Fresh Apple Beet Juice

Our town's juice bar just closed. One of our favorite things to do on Saturdays was to go to the local market for a few items, & get a fresh juice at the same time. We made one final stop a few weeks ago on their last day open, & have been thinking about it since.

When I found myself with some extra produce, I decided it was time to try our juicer again. My mom gave us her old one & we had used it once, then put it away. I brought it up from the basement to try again.

It's fun to put in the chunks of fruit/veggies & watch the juice & pulp come out in 2 different spots. Juicers are pretty amazing!

Fresh juice is a great way to pack in vitamins & minerals from fresh produce without all of the bulk. Your body is easily able to assimilate the nutrients in juice form. While you wouldn't usually sit down & eat several fruits & veggies in one sitting, it's easy to drink them all.

It is a good idea to use organic produce when juicing. Since you are ingesting so many items at once, the pesticide content is more concentrated. If it's not possible to get all organic, at least try to buy organic for the Dirty Dozen. (For this recipe, the apples are highest in pesticides.)

My favorite part about fresh juice? The foam on top.

Just look at it! All frothy & delicious.

This particular juice is fairly sweet, perfect for beginning juicers. Although I think some cabbage or romaine lettuce would be great additions, we didn't have either to add. The lemon adds a nice tartness & the apples add enough sweet to counter the earthiness of the beets. The combination also produces such a pretty color of pink!

Fresh Apple Beet Juice

3 small beets
3 medium carrots
1 large apple
1 lemon

Trim stems from beets & carrots. Peeling is not necessary. Chop each into chunks small enough to fit into your juicer. Remove stem & seeds from the apple; chop into quarters. Peel the lemon & divide into quarters.

Feed chunks into the juicer, following juicer instructions. Drink immediately. Reserve pulp for future use or compost it.

If you do not have a juicer, you can still make fresh juice! Just use your blender to combine all of the ingredients & then strain through a cheesecloth, squeezing to release all of the juices. You could also make a smoothie, if you don't want to bother with straining.

Peach, Walnut & Roasted Beet Salad

I'm going to be the master of the obvious here & tell you that it's been hot lately. Super hot. That means I'm less motivated to make heavy dinners & really into anything I don't have to actually cook.

Of course, I have turned the oven on a few times. I had to roast the beets for this salad, for example. But I made it worthwhile by making Hot Chocolate Cookies at the same time! It was a win-win situation. Then I stored the beets in the fridge so they were ready for me to put on salads throughout the week.

I was super excited to pull my beets. We thinned them a few weeks ago & I got just enough to have for one meal. Last weekend we pulled the rest (I was sweating like crazy out there!). There were 4 that had some surface damage, so I cleaned those right away & roasted the good parts.

I wasn't sure whether we'd just toss them on salads or if I'd do something special with them, but I came across a recipe on the Whole Foods site that was just begging to have them on it. We ate outside for the first time in weeks, happy to enjoy the fresh air & the crisp flavors.

I hope you're staying cool. We usually go for a nice bike ride on Saturday mornings, but this week we cut it short to 4 miles. It was too hot! We stopped at the producers-only farm market on the way home & got lettuce, peaches, corn on the cob, & zucchini. I can't wait to see what they have to offer next weekend!

Peach, Walnut & Roasted Beet Salad

Inspired & Adapted from Whole Foods

Serves 2 as the main course or 4 as side salads

Dressing:

1/4 c walnuts, toasted
1 large peach, chopped
2 T lime juice (or more to taste)

Salad:
1/2 head green leaf lettuce, washed & torn into pieces

1/2 head red leaf lettuce, washed & torn into pieces

1 peach, sliced
2 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced

2 beets, roasted - follow these instructions, just use only red beets - can be done ahead of time

Blend dressing ingredients in a food processor or high-powered blender until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Divide lettuces evenly between bowls/plates. Top with remaining ingredients, divided evenly. Drizzle with dressing & serve immediately. Alternatively, serve with dressing on the side & allow each person to add their own, to taste. (We didn't use all of the dressing for our 2 salads. There was enough left for at least 1 more salad.)

Notes:

- Beets can be roasted a day or two before making the salad. Store in the refrigerator.

- Dressing will keep for about 4 days. You can make it ahead of time & store in the refrigerator. This is good to do if you like your dressing cold because if you make it fresh it will be warm or room temperature.

1/4 c walnuts, toasted

Cranberry, Beet & Pear Salad

I'm in a festive mood! I'm so ready for the upcoming holidays & everything they include. I love all of the family & friend time, yummy foods, decorating, gift wrapping/giving, & general excitement!

As we go into the holidays, I'm trying to keep our dinners healthy, light, & full of nutrients. With the weather getting cooler, it's so tempting to cozy up by the fireplace in the evenings & become a lot less active. The chilly weather also makes people much more susceptible to diseases, so I want to make sure we're fueling our bodies with lots of healthy foods.

Our oven has been on almost every night. Something about this dreary weather makes me crave warm foods. I may or may not also want to use the oven because it warms up the kitchen. I always leave the door open after I turn it off to let all the heat into the room. :-)

You're looking at our entire beet crop. I planted 2 rows! :-( They just didn't get big. It took me forever to clean these because they were all about the size of a vitamin. There were only about 4 or 5 that made it to ping pong ball size. Still, they tasted the same! I'm thankful to have gotten any at all.

I love the way beets color everything around them. Cranberries do the same thing, so this made a really pretty medley. The onion wedges turned a pinkish purple after they were done baking. 

Maybe this looks more like Christmas than Thanksgiving...

The cranberries add a lightly tart flavor to the salad. Combined with the crunch of the hazelnuts & the sweetness of the beets & pears, this salad was warming & fresh at the same time.

Cranberry, Beet & Pear Salad

Yield: 2 main dish salads or 4 side salads

4 large beets

1 medium white onion

1/2 c fresh cranberries

1 T balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp. black pepper

4-5 c lettuce mixture (romaine, red leaf, spinach, radicchio, etc.)

2 pears

1/3 c roasted hazelnuts

1/3 c Cranberry Dressing (see below)

Preheat oven to 400*F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray. Cut beets and onion into uniform wedges. In a medium bowl, combine beet wedges, balsamic vinegar, and pepper. Arrange on baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once. Add onion wedges and cranberries, mixing with beets. Bake another 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking.

In the meantime, divide lettuce between two (or four) bowls. Thinly slice pears and arrange on top. Once beet mixture is done roasting, divide between salads as desired. There may be some extra - this will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days and can be reheated. Top salads with hazelnuts and Cranberry Dressing.

Note: If you don't feel like making the Cranberry Dressing, you can still make this salad! There are cranberry dressings available in some stores, or you could substitute either Raspberry Vinaigrette or Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Cranberry Dressing

Inspired by How Sweet Eats & Oh She Glows

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

1 c fresh cranberries

1/2 of a pear, roughly chopped

1/2 of an apple, roughly chopped

1/4 red onion, roughly chopped

1/2 jalapeno, chopped & seeded

1/4 c apple cider vinegar

2 T lime juice

3 T orange juice

2 T honey

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 T dried cilantro (or 1/4 c fresh cilantro)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Combine everything in a food processor or high speed blender and blend until smooth. Taste & add more honey or salt if desired. Store remaining dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Garden in the Fall

We're still gardening!

My beets (above), turnips & radishes are almost ready to harvest. We tried a few radishes over the weekend & they were ready. I just want to savor looking out the window at the greenery for a little longer.

Speaking of beets, we bought our first fresh juice at the Palmyra Real Food Emporium. It was made with raw beets, apples & carrots. We loved it! It was a pretty purple, lightly sweet & had just the right combination of flavors. I think I'm going to try to recreate it at home once I harvest our beets.

The purple peppers are doing well. The Bup had to prop up one of the plants with a stick because the peppers are so heavy!

We would like to save the seeds from one or two of the peppers because they're really nice. They're super crunchy & thick walled, which is great for eating & storing in the fridge.

Mom said that to save the seeds, we should let one of them turn red before we pick it so that they are fully mature. Once we pick the pepper, we'll lay out the seeds on paper & let them dry. Then we can put them in an envelope & try planting them next year. I'm excited to try this!

Can you guess what this is?

Mini eggplants!

I thought the plants were going to die because they got severly eaten by bugs during July & August. They must like the cooler weather, though, because now they're thriving. I can't wait to taste one once they ripen.

The kale just won't stop growing. It's a mini forest in our garden! I love the homegrown variety versus the store bought because it's a lot heartier and sturdy, making it perfect for kale chips. We started using Old Bay on the kale instead of sea salt - try it! It adds a little kick.

My lettuce is loving the fall weather, too. I planted 1.5 rows each of mixed greens & spinach. Both are thriving, and the Bup is going to put out our lettuce greenhouse soon so that it survives the first frost.

A sneaky tomato plant somehow made it's way into the lettuce patch. They're poking up everywhere! Meanwhile, all the mature tomato plants are dying.

And then there's the swiss chard. This stuff is out of control! I haven't picked any lately because it looks so pretty popping up among all the strawberry plants.

The first frost will be coming soon, so I better get picking!

Roasted Beets

Two weeks ago at the farmer's market, I bought a bunch of golden beets and a bunch of red beets. Mostly, I just wanted the greens for Wall of Green Soup and the red beets for Red Velvet Cupcakes (for this man in my life), but I knew the rest wouldn't go to waste.

Very dirty

Yes, I was one of those weirdo kids that liked things like pickled beets and prunes dried plums. You guessed that a long time ago, I'm sure.

Freshly scrubbed - but why are the golden ones greenish? Boo!

Golden beets aren't really on my radar. If I can have purple-ish food, why would I want anything else? I'm not even sure why I bought these except they were big and had nice greens for the soup.

The mixture looked pretty with yellow and red onion chunks. I love the lines that show up when you cut beets. They're like zebra stripes.

With a little Mmmm Sauce, tomato + couscous, and kale chips, they were perfect.

Roasted Beets

Serves 2 as main dish or 4 as sides

3 golden beets

5 red beets

1 large yellow onion, wedged

1 large red onion, wedged

olive oil spray

1 tsp. fine sea salt

Preheat oven to 400*F. Spray 1 or 2 baking pans with olive oil spray. Gently scrub beets to remove all dirt. Cut off the greens and set aside to use another time (unless you already used them!). Trim off ends and any spots. If preferred, peel, but you do not need to as long as you scrubbed them well and cut out any blemishes. Cut beets into wedges of similar thickness (they do not need to be the same length). Arrange along with the onions in one even layer on baking pans and spray again. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Depending on the thickness of your wedges, they may need to roast longer. If so, keep an eye on the onions, as they may roast slightly faster than beets. Serve immediately.

Roasted Beets