Have You Ever Juiced a Cucumber?

We had an internet outage, but thanks to companies that work Saturday and Sunday we are back in business. 

Step 1: Book carpet cleaning as part of our move out requirements.  Good luck getting toddler food reject splatters out of this carpet Sears!

Step 2: Find this recipe for dinner. I modified almost everything, but it came out muy excellente.

Step 3: Write this post.

Less than one month until moving day.  Movers don't move liquids (especially open ones) and only the cool ones move open cooking items like flour, sugar, etc.   That means we are in full blown use everything we have mode. 

I was looking for a cucumber martini recipe and found this one that is very tasty.  The drink reminds me of summer!  Yes, I have summer all year in central Florida, but that is not the point.  I still want to celebrate it.  Give it a try if you have the winter blahs.   The key ingredient is cucumber puree/juice. 

Peel the cucumber, chop it into chunks, put it in a blender or food processor with a little bit of water and blend until smooth.   Strain the liquid out and you have some magical cucumber juice that you can keep in the fridge for a few days.

I had plenty of extra cucumber juice after martini night, so I started to mix it into my water during the day.  Cucumber and lime juice...good.  Cucumber and sliced strawberries in water....good.  Cucumber juice with seltzer/sparkling water...great!

Lazy Smoothies

I am still on my smoothie kick.  I am also spending all week thinking about how much less time I will have since my job title will be changing from SAHM (stay at home mom) to WFHM (work from home mom).  20 hours a week is going to be a serious adjustment! Still, I look forward to it. 

Here is my lazy smoothie tip for you.  After you make dinner, and after you do the dishes, and while you still have all of your cutting boards and knives handy, and while you have energy, make your smoothie.  Make a bunch of smoothies.  All of the recipes you want to try.  This helps to use up your produce that might be going bad soon.  After you make each batch, pour the smoothie into a freezer bag and throw it in the freezer.  The night before you will want a breakfast smoothie, throw the bag into the fridge and it will be mostly thawed in the morning.  Depending on how thick the smoothie is, you may have to do some good stirring or you may have to zap it in the microwave for 15 seconds.  Taa daaa!  Lazy smoothie.

So far my favorite smoothies are the green ones.  Spinach, apples, pears, pineapples, mangoes and either orange juice or yogurt.  Good stuff!  I am not ready to buy a Ninja or a Vitamix or anything like that, but I am enjoying this brief obsession. 

One last tip that most people have probably already thought of.  I always throw the whole banana into the freezer when its not going to survive another day and I am not ready to eat it yet.  Then I have to go through all kinds of effort to use the banana (peel, mush, scrape, blah!).  Peel the banana, chop it into pieces, and then freeze it. Hooray! Much easier.

Happy Lazy Smoothie.

Healthy Orange Bubbly With Cherry - Drink Recipe

Here is another healthyish drink recipe making use of my obsession with sparkling water. 

Ingredients:
Crushed Ice
Orange Juice (1/3 Cup)
Maraschino Cherries
Your favorite overpriced carbonated mineral water

Directions:
Fill your glass halfway up with crushed ice.  Pour orange juice in the bottom.  Fill your glass with sparkling mineral water.   I usually go for a pint sized glass.  Dump in 2 maraschino cherries and a teaspoon or two of the juice.  Stir.  Drink with a straw (very important).


Missed out on my healthy cherry limeade recipe?  Find it here.