Daddy’s Snow Pea

Even though Father’s Day just passed, it’s never too late to do something nice for your pops.

Lately, I‘ve been spending a lot of precious time with Dad doing some fun things like, swimming, watching soccer games, family gatherings and eating which is one of my family’s favorite thing to do together! Naturally I was inspired to create something special for my papa to honor all that he’s done for me all his life.  At the base of this juicing recipe is an ingredient that perhaps many people would not want to drink but I want to show you that you can make this pea taste amazing.

Snow peas a naturally sweet and offer health benefits that may be surprising for such a tiny pea.  Peas in general are credited with reducing blood pressure the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and some cancers. They’re also low in calories, which helps prevent obesity … a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Hop behind the juice bar and juice up this recipe:

Daddy’s Snow Pea
2 lbs of snow peas
1 mango
1 orange
4 cubes of aloe vera

Wash all ingredients and pass them through your juicer and capture the juice in a glass. Hope you like this sweet juice… in the company of your papa!

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Ruthenium

Don’t be Pricked by a Cactus

For the latest Ruthenium Weekly Challenge I shot my first video blog!  What do you think?

If you are thinking “there’s no way I’ll be able to find cactus!” you might be surprised. You can find it in specialty stores in your town and if they don’t have it you can ask the grocery store to carry it. That might do the trick. In Toronto you can find it in Kensignton Market at Perola at 247 Augusta Avenue.

Hope you enjoy this challenge!

To your health!

Cheers,
Ruthenium

Eye Spy

Round two of the Ruthenium weekly challenge! If you suffer from headaches, as I do or have inflammation in your body you’ll want to take this challenge.

This week I’m highlighting important ingredients that help fight inflammation among other things. Carrots, turmeric are a powerful anti-inflammatory combination. Many of you have tried carrots juice or some sort of carrot blend but if you have never tried turmeric in your diets wait until you try this spice in your juices!

Benefits of carrots:

• Improves vision
• Prevents cancer
• Provides liver protection
• Helps protect cells from aging prematurely
• Has anti-inflammatory properties
• Cleanses and detoxes the body
• Keeps teeth and gums healthy

 

Benefits of turmeric: 

• Contains a high level of bioactive compounds
• Natural anti-inflammatory
• Increases antioxidant activity in the body
• Boosts brain function
• Decreases risk of heart disease
• May prevent Alzheimer’s disease
• Can help prevent cancer
• Fights depression
• Helps treat arthritis
• Helps treat headaches, bronchitis, colds, lunch infections

This delicious juice recipe will not only boost up your energy and lower the inflammation in your body, it will also make your taste buds dance!

Eye Spy
3 carrots – stay away from baby carrots
1 orange
thumbnail size piece of ginger
1 teaspoon of turmeric

Take the teaspoon of turmeric and make a paste by adding purified water into a glass – about 2 tablespoons of water. Use this glass to catch the carrot juice later.  Wash the rest of the ingredients.  Take carrots, orange and ginger and peel all. Pass the ingredients through the juicer into the glass with the turmeric paste for easy blending. Be sure to use full grown carrots as the baby carrot you see in stores are shaved from less than perfect stock and treated with chlorine to make them last longer on the shelves.

Be sure to take this juice challenge and leave your comments below.

To your health!

Cheers,
Ruthenium

 

 

Lift Up!

As we head straight into autumn sunless days, it’s vital that we keep ourselves, healthy, happy and energized. This citrus boost will have you perked up in no time!

Lift up!
1 grapefruit
3 oranges
¼ lemon
½ lime
handful of hydrated gogi berries
dash of cayenne pepper

Take your gogi berries and soak them for an hour in purified water. Peel your citrus fruits leaving as much of the white spongy mesocarp as possible.  This stuff is jacked with Vitamin C, as much as the fruit itself that can help you fend off colds and regenerate your cells.

Turn on your juicer and pass the fruit and berries through. Pour juice into glass and enjoy! For an added boost of energy, take the skin of the citrus fruits and spray the oils onto the full glass.  You’ll notice the combination of aromas will lift up not only your energy level but also your mood!

Benefits of citrus fruits:

• Fight weight gain
• Lower your risk of stoke
• Help prevent cancer
• Help eye sight
• Reduces stress
• Help fight colds

To your health!

Cheers,
Ruthenium

Fever & Passion

My family is a big fan of tropical fruits.  My parents, having lived in a tropical African country for almost two decades grew up on the most delicious exotic fruits and developed a pallet for sunny flavors so naturally as we were growing up, my parents treated us with exotic fruits when we were good instead of other sweeter tasting treats, which we wanted by the way! They treated us with all sorts of amazing fruits like guava, mango, avocado which in Portugal was hard to get when I was growing up. I didn’t taste passion fruit until I moved to Canada where accessibility to tropical fruits was easier.  I remember when I tasted passion fruit for the first time I felt like there were fireworks in my mouth! The notes were so intense, sweet and acidic and liquid and crunchy all at the same time.

I began juicing and blending about 2 years ago, and realized that is was a great creative outlet! I have a secret, sssshhhh, I’m addicted to it! I’m the happiest when I can have 3-4 juices/ smoothies a day.

I like this smoothie because it always makes me feel like I’m someplace tropical and for a few minutes I can escape to my imaginary beach, under my imaginary palm tree in my imaginary hot bikini. This smoothie doesn’t take long to prepare and it’ll bring your taste buds fireworks of passion and fever.

Fever & Passion 
1 passion fruit
½ orange
½ mango
2 Cubes of aloe vera or about 1 inch
1 cup of purified water
Dash of cayenne pepper

             

Take the passion fruit and cut in half.  Spoon out the contents into your blender. Then peel the orange skin, leaving as much of the white spongy pericarp as possible as this contains a high concentration of flavonoids that aid in fending off colds and building your immune system.

Next cut the mango in half into two cheeks.  Cup the one mango cheek in your hand and with your knife slice down the flesh, making three or four lines, making sure not to go through the skin and making sure not to cut your hand. Turn the mango slightly and make three or four more cross lines, achieving a grid.  Now use both hands to flip the mango inside and use your fingers to remove the mango cubs off the skin and into the blender.   Add a cup of purified water and blend for 1 minute depending on the kind of blender you have.

Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Mango cutting technique:

Secrets of the wise and experienced on Aloe Vera: