Smoothie-licious

I really like fruit, but for some reason just can't seem to eat it before it goes bad when its in my fridge.  In college I made smoothies in the morning, but had sort of written that breakfast choice off.  It just so happened that I was thinking about those smoothie-making days when I lived just outside the city and commuted to nursing school every day.  I would make a smoothie and take it with me as I ran out the door. In some ways, I find my mornings similar.  This semester I am working 2 12-hour shifts, doing 2 8-hour days of clinical, attending class on Thursdays from 0800-1400, and using the two days left over to do laundry, zumba, and study. 

Thankfully, I discovered Trader Joe's hemp protein.  I've enjoyed it quite a bit in my quick-and-yummy breakfast smoothies.  To use a phrase of my mother's, rice protein just "doesn't with me." Whey protein is dairy-based, which I generally try to stay away from.  Since I cannot eat soy, I don't have too many protein powder options left over.  I have been living my college days in the morning, whirring through the house at early hours, hungry. I make smoothies on most week day mornings, and find that adding the hemp protein to my smoothies is filling and has staying power. 

Often, I just put random combinations of the fruit in my fridge together in the blender with a bit of almond milk and hemp protein and call it breakfast.  Over the holiday, my sister-in-law talked about doing this Dr. Oz 3-day cleanse thing with her friends. (Why my sister-in-law, who grows much of her own produce and has a 6-pack of abs is doing a 3-day cleanse is a topic for another post.) Though I eat very clean, I thought I might just try it out the on the 30th for just one day.  Why just one day, you ask.  To be honest, I wasn't sure I would be successful if I was starving at work- hangry nurses are not nice nurses. My one-day cleanse went well, and I was never hungry. Dr. Oz put out some good ideas.  I have been making the smoothies from the cleanse for breakfast, but cutting the recipes in half and adding a touch of hemp protein.

You should check it out:
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-ozs-3-day-detox-cleanse-one-sheet

Dal

Despite the never-ending supply of soda, my mother ensured we ate a healthy diet. "Sugar cereals," like Trix, Fruity Pebbles, Smacks, were forbidden. You would never find a loaf of white bread in our house. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, in cookies, and added to turkey burgers. My mother made omelets with wheat germ, taboleh, cous cous, and lentils. My father made an amazing pea soup and killer pumpkin pie. One of my favorite memories of having my sister and mother together when I was young involved the two of them tinkering around in the kitchen and making banana and zucchini bread.

I enjoyed little rebellions when I was away from our home.  At Ryan and J.J.'s house nextdoor I enjoyed peanut butter and Fluff sandwiches. Two doors up, Sarah and Shauna's mom made Kool-Aid. Lindsay and I ordered pizza to my house one day in the eighth grade- something I had never, ever done. We gorged on it and then laughed at each other's root beer-induced burps. In high school I would make sandwiches for lunch off of the salad and sandwich bar in the cafeteria with white bread, drank a Coke almost every morning of my Senior year, and enjoyed doughnuts almost every Friday. My freshman year of college, my roommate and I enjoyed late-night trips to the campus convenience store to pick up boxes of Count Chocula and beef jerkey. One thing remained the same: I still loved my mother's middle-Eastern inspired foods.

When my sister moved to the DR (the first time), she had a part-time maid who cooked for her once or twice a week.  Despite having no idea what they were, she made amazing lentils. Each time I tried to make them, the lentils still had hard centers.  My friend Deb makes an amazing lentil soup with smoked turkey in it. My attempt had not-so-good, hard results.  This summer my sister left bags of different types of lentils and ingredients for dal for me to experiment with.  I failed one bean-making attempt since them.  (The dal was just flavorless and slightly hard.)  I decided to try again, using my slowcooker.  I found a recipe that matched one of the bag of dal I had opened, and went to town.  They actually turned out! Here is what I did:

1. I stuck the beans in a pot of water and brought them to a boil. After skimming them, I let them sit there over night.
2. I put the dal and ingredients in the slowcooker according to this recipe.
3. After cooking the dal on high for four hours, the dal still had a lot of liquid in it. So, I turned it down to warm and left it over night.