Inspired Week of Cooking - Day 6 - Power Juicing with Vegetables and Fruits

I goofed, I said I gave you the recipe for the juice. Well, I made a mistake, when I scrolled down my blog, it was not there. It was in facebook that I shared the recipe with Soji. Okay, so forgive me, my readers, here is the recipe of juice.

It is pictured here on the left side of the chilaquiles, with our favorite read: Sunday's New York Times.

Something about this juice, this connects me with my hubby of 30 some years, actually 32 of being together. He helped me in regaining my health and wellness, after a bout of asthma, allergies and influenza all at the same time, and finding a wonderful doctor in the Philippines, who did his research and prescribed the medications that are efficacious. Wow, I can now breathe and have more energies.

Okay, I admit I got distracted. I was talking about juicing. This is why my hubby at times gets annoyed listening to me, although he keeps it under wraps in deference to not annoying me in turn. He developed this formula, mimicking the organic way we were eating: mostly fresh fish and fresh vegetables and fruits when we vacationed in the Philippines. I know, I know I said, the juice. So, here is the story behind the juice and FDA folks, I am not doing a commercial sale here, I am just sharing, so I am not violating any rules of fairness in trading and fair business practices, as I am not selling juice.

Buy your produce of course at a reputable store, we buy ours at a Jewish store near our house.

Use the masticating type of Juicer which masticates the vegetables and fruits, rather than the centrifugal juicer, which ends up defeating the veggie fibers and you end up struggling with extracting their juices.

Tips in using oranges, lemons: remove the peel and donot use the white pith - trust me, they are bitter. It would be like adding dandelion leaves, yuk, that is what I had today in my juice and my husband lovingly justified it was good for me, and in deference to my palate, he only added two leaves, but yuk, it tasted like 20 leaves.

Fresh, Natural, Uncooked, P-8, P10 or P-11 juice ( the name depends on how many fruits and vegetables you want to combine )

1 apple - cut up in 8 pieces to fit into the funnel of the machine

1 lemon or 1 orange - peel removed, as well as the white pith

1 cucumber

1 zucchini

1 bunch of parsley - my Jewish American Doctor, who will remain unnamed shared that parsley acts as an antibiotic, removes the bacteria in your system. So when our stomachs are grumbly, we make it two bunches of parsley to normalize us once more.

1 bell pepper - cut into 8 pieces to fit the funnel

1 carrot - my cousin noticed the "orange color" in my hubby's hands, so she suggested we lessen our carrots or make it one carrot every other day. So there, the disclaimer has been shared. Too much of a good thing becomes a poison.

1 cup of spinach leaves - more than a cup makes it yukky...trust me, I am the guinea pig on this one, and my husband makes juice almost daily and I have tasted at least 100 yukky juice days. I love it when he gets it so right and I savor each drop of juice as I drink it.

1 stalk of celery - do not add more than 1 stalk, as celery has salt and if you are prone to salt levels in your body system, you can feel a change in your body condition. It happened to me, I am one of those folks...so, instead of energizing me, it wilted me.

1 bunch of grapes - my favorite, when he adds this -- oh boy, the juice is great!

1 slice or two of jicama - this gives the juice some body.

Secret weapon: The juice of four kalamansi fruits ( small green or yellow citrus fruit, sometimes called citronella by French folks ) -- this is really the kicker as the juice gets tasty because of this.

Okay, the recipe is not complete if I do not share that greens have to be juiced first. My hubby shared that the other day, as the green extracts of parsley, spinach have to be washed down by the later addition of the hardy ones, like carrots, jicama, apple, oranges and grapes. Depending on how you juice it, and the moisture in the fruits and vegetables, we normally get a yield of three 10 oz. glasses. So, we can have a full glass all to ourselves.

The best part of juicing is I have become less susceptible to colds. The bad part of overjuicing and using the wrong ingredients, like raw beets, is you develop allergies. All of a sudden, you are needing anti-histamines. 


So there, I have fully declared our energizing mornings of juicing and we pair that with my experimentation on banana breads and egg-centric hollowed-out olive breads.

Come to think of it, when we are "eccentric" and focused on just ourselves, like " ego-centric ", we actually become more hollowed - out, feeling used-up, vacant and irrelevant. 


That is my belief, so I stay engaged with the community. That is my zany reflection for the day! Ala Julie on Julie and Julia, did you see that movie? I even bought the book, My life in France by Julia Child, oh I just love her zest for life!! And I love Meryl Streep for portraying her brilliant vibrance!

Happy juicing everyone and the net effect of juicing for a year for me: no fevers, no prolonged colds, no prolonged bouts with influenza and of course, I believe God's blessings are with us, because we treat Mother Nature with care and respect. By the way, we compost the extracted fibers and seeds, so the soil becomes fertile for the Holland bulbs I just planted. And it keeps my marriage on solid footing, instead of diseased foundations because of wrong breakfast foods like sugar and caffeine!

Happy juicing everyone! The formula was developed by Enrique Delacruz. I just documented his practices and he has the last word on this, as he developed the formula, so ask him directly. You can leave me comments on your own experiences.

Juicing is like cooking, it is personal and it is what works for you, so find the right formula that works for your family, this formula works for ours!  I wrote this in 2009, it is now 2011 and we are still juicing.

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Inspired Week of Cooking - Day 3 - Beef Steak Filipino Style using Filet of Tenderloins

It was a surprise visit from my Tita Lydia, who arrived from the Philippines to bond with her grandchild that inspired me this day. She and I have not seen each other for years. So, a visit from her with my cousin, Olet and his son, Jio was most welcome. Why? She is a mighty good cook. And my favorite was her pancit. Before getting a haircut, free that is, she would feed us her newly cooked pancit. We were spoiled by her generosity. And the best part of getting a haircut from her, she also shared her wisdom generously, so instead of staying angry or having teenage issues, she taught us the duet of generosity and understanding.

It was ten am, and they just came from church. And we are now in Los Angeles, no longer in Manila where she fed us then her pancit. They have not yet eaten breakfast. So, I hurriedly thawed out some filet of tenderloins. It took ten minutes, soaked in water. So let me walk you through this recipe. And the best part is they stayed till dinner so we had a complete day of bonding that can last us for awhile until the next reunion.

Filet of tenderloins, Filipino Beefsteak Style

3 filets of tenderloins, seasoned with adobo seasoning, and calamansi juice ( this is Philippine lemon, which I picked from the tree growing in our backyard. )

1 onion, diced

1 garlic head, minced ( Filipinos eat a lot of garlic which is a good anti-oxidant. It just so happens that our recipes call for a lot of garlic )

Juice of six to eight kalamansi fruits

lemon zest ( zest entire lemon, that is the yellow peel of the lemon, not the bitter white pith )

Olive oil

Marinate the filets with diced onions, minced garlic, kalamansi juice and two tablespoons of low salt soy sauce for a few minutes, I did mine for fifteen minutes as folks were hungry, so I had to do this dish in less than thirty minutes, just like Rachel Ray.

Heat up the cast iron pan, with no oil yet. Turn on the stove at 375 F.

Heat the pan well on the stove, as it is important for searing the meat. After the pan is sufficiently heated, add olive oil. Add diced onions. Caramelize the onions, as if partially charred, the sweet flavor comes out. Add the minced garlic that was used for marinating. Then, sear both sides of filets, at least 3 minutes each side. Add the sauce used for marinating the filets. Add some lemon juice if needed, and season it to a balance of sweet, salty and pleasing to taste. Add a bit of water to make sure enough sauce is left for the second part of cooking, which is baking.

Put the cast iron pan inside the oven, to finish cooking the steaks. Keep an eye on the steaks, it just needs another five to seven more minutes to fully cook. Do not overcook especially for those folks who like their steaks medium rare. That is why it is important to touch the middle part of the steaks, if tender to touch, it is done! Remove from the pan, and serve with charred onions. There should still be enough sauce left to flavor the filets. Steaks should be tender to touch in the middle, and the sides are browned well. Serve with roasted potatoes and steamed rice.

Side dish of Roasted Potatoes

Quartered Potatoes

Minced Garlic

Olive Oil

Rosemary herbs, remove from stems and chopped...

Heat up cast iron pan, add olive oil and garlic. Once the whiff of garlic smell, add the quartered potatoes. Sear the potatoes. Add chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. Bake at 375 F until done, about 25 minutes or more. Potatoes are cooked if you can pierce with a fork and it feels tender.

Much of my cooking is done by sensual observations, rarely by time, as potatoes and other ingredients are biological in nature, they have varying levels of moisture and therefore behave differently, but one thing I know for sure, smell of cooked ingredients is different from the smell of raw ingredients. Once your nose gets used to this kind of cooking, you seldom need to taste the sauce before serving. Your nose can be trained to have a whiff of a good balance of sour, sweet worthy of a balanced, platinum palate.

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