefruit infused tequila which is very simple to make. Shave the zest from 2 grapefruits with a vegetable peeler. Add the zest to a 750 ml bottle of silver tequila. Make sure that you pour off enough tequila to make room for the zest in the bottle (I used the tequila that I poured off to make myself a Margarita). Chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 days and up to 2 weeks. Also, don't get rid of those grapefruits that you zested! The cocktail recipe calls for fresh grapefruit juice, so I kept them in the fridge in Ziploc bags until the tequila was ready.

Beef Braised with Red Wine and Chocolate Mousse

The boyfriend loves beef. He also has a bit of a sweet tooth. So I came up with this menu for Valentine's Day dinner. This was my first time trying these recipes and they both came out great! The meat had so much flavor from the red wine and the chocolate mousse was nice and fluffy. I came across the beef recipe while watching Everyday Food on PBS and the chocolate mousse recipe is from allrecipes.com. Let's start with the main course (this recipe serves 2).

Organic Vodka

Until recently I didn't know that organic vodka existed. A couple months ago I walked into my local liquor store and there happened to be a woman inside giving out samples of various alcohols. She had me sample a citrus flavored vodka and then told me that it was organic. It tasted smooth and less harsh than any other vodka that I had previously tried. So I picked up a bottle of Moon Mountain vodka.

How is vodka organic? Well it turns out that Moon Mountain vodka is made from organic grain. You can learn more about their brand here. Just last night I tried their Wild Raspberry flavor which was equally delicious!

Bloody Mary with Bacon Vodka

This is my first culinary related post and I figured that as such it should somehow involve bacon. I recently stumbled upon a recipe for bacon vodka. You can find the recipe here:
http://www.browniepointsblog.com/2008/01/20/homemade-bacon-vodka/
(I always try to give credit where credit is due). The suggestion is made to try using it in a Bloody Mary. This intrigued me. So I fried up some bacon, waited for 3 weeks and just today filtered it. I tried it in a Bloody Mary and it is delicious! There are so many different recipes out there for Bloody Marys and some of them have some out there ingredients. I've tailored my own Bloody Mary recipe and adding the bacon vodka to it makes it perfect! Here is my Bloody Mary: