Papa Sprout's Super Sweet and Simple Juice

Carrots are health food superstars. They are packed with beta-carotene, antioxidants, and potassium, along with many other nutrients, making them a bargain at the grocery store! Carrots improve eyesight, promote healthy skin growth, and protect against cancer. Those are just some of the many jobs this small orange vegetable performs. 

Beets are amazingly healthy too. They improve memory, lower blood pressure, and improve liver function. I still have not brought myself to eat a beet in its purest form and I know I am not alone. By juicing beets you can still retain all of the benefits of the solid vegetable without the tough texture.

Together, beets and carrots create Papa Sprout’s Super Sweet and Simple Juice! The recipe for this juice is simpler than Papa Sprout’s Garden Green Ginger Juice, but still packed with nutrition. The next time you are ready to juice, but short on time, try this simple recipe that will keep you going for the whole day.

Papa Sprout’s Super Sweet and Simple Juice

Ingredients:

3 whole carrots peeled

2 beets peeled

*A Yankee cup was used in this post in honor of opening day. Go Yanks!

The Benefits of Homemade Iced Tea

Recently I wrote about all of the health benefits of tea.

Tea is always delicious, but with this gorgeous weather we have been so lucky to be enjoying, who wants hot tea? Iced tea is delicious and refreshing! The only problem? If you go to Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, or any other beverage store it can cost up to $3 for this treat. If you are ordering iced tea out it also tends to have additives like sugars and syrup.

Since the price is sky-high at these beverage centers you would expect that an iced tea maker is expensive AND time consuming. Nothing could be further from the truth!

I snagged my Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker off of Amazon for $20! In the morning I fill the base with water, add ice and tea to the pitcher and press a button. Within 5 minutes I have delicious and pure iced tea! You can add some sliced lemon to spice it up. 

Because it is so easy to use and iced tea is a great break from the regular hot beverages, I have found myself drinking multiple cups a day. It keeps you hydrated, delivers an antioxidant kick to your system, and tastes great! I do not like to have extra appliances around in the kitchen, but an iced tea maker is an essential tool! You will find yourself saving money and enjoying a healthy beverage everyday.

Tea: Our Old Friend

Tea has been around for over 12,000 years! The earliest record of tea takes us to China. It was not until the 17^th century that tea was even on the radar of our European ancestors. It would be another 200 years until afternoon tea became commonplace in Great Britain.  

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world (water is number 1). So why do most American adults prefer a cup of joe to a cup of antioxidants? Coffee has more caffeine and is more readily available in our culture, but lacks the health benefits of tea.

The antioxidants in tea help prevent against cancer, tumors, and genetic mutations. Wow! But that is not all! Tea has been shown to prevent heart disease (our nation’s number 1 killer), slow the affects of aging, improve and maintain cognitive brain functioning, improve immune system response, normalize blood pressure, promote dental health, and to prevent diabetes. You mean those tiny leaves can do ALL of that? Yes, and they’re still not done! Pick a cup of tea over coffee and you are offering your body more hydration. When we are dehydrated we get easily fatigued and can feel sick.

There is even more good news about tea: it comes in an absurdly large amount of flavors. Last night I was fortunate enough to be gallivanting around the West Village. The BF and I walked past McNulty’s Tea and Coffee Co., Inc., on our way back to the PATH station. We had walked passed it before many times on our way home from The Blind Tiger Ale House, but it was always closed (I guess most people don’t like buying tea at 1AM).  It is a small store filled with jars of every flavor of tea you could think of! And the staff knows their tea! After smelling a few dozen jars we settled on 4 flavors: blueberry, berry crème, apple mint, and blood orange. We’ve both had a lot of fun brewing the different teas and tasting them!

Don’t forget your honey! Honey is a great natural energy booster and can help cure a cough. More importantly it makes your tea taste like a little treat and is better for your health than the cream you add to coffee. 

Quinoa: The Miracle Seed

For a while quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) mystified me. What was this strange ingredient that kept popping up in restaurants and on cooking shows? It’s not a grain, but cooked like one? It’s a seed?! Luckily, one of my friends is a great cook and offered to make a meal using quinoa for me. My life was forever changed and I have been enjoying the health benefits of this super seed ever since. Her recipe follows below.

The Benefits:

-very high in complete protein (this aids in tissue repair and growth)

-high in magnesium (magnesium is a mineral that helps to relax blood vessels)

-no sodium (sodium is NOT your friend)

-faster and easier to make than rice (replace rice with quinoa)

-high in fiber (keeps you full and aids in digestion)

-contains iron and calcium

-complex carbohydrate 

-contains Vitamin B

Inayat's Progressive Indian-style Quinoa

 Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil OR grapeseed oil

1 cup quinoa

¾ cup water

1 head of organic broccoli, chopped

1 head of organic cauliflower, chopped

2 large organic carrots, chopped

4 cloves organic garlic, minced

2 teaspoons mustard seed and to taste

1 teaspoon pepper and to taste

salt (if you must) to taste

Directions:

1. In a saucepan bring the water to a boil. Add quinoa and reduce to a simmer. It will take between 15-30 minutes for the quinoa to be ready. Keep stirring every few minutes. When the water is soaked up by the quinoa it is ready. Add mustard seed and pepper once quinoa is fully cooked. Do not be shy with the spices! They add a delicious and unique flavor.

2. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, heat the oil and add the minced garlic. Cook for 30 seconds.

3. Add mustard seed and pepper and stir. Add the broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots to the pan. Cook until tender.

4. Combine veggies and quinoa. Add more mustard seed and pepper to taste. 

5. Enjoy!

This recipe lends itself to great variation. Add different vegetables and try different spices!

Dogfish Head Tweason'ale

This ale is not organic, but it is gluten-free. Even if you have no allergies to gluten you can still benefit from gluten-free products. Tread lightly and do not go completely gluten-free as you can develop an allergy from eating a completely gluten-free diet.

Too much gluten in your diet can make you feel tired. The majority of beers contain gluten because gluten is found in barley, rye, malts, and wheat. So the next time you want to sit down and have a few beers consider adding a gluten-free ale like Tweason’ale. 

The ale is sorghum-based, which is a genus of grass. It is sweetened with strawberries and buckwheat honey. The ale packs a carbonation punch that makes it extremely refreshing. There is 0g of sugar in the final product; therefore, the end product is not too sweet. Alcohol is metabolized as sugar once it enters your body so it is better to ingest a product that has no added sugar. Consuming sugary alcoholic beverages makes you tired the next morning.

This ale is a great choice and a great value! In Hoboken, it cost $10 for a 4 pack. Keep in mind this ale was brewed with fresh strawberries and is higher in alcohol than a normal beer. Tweason’ale has an ABV of 6%.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 170

NO Fat

Sodium: 3%

Carbohydrate: 4%

Sugars: 0g

Protein: 1g


Please enjoy responsibly! 

Papa Sprout's Garden Green Ginger Juice

I have recently become interested in juicing. I have heard a lot of positive and negative things about juicing fruits and vegetables. We will delve more into that debate at a later date. Fruits and vegetables carry so many vital nutrients that drinking one juice is great for your health. You would become too full before you could finish eating all the fruits and vegetables in just one juice. Juicing helps you to get a wide range of nutrients in one compact glass.

My BF’s father who I refer to as Papa Sprout (he works in the produce business) began drinking two juices daily this year. He shared with me his Garden Green Ginger Juice recipe. Papa Sprout now has increased energy and looks great!

Papa Sprout’s Garden Green Ginger Juice*
Ingredients: 

1 organic granny smith apple

½ a bunch of organic kale

½ bunch of organic spinach

1 bunch organic celery

1 organic lemon OR 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated organic ginger

pinch of organic basil

pinch of organic parsley

*due to the way produce is sold all measures are approximate

Directions:

1.    Beginning with the kale, add all ingredients except the ginger and lemon into the juicer.

2.  Once everything has been juiced squeeze lemon juice into glass.

3.  Grate ginger over top of juice.

4.  Stir and drink up!

I am still not crazy about the taste of juiced vegetable drinks, but the herbs and ginger in this recipe boost the flavor and kill the bitter kale taste.