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{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. – Soulemama

Link to YOUR moment in the comments.

Last night I was looking to use up some delicious mushrooms I got in my weekly produce box. So I chose to make some brown rice and have rice and sauteed mushrooms for dinner. Quick, easy, tasty.

But since I don’t make rice all that often I was wondering how I might use the leftover rice (about a cup). I asked the Natural Family Living Facebook fans and the responses were great! Here are some ideas for using up that leftover brown rice…

* Mix in with soup for lunch or dinner the next day
* Rice balls
* Puree with fruit for baby food
* Fried rice w/veggies
* Egg fried rice
* Stir Fry
* Arancini balls
* Rice/veggie loaf
* Bread
* Rice pudding
* Quiche crust
* Rice cereal w/maple syrup, milk, nuts, and fruit
* Salad
* Burrito wraps
* Beans and rice
* Nachos topping

I opted to use it up today in a veggie stir fry for lunch since I also wanted to use up some Baby Bok Choy from the aforementioned produce box. Yum!

What’s your favorite day old rice dish?

Ingredients:

1 T Olive Oil
3 T Chopped Yellow Onion
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
3/4 C Chopped Leek
1 C Diced Potato
10 Ounces Frozen Corn
1 T Seafood Seasoning
2 T fresh Parsley, minced
1 1/2 C water (can use veggie or chicken broth if you prefer)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (can use cream to make it more savory)
2 T Parsley, minced

Directions:

Saute onion, garlic, and leeks in olive oil until tender. Add water, potatoes, corn, seafood seasoning, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. When done remove half of the mixture and blend until creamy and add back to the pot. Stir in a 1/2 cup milk and garnish with fresh parsley.

Added to Real Food Wednesday.

I jumped back on the green smoothie band wagon again earlier this  month. Okay well, I never really fell off but I was not making them as much as a used to… probably the cold weather. But my smoothie love has been reborn. I have one each morning and my oldest son usually makes one for himself later in the day as well. My son likes to mix it up and try different ingredients for each one… my basic recipe stays the same usually… 3 cups of spinach, a small handful of frozen strawberries, a ripe banana, a carrot, wheatgrass powder, and water. Sometimes I go crazy and add a few frozen blueberries and end up with a green smoothie that looks less and green and more like mud (see above). It’s all good.

Green smoothies mean more energy throughout the day, smoother/plumper skin, better digestion, and of course fruits and veggies in the diet. I pack a nice portion of each right as the day starts. When I started drinking them daily again 7 pounds melted off in a week and for whatever reason my hikes picked up speed and I started running again. I used to run all the time but haven’t since I was in my late teens, early twenties. Yesterday my husband, youngest son, and I all went for a 2 mile run in the park, alongside a gorgeous frozen creek. We didn’t run all of it… we were with a 5 year old, but it was so nice and refreshing to run again.

Anyway my green smoothies have been such a powerful thing in my life. I credit them with getting me through cancer and I see them as more miraculous with each passing day. I used to have a SERIOUS problem eating my veggies. Green smoothies turned that around and kind of made me crave veggies in general… smoothie or not.

Here is some of my smoothie gear…

A high power blender results in a perfectly smooth drink each and every time. I prefer my Vita-Mix but it has a very nice back-up… the Blendtec… which I use more for raw food recipes… like these raw chocolate cookies.

For every smoothie I also usually use…

Berry flavored Amazing Grass Wheatgrass Powder. LOVE this stuff. I keep it in the fridge and try to make sure I never run out!

Filtered water…

Glass straws and wide mouth jars. I prefer to drink out of wide mouth canning jars… the whole quart sized jar is filled to the brim each morning. I also prefer to drink smoothies out of a straw but don’t want to use plastic… hence the glass straws. I have plain ones as well as ones with decorative colored accents at the end. I also use a glass straw case made of bamboo when I need to take a straw with me someplace… like a restaurant. Its pretty nifty!

By far my favorite book about the miracle that is the green smoothie is Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko. Here is a highlight of my review on it:

They eat hardly any meat but yet would you call chimps or gorillas wimpy??? No, they get ample protein from plants and we can too. We could technically eat 1-2 pounds of plain leafy greens (Kale, Romaine, Spinach, etc) every day but who wants to? I sure don’t…unless I mix them up with some fruit and make a green smoothie. I can easily down a pound of Kale if I put it in smoothies and drink it throughout the day. The problem isn’t that we can’t get the protein from plant sources, the problem is that we aren’t willing or able to eat enough of it most times to GET that protein. Green smoothies though have solved this problem for many people though, including a lot of raw foodies. Consider too that animal proteins are extremely hard for our bodies to digest making it likely that much of the protein will be useless to us and you can see why I think plant based proteins win out every time.

Have you jumped on the green smoothie bandwagon yet?