No more Rice and Beans

I have definitively determined that the rice and bean diet makes me fat. I couldn't fit into my favorite shorts last friday. With that in mind, I went ahead and went back to my all-natural foods diet. This morning I was able to just squeeze into the shorts again! YeY! I'll stick with the meats and vegetables for now. I decided the money saved on the rice and bean diet is not worth a 4 day sweet room on the cruise this December if it makes me too fat to wear my clothes. So I guess I'll just have to tough it out in my stateroom with no balconey. (note the sarc)

I have discovered a new fun and easy way to eat all the raw vegetables that are so good for you. I wanted to get back into juicing but it's hard to keep up with cleaning the bulky equipment. I read in one of my pro-juice diet books a recommendation to put the pulp back in the juice to increase your healthy-fiber intake. That gave me an idea. I decided to try using my mini blender to make a vegetable smoothie. It sounds kinda gross but I'm so glad I tried it because it's great! Think gaspacho and it doesn't seem so weird. After having one everyday for 3 days I actually crave them now. Here's what I have developed as a recipe that I find quite refreshing and energizing:

1/2 cucumber (skin peeled off)
1/2 to 1 inch of ginger (skin peeled off)
1 stick of celery
1/2 lime (skin peeled off)
1/2 red bell pepper

Chop all ingredients into workable pieces. Stuff into blender and puree the hell out of it. Add cold water to dilute and drink immediately. With my recipe experiments I found that tomato makes it rather unpleasant but then again, I've never been a fan of tomato juice or soup. The Ginger really gives it a kick and settles my stomach really well. I'm going to the store today to get more vegetables and I think I'll try a wider variety. My juicer recipes have things like dark lettuces and fennel, I wanted to try those in smoothies since I get so tired of salads.