My first Green Monster!

Vegan

Inspired by the Green Monster Movement, among other green smoothie challenges out there - curious if a steady daily diet of these will really make me feel fab inside and out?

I don't do much raw or cold, due to lax digestive ability (hopefully aided by these creations!), so...
- cooked celery, some kind of Chinese green leafy veg, Asian pear
- flax seeds, warmed oat milk, scoop of Amazing Grass Green Superfood

Yum!

Ginger Mint Lemonade

Vegan (if you're ok with honey, or use another sweetener)

This guy's a winner! A very few steps, a bit of infusion time and voila, yummy refreshing hot-weather DIY lemonade.

from the garden: fresh mint

- into a jar: grated ginger and lemon zest, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, fresh mint leaves
- infuse in fridge for several hours, strain into glasses once ready to drink
- add to taste: sweetener, dissolved in hot water
- serve with ice cubes, a slice of lemon and fresh mint

Color and Couscous

Lacto-veg (added a dab of butter to the couscous)

Couscous is the meal-in-a-flash maker: in a bowl, add same amount of boiling water, salt and oil, stir and cover for 5 min, add a dab of butter and fluff with a fork - voila!

- finely chopped carrot in a pot w water to just cover, add pumpkin
- cinnamon, dried currants, couscous first prepped as per above, fresh mint and basil sliced into strips

Served with a creamy chai tea

Zucchini Spaghetti

Lacto-veg (cream cheese)

Inspired by this recipe

Alterations:
- diced green pepper instead of green peas, chopped basil and almonds for pesto
- added sundried tomatoes

Soaking veggies

Don't just rinse your veggies, bathe them!

Got turned onto this excellent way to ensure no dirt or bugs are left on my veg by an old roomie. Especially effective for leafy veg, which have all kinds of ruffles and dips for dirt and critters to cling on to.

 Step 1: For bunch-growing veggies, cut off the connecting bit at the bottom and separate the leaves in water. If you don't want the stems, eg. in spinach, pinch or cut them off first. (Spinach is often the dirtiest thing to come home from the market!)

Step 2: Add some salt to a bowl of water. I just kinda toss in about a teaspoon. Here is a recipe for a vegetable wash that calls for more salt, as well as vinegar, to remove pesticides.

Step 3: Plunge veggies in and stir them around a bit with your hands. Leave for 5-10 minutes.

Step 4: Discard water (your plants will love it!) and fill bowl with fresh plain water. May need to repeat several times until the water bath is clean. I give a final rinse in a colander and get cookin'.

This also works for root veggies like potatoes when they're especially mucky - soaking them first loosens up the dirt and you don't need to scrub as hard. I think it also gets them cleaner.