A juicing experience: Ruby Red Juice

Military Life:  Did you know all military members have to pass a annual/semi annual physical fitness test every year (PT test as we like to call it).  If you dont you could potentially be kicked out of the military for not staying physically fit. The military puts a lot of emphases on being "fit to fight" you wont do yourself or any of your battle buddies any good if you are huffing and puffing in your 50 lbs Kevlar gear in the desert under hostile conditions, trust me that gear is heavy I know.  Now we're all not constantly deployed or in hostile conditions, but you still need to stay fit incase you have to be deployed, not to mention its just healthier and better for you if you are constantly striving to be or stay fit.  Plus talk about a good motivator to get your butt in the gym, (at least for me it is) its either workout and stay in shape or basically get fired!  In the last few years as I start to creep up into my late 20's, dare I say close to 30 :/  I have found it harder and harder to keep those pesky pounds off, I was not fortunate enough to be blessed with the skinny gene, I have always had to make sure that I not only eat healthy but I have to add daily exercise into my routine or poof I swear in 3 months I can put on 10 lbs.  

Because of my constant need and my own personal desire to stay healthy and fit, I have been trying to incorporate more vitamins into my diet.  My kryptonite is a multivitamin, this girl cannot talk adult sized multivitamin without getting sick, seriously it will come right back up (sorry not trying to gross you out), I've tried taking Flintstone vitamins but I'm the worst at remembering to take it and even when I do they still make me somewhat nauseas. Recently I came across an article about juicing and how juicing your veggies and fruits deliver their vitamins and nutrients straight into your blood stream because your stomach doesn't need to break down or digest any of the fibers from the produce.  Well, I received a juicer a couple of months ago for a birthday present from my hubby, and he was smart and didn't buy a super expensive one, he got me something mid price and would get the job done and I could not be happier with my juicer.

 I love taking random fruits and veggies from the fridge and juicing them to see what delicious concoctions I can create, not only do I enjoy taking my vitamins in juice form but its quite filling and I sometimes will drink a big glass of juice as a meal replacement.  You'll also find out quickly which combinations dont work while juicing,  like celery ...Yuck, seriously I'm not kidding freakin gross! I dont know what it is but I thought I would like cerely, I cook with it, I like to eat it raw but I found that I do not like it juiced at all, it literally runis any juice if I add a stalk of celery in it, its just so over powering and bitter? not sure how else to explain it, but celery will probably never end up in a juice of mine ever again, especially not after having to choke down a juice I made recently with celery in it, because I refused to toss it down the drain, especially when most fruits and veggies are pretty pricy here in Japan. Other than hating on celery I really enjoy beets, they have a distinct taste but not in a bad way, and juicing beets produces the most gorgeous ruby color. This particular juice is very beety, if its too overwhelming try adding grapefruit. 

This picture does not represent the amount
I put into the juice, just the produce I used,
 I used almost half of what you
see here for my juice (not shown is lemon)

Ruby Red
Recipe by Oishii Treats

Yields:  8 oz

Ingredients

1/2 (2" in diameter) Beet, peeled and sliced small enough to fit in your juicer
1/2  (5 inch long) Sweet Potato, sliced
1 small carrot or 5-6 baby carrots
1 small apple, sliced and remove seeds
1 inch sized piece of ginger
2 think slices of a lemon, cut off the peel

Directions

-Add all ingredients into your juicer, once juiced, stir all together and enjoy.



This is a rough estimate of the nutrition and vitamins of this particular juice from using Juice Recipes Juice Builder

Calories: 108  Potassium: 497 mg  Vitamin A: 52.5%  Vitamin C: 15.96%  Calcium: 3.55% Iron: 10.56%

Note: If the juice is too beety try adding some grapefruit for a more sweet and sour flavor.

Apple Crisp for 2!

You ever have one of those mornings from the minute you wake up everything you touch self destructs. When I have mornings like that right from the start, my first initial thought is" oh man something bad is going to happen today"  because it always starts with the small things.  Like when I was making my husband breakfast, I went into the fridge to grab some salsa and ended dropping 6 eggs on the floor, cracking all but 1.  Next, not even 10 minutes later after making him breakfast, I take my english muffin out of the toaster and start to butter one side and ended up throwing the other end on the dirty kitchen floor that I haven't started cleaning yet from yesterday.... I think I should just stay indoors today because who the heck knows what could happen to me if I walk out my front door.

If you ask me if I would like a slice of Apple Pie or Apple Crisp, 9 times out of 10 I will always pick Apple Crisp.  For me the crust just gets in the way, I prefer the crumbly oaty topping on a crisp.  Also crisp are super fast and easy to whip together.  Just dice an apple up, add your sugar and make your topping in less then 15 minutes and pop it in the oven while you eat dinner.  After dinner you have a delicious hot apple crisp for dessert.  Don't forget to top with some whip cream or ice cream :)

Apple Crisp for 2
Oishii Treat Original

Ingredients

1-2 Apples cored and diced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
sprinkle of ginger and nutmeg

Crumble Topping

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold butter

Directions

- Preheat your oven for 350 degrees

- In a small bowl add your diced apples, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, mix well
- In a food processor or blender add your ingredients for the topping, make sure to cut the cold butter up, it helps mix better.
- In two ramekins, evenly divide your diced apples up and top with your crisp. Bake for 30 minutes

I Link up to these great parties!

Carmel Apple Pie Cupcakes

For the last month I've been cookin up ideas to make a carmel apple cupcake and when the time came to make a batch, something always came up.  Usually that something was work, cub scouts, homework, or hiking the Hakkoda Mountians.  I finally decided enough was enough, time to get into the kitchen and I will not leave until I have my Carmel Apple Pie Cupcakes.

After making alot of cupcakes I decided it was time to try and attempt my luck at making my own batter.  I wanted to infuse the cupcake with apple flavor without adding chopped apples, because the apples were going to be cooked into something like apple pie filling for the middle of the cupcake.  It took a couple of tries but I finally produced an oishii cupcake with a great apple flavor.  I'll be honest there are a few steps to this cupcake and it takes a little time, but it was well worth it :) You could always skip a step and buy store bought carmel sauce....though trust me you will be very happy that you made your own.


I also want to give a huge thank you and shout out to Vera from Cupcakesgarden.com
Vera and her husband designed an awesome button for me.  When it comes to web design and anything fancy with computer graphics I am totally out of my realm.   Check out her amazing blog, she highlights the most delicious cupcakes from all over the web from other bloggers.  If you love cupcakes as much as I do then you gotta check it out :)

Carmel Apple Pie Cupcakes 
Oishii Treat Original

Yields: 20 Cupcakes
Ingredients

3/4 cup Coconut Oil
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 cup Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/3 teaspoon Bakin Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup Apple Cider or Apple Juice

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cupcake pans with lineras
- In a electric mixer combine the coconut oil, sugar and brown sugar together on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
- In a separate small bowl combine your dry ingredients flour, baking powder, packing soda, salt, and cinnamon
- Alternate your dry ingredients and apple cider to your batter until just combined
- Fill your cupcakes 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes
- Cool your cupcakes on a wire rack, once cool use a potato peeler to crave/ scoop out a hole in the middle of your cupcakes for the carmel apple pie filling

Salted Butter Carmel Sauce
Adapted From Crunchy Creamy Sweet

Ingredients

1 cup Sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup Whipping Cream




Directions

- In a medium Sauce pot on high heat add your sugar and whisk until it starts to melt and turn golden brown (about 5 min)
- Remove the pot from the heat and add a dash of sea salt and butter, becareful there will be steam!
- Whisk the butter until its melted
- Put the pot back on the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream, whisk until its a uniformed color, reduce the heat the medium low and whisk for 1 minute.
- Take off the heat and pour into a heat proof jar, let it stand for 15 min. to help thicken the sauce   Place the carmel in the fridge to thicken.

Carmel Apple Pie Filling

2 cups diced apples
(2 large apples, diced very small)
2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Juice or Apple Juice
1/2 cup Carmel

Directions

- Using the same pot that you made carmel rinse it out place it on the stove on medium high heat.
- Add your juice and diced apples and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently
- After the apples have cooked remove from heat and add your carmel.  place in a heat proof bowl and let the mixture cool in the fridge. Once cool, scoop the apple filling into your cupcake holes.

Carmel Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter (let stand at room temp for 1 hour)
1 8oz container cream cheese (let stand at room temp for 1 hour)
5 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup carmel (do not add hot carmel to the frosting)

Directions

- In a electric mixer combine your butter, cream cheese and mix on medium high for 2 minutes
- Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until fully combine and smooth.
- Add your carmel and mix for 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy

Update: I shared this post on several link up parties, so many great recipes were shared clink on the links below to check them out.
http://tidymom.net/
http://myturn-evelyn.blogspot.jp/2012/10/freedom-fridays-23.html
http://www.jamhands.net/