Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup, Juicing cleanse

Are you feeling a bit chilly because you are doing a juicing detox for the summer? Try making this as a preparatory meal as I did before you start juicing or following your juicing. I was following the same format as last year 3 days of eating whole foods (trying to avoid dairy, meats, refined sugars, processed items), then going into juicing 3 days and coming off for 2 days with citrus juice and veggie soup (salad ok at the end of the second "off" day...sooner might cause discomfort in your intestines/stomach)

I was first introduced to split peas while traveling from Indiana to California at Split Pea Andersons as a kid. My mom says when they went this earlier this year, the restaurant does carry vegetarian (ham served separately on the side).

A split pea is nutritionally rich and you just spend 5 minutes throwing the ingredients in, then leave it sitting all day? Three cheers for split pea soup that I found on Chow.com!  Self Nutrition data website says 1 cup of cooked peas gives about 16 g of protein (that's half a scoop of my rice protein Sun Warrior and tastes much better!) and 14% of the daily iron needed.

A random factoid courtesy of Professor K for a class I took last semester, you can try this iron related experiment. Find a significant other or someone your are tight with of the opposite sex. Wash your hands, and pull your lower eye lid down. See the reddish color of the membrane underneath your eyeball? Remember it. Go to your partner/friend and check out the color of theirs.

This is a recipe that your mouth appreciates but your eyes may avert (think swampy lagoon). No pic today then.

Chow's Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup (or other 'mushy' legume)

Modifications: no meat, halved recipe-4 servings

Seasonings:Used 1/2 tsp garlic powder or 2 fresh garlic cloves, 2-3 shakes smoked paprika, 1 tbsp sundried tomato flakes
2 oz mung beans + 6 oz split peas (or other beans that get mushy when cooked, last time tried 2 oz split peas and 6 oz of red lentils)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp celery salt
1 bay leaf
2 cups broth
1 cup water

Favorite 2014 Juicing Recipes

My thoughtful girl friend (pictured above) had sent me an extensive list of juicing recipes when she and her husband were on a health kick a couple years ago. I've tried two of them this time around and have to say my favorite is the "Liver Cleanse". Sorry I did not take pictures, they weren't super beautiful-the beet color dominated this one.

2 Apple

� Grapefruit (W/O peel)

1 Small Bunch Grapes

� Lemon (W/O peel)

� Beet

For a savory juice, the 6 tomatoes (I did 4 large round tomatoes) + 1/2 peeled lemon + 1 cup beet greens is a welcome break from sweet liquids. It made about 12 oz of juice. Drinking it the second day isn't as tasty-tomato starts to taste odd to me. Tried adding the spice that the unknown author suggests, with cumin or another no salt seasoning blend (Healthy Heart from Seattle's public market), gives some nice variety but wasn't a award winner. Fresh cilantro might be best to try next time like a salsa smoothie! It came out an ugly mud color since mixing red and green.

Tips if you're doing a multi-day juicing cleanse:
1. If you can start on a day where you don't need to work, it is somewhat easier.
2.  Dial it down-don't have to avoid working out, but listen to your body. I like to pick one activity per day (yoga, hiking, running or light to medium weights) during the detox. 
3. Reiterated from last time, if you have health concerns, recommend talking with a professional before doing a juicing cleanse. 
4. There's probably never a "good" time to do it, always people want to go out to eat, celebrations. Just see what you could afford to miss, unless you feel steely enough to be around people eating.
5. If you can wash and cut up some of your produce the night before you want to juice, it can save time (making the beets drink it still took me a good 10-15 minutes to complete the recipe-need to wash out the juicer before the pulp sticks)
 6. Separate the fruit dominated sweet juicing pulp from the savory in ziplock bags in the freezer or in silicon muffin tins for portions. You can save the pulp to use in soups, meatloafs, baked goods. Do a search online.

Last year's juicing recipes and coming off: 
Juicing Days 4-6 Sample Meals
Days 7-8: Meal Planning, candied orange (non detox) and no bake protein powder truffles


Report: For whatever reason, my body was not up for doing the full three days of juicing. I cut it to 2 days and a breakfast juice on the 3rd. I was tired and not even feeling like doing scrapbooking or reading a book for fun. This was abnormal. I could have just spent the day sleeping and juicing, but really wanted to get some crafting or reading done so...made the switch over to light, clean meals. Key take away-don't be too hard on yourself, listen to your body as far as when to push a little past comfort and when to ease off...well, I get that reminder every time I do yoga-and I got to apply it in another part of life.