Green Monster Spinach Smoothie

This is my new favorite shake.  Probably because it has an ingredient that you don't normally have often on the Fuhrman diet.  But I figure if you don't have it too often then it's ok.  You'll see it when you read the ingredients.  I had it this morning for breakfast and craved it by mid afternoon so I made it again for myself.  It's just a nice change to the other spinach shakes.  I can get sick of those fast.  I've decided in these two weeks that spinach shakes are a necessity and key to helping me stick to eating healthy and losing weight.  I get in a good 2-4 cups of spinach each shake and that takes care of a good portion of greens.  Since I don't prefer salad as much anymore it's a nice way to get it all down in one sitting and in sweet liquid form.  I changed the recipe slightly to accomodate what i had.  Anyway, here's the recipe:

Green Monster Spinach Smoothie

1 sliced banana
4-5 ice cubes
1 TB flaxseed
1 cup soy milk 
1-2 TB all natural peanut butter (only ingredient nuts, and maybe a little salt, I have Adam's brand)
2-4 cups of spinach (I just grab a few handfuls, I don't really measure with a cup)

Blend all ingredients in a blender until nice and smooth. Enjoy

Original recipe comes from here.

Apricot Nut Bread

This is another "green diet" recipe. So I'm sure it's not 100% Dr. Fuhrman approved. However it has some great ingredients and is much better for you than cake or brownies. I want to try replacing the canola oil with applesauce but I haven't tried that yet. It's quite a filling bread and I really liked it.


Apricot Nut Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup apple juice
• ½ cup all-fruit apricot spread or apricot jam
• 2/3 cup chopped dried apricots
• ½ cup oat bran
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 Tbs honey
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Bring the apple juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the apricot spread, apricots, and oat bran, let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine the oil, bananas, and honey in a large mixing bowl; whisk well. Add apricot mixture. Add the dry ingredients to the banana-apricot mixture, stirring just until moist.
4. Spoon the batter into a greased loaf pan. Back for 55-65 minutes or until pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy.

Bran Muffins

I've altered the recipe to make it as close as I could to Fuhrman approved, except for the eggs and skim milk; but pace yourself, because Tanner and I ate all 18 muffins in 3 days! That's a lot of fiber, if you know what I mean, and more grains than you should have, but at least they're good for you, right? Tanner kept calling them brownies he liked them so much. 

Cream together 3/4 cup sweetener (we have a bag of Splenda, it can be used in baking) and 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

Add 2 beaten eggs

1 overripe banana

Add: 3 c all bran cereal

Pour 1 cup boiling water over the cereal, egg, sugar mixture and let sit for about 10 minutes to soften cereal. I usually give my  my mixer a few turns just to get all of the cereal wet before I leave it for the 10 minutes.

Add: 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 cups skim milk w/ 1 Tb vinegar, let sit 2-3 minutes before adding.

Mix, pour into muffin tin and bake on 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These are good to have around if you are really tempted, because they are really healthy, as long as you don't eat as many as Tanner and I did. Serve warm with spray butter!