In April I spoke at my favorite writers conference, then a couple of days later hubs and I were off on a two-week vacation to Washington DC and Virginia where our son is stationed and my brother and his family live. Unfortunately, the day I got home from the conference, we found out my father-in-law had suddenly passed away. After conferring with the family, it was decided we should go along with our original vacation plans and then, after a day at home, hop a plane to Los Angeles for the funeral and to attend to details.

As you can imagine, these three trips were all quite disparate but they had a common theme.

Food.

The Pikes Peak Writers Conference is a big event with banquet food often shared with a table full of strangers. You only need to have attended one banquet in your entire life to conjure up the memory of variations of bland chicken, fish, beef and pasta dishes. Despite that, I look forward to the meals every year, certainly not for the cuisine, but for the company. Every year at every meal I hang out with fascinating writers creating all kinds of delicious stories. Some folks I’ve just met, some I’ve known for several years. They’re from every spectrum of the journey — those just tasting the possibilities of a career spent writing, all the way up to the well-seasoned pros. I love chatting with all of them during informal bleary-eyed breakfasts and at the lavish banquet dinners.

Vacation food is different. You get to indulge your palate in regional delicacies. In our case we got a lot of seafood and southern cooking, 4-star restaurants and neighborhood dives, all yummy and delightful.

We ate more than once at the Zagat-rated Mitsitam Cafe at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian which specializes in native cuisine. We played ‘Guess the Spice’ — Coriander? Anise? Saffron? — which tested our knowledge of geography, history, and ethnicity. Cedar Planked Wild Salmon with Grilled Corn and Cherry Tapenade … Labrador Tea Marinated Grilled Bison Loin with Bing Cherry Infused Pinenut Butter … Sautéed Chard and Spring Onions … Roasted Sunchoke and Nettles … New Potato and Fiddlehead Fern Salad with Green Tomato Vinaigrette … Hominy and Grilled Asparagus Salad … Mesquite Pinon Cookies … Pinenut and Rosemary Tart. Elegant, award-winning, intriguing food.

But we also ate a couple of times at an intriguing hole-in-the-wall diner. We walked by it twice, deciding both times that perhaps we should come back after we confirmed our vaccinations were up-to-date. The third time we went in for breakfast and I was immediately sorry we didn’t go there every morning. It was run by a large and happy extended family. Most customers were greeted by name and others like long-lost cousins. They did a brisk carry-out business but we sat at an old-fashioned counter, sticky with maple syrup, faded and buffed by countless plates. It turned corners at every third or fourth seat, snaking geometrically around the diner. Each time we were there the conversations were public, everyone welcome to join in. We were asked about our travels and recommendations were offered as to what DC attractions were not to be missed. We were included in the wise-cracking between three manual laborers. The skinny guy didn’t believe that the big guy would eat everything in his overly hearty breakfast. I knew he could. Bets were made and accepted. It’s not a Zagat-rated restaurant, but probably only because Zagat never tasted their waffles and scrapple.

Like the conference, food was necessary but not the actual or complete experience. Vacation dining also allowed my husband and I to reconnect. Yes, we were tired and hungry after sightseeing all day so we needed to sit and eat. But we also got to talk. Despite the fact we are empty-nesters, we rarely make time at home to have a cocktail and a long, relaxing meal full of interesting conversation. Perhaps it’s because we don’t do or see as many interesting things in our normal lives. I mean, really, how often can you describe what you ‘did’ today? Yawn. Vacation dining allows deeper thought and discussion.

After vacation we had time to stop at home, do a couple loads of laundry and pay some bills before heading to Los Angeles to deal with Dean’s death. He lived eight decades, a life full of curiosity and adventure, many of them in the Congo in Africa. He died exactly as he wished, quick and mostly painless. He cooked himself Sunday breakfast in his own home, admired his vegetable garden, and by late afternoon he was gone.

Those of us left behind are consoled by the image of Dean eating his last breakfast at the same kitchen table he’d eaten at for 35 years. We gathered there too, without him. We shared food and drink and told funny stories about him. Again, the food nourished us, but it was more than that. It was comforting and ritualistic. It was no surprise to me that so many people wanted to take away kitchen utensils as tangible reminders of Dean and his wife Sarah, who we lost a dozen years earlier. The rolling pin. That set of bowls. The two-pronged fork. The tablecloth.

I guess these last few weeks have made me realize how much more there can be — should be — to the food we eat. We have a joke at our house when I make something with unusual spices. I ask, “Do you know what the secret ingredient is?” Inevitably someone will answer, “Is it love?”

Of course it is. But sometimes it’s also coriander.

May your meals provide nourishment, comfort, and as much adventure as you can handle.

Second, let me remind you that I just shop for two people. I work at home so juicing during the day is perfectly convenient for me, as is cleaning my juicer. But, as juice starts losing nutrients immediately, it would be hard to brown bag it. (You can, though, if you use a container you can’t see through and fill it all the way up so no air gets in.) Also, hubs and I eat fairly cleanly and not that much since we became empty nesters. Hubs has never demanded meat-and-potatoes and he’s perfectly amenable to drinking juice for dinner. Sometimes we do feel the necessity for popcorn in the evening, but that’s partly because of our new popcorn popper. (So easy! No oil! Three minutes!)

Third, you do not have to juice all your meals and in fact, if you do, you need to have a conversation with your doctor first. But juicing one meal a day will give you plenty of health benefits and possibly save you money.

So, take everything I say and plug it into your lifestyle. Your mileage may vary.

Here goes. This is what I bought at the grocery store for juicing: 10 oz bag spinach, 5# bag carrots, 1 bunch kale, 2 bunches of celery, 4 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, 2 green peppers, 3 mangoes, 5 Roma tomatoes, 1 lemon, 6 oranges, 6 Granny Smith apples, and 3 pears. It cost me $30.31.

I still had 3 yams, ginger root, and 3 limes. This cost $2.28.

Grand total of $32.59.

From that I made 11 meals + 2 fresh OJs for dessert. I also used spinach on 1 sandwich, 2 omelettes, and 4 salads. I still had at least 2# of carrots.

The math is yours to do.

The zuchini I normally would not have bought because it was out of season and expensive … $2.19 for 2. And just this week I was making a recipe with kohlrabi. I only needed one, but my store only sold bunches of 3 for $2.99.

The juice drinks were plenty filling for me, but about half the time we had popcorn. Me because I like it, hubs because he was hungry.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet is storage. The thought of going to the grocery store more than once a week makes me wail like a puppy on a rainy porch.

But that’s what my refrigerator looks like when I get home from the store. I am getting better about what keeps longer. For instance, not parsley. And I’m learning what doesn’t taste good to me. I’ve learned I’m not a fan of radishes or beets in my juice, although beets make a gorgeous drink. Hubs asked if I liked it and I told him, waving my hand in front of my face, “Too beety.” (I’ll try beets again. I think I just used too much.)

My store doesn’t have a huge supply of organic produce so I don’t buy organic very often.

Now that I have a handful of go-to juice recipes, I can buy what’s on sale. And frankly, most produce is pretty cheap. I wanted kale one day but it was on sale for $1 so there was only one bunch left. I bought it, but the next week needed some more. It was only $1.29!

I’ve been keeping my grocery receipts and the final tally over 7 weeks is that I’ve averaged $98.81 at the grocery store. For comparison, I pulled out last years grocery costs. A year ago, over almost the same time period with the same two of us, I averaged $179.74 at the grocery store.

That’s a big difference. It surprised me too! Saving money along with the surprise weight loss tells me I’ll continue to juice on a regular basis. Simply juicing for dinner would make a huge difference. Not only is that where we spend the most money, but it’s also where we take in most of our calories.

So, what do you think?

Now let’s talk about cleaning up.

Before I bought a juicer, clean-up was my biggest concern. I had heard horror stories about trying to get them suckers clean. I did my due diligence and settled on the Breville juicer. I was thrilled when it was easy to clean.

When I’m done making juice, I pour it over ice in a tall glass. It chills while I clean the juicer. Below are all the parts to clean.  Note the plastic bag in the pulp bucket. That was a handy little trick I learned in my research. It’s so helpful! When I juice all day, I just keep that bag in there. It usually doesn’t get too full until the 3rd juice. Then I just take it out to the compost. Easy peasy. And if I’m going to use “clean pulp” for smoothies or meatloaf or something, I just place the bag in the freezer to wait for me. The black cylinder and the two plastic pieces get rinsed off. The metal basket has the blades and gets scrubbed with the wire brush that came with the machine.

When I’m done drinking my juice, I clean the glass and the pitcher.

That lid is ingenious. The long part there keeps the foam from your glass. Very handy!

I timed it today and it took me 4 minutes to clean the juicer while my Mean Greenie was chilling, and then another 2 minutes to clean the glass and pitcher. I don’t feel like it’s too much time to take, because essentially I’m doing my dishes before I eat rather than after. (I learned the hard way what happens when you let the metal basket sit without cleaning it. Hint: it doesn’t get easier to clean.) After we juice dinner tonight, it will all get washed thoroughly so I can do Day Two of my juice fast.

Next time we’ll talk about the economics of juicing. Money saver or extravagance?

What do you think?

Here’s the trailer …

It’s a fascinating movie, all about Joe Cross’ journey back from the brink of poor health and how he accomplished it. In fact, it was so fascinating, I started investigating juicers and the world of juicing.

Mind you, I’m not fat, sick or nearly dead, and neither is hubs. But we have the typical middle-age maladies — skin woes, sleep woes, constantly-battling-those-ten-pounds woes. Plus, I’m expecting hot flash woes at some point. If we can get super nutrition from juicing that could address any or all of these issues, then it seems silly not to try.

But I’m also lazy. If I don’t have to cook dinner, then I’m a happy camper.

We ended up buying a “Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 50-watt Juice Extractor” for about $150 after perusing Joe Cross’ website advice about buying a juicer. I had heard that juicers were notoriously difficult to clean so I liked that he said this was one of the easiest to clean.

The juicer arrived and I couldn’t wait to get started. I didn’t really want to just jump in and start juicing stuff, since I was a blushing juice virgin, so I used some of Joe Cross’ recipes. My first was his Mean Green Juice, which is the one he shows a lot in the movie. Cucumber, celery, apples, kale, half a lemon and a bit of ginger. (That’s it there on the celery.)

This is when the “apple bits on my ceiling” first happened. I was a bit hesitant to get started — it’s loud, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I’m a chicken by nature — but I began pushing the ingredients through the top of the juicer. I did the kale and that turned out okay. I did the celery and that turned out okay. I did the cucumber and that turned out okay. Then I got cocky and dropped the apple halves in. The feeder tube has a separate dealibob that you use to push through the produce but I wasn’t fast enough getting it in there. The apples bounced and jumped and bits flew up to the ceiling. All very comical, I’m sure, but in less than a minute it all transmogrified into this …

This recipe made about 30 ounces which is 2 servings.

You can see it’s the most gorgeous color. The process isn’t work-free, of course. The produce needs to be washed and cut if necessary to fit into the feeding mechanism. The only thing in this recipe that needed to be cut was the apples. The kale I folded in half and fed through, the celery I broke with my hands, and the cucumber went through intact.

This is what’s left over. The pulp in the basket is practically dry, all the juice is wrung out. This, though, is one of my questions. We’ve always been told to eat the orange, not the juice so we get all the fiber as well. Juicing, however, does exactly the opposite.

I’m still doing some research, for my own peace of mind, but I already know there is no way I’d eat 1 cucumber + 4 celery stalks + 2 apples + 8 leaves of kale + half a lemon + a tablespoon of fresh ginger for one meal. Probably not in an entire day. I simply couldn’t, physically. So right off the bat, juicing gets me a ton of nutrients I wouldn’t normally get. I’m also juicing produce I never eat like bulbs of fennel and kohlrabi. Now, depending on the rest of my menu, I’ll add a scoop of chia seeds to my prepared juice to get some protein and fiber.

Now that I’ve had my juicer for a while, I also know that if we have “clean” pulp (like coring apples first and cutting the ends off carrots), then we can use the pulp in smoothies, omelettes, meatloaf and baked goods. That puts the fiber right back in our diet.

I can’t find any definitive information about how many calories you get when you juice, but that’s not why I’m interested in juicing. It would be nice to know, though.

Joe Cross also talks about juice fasts … he calls it ‘rebooting.’ By pure serendipity, hubs was leaving town and I took the opportunity to go on my own 3-day reboot, mainly to try out a bunch of new juice recipes. I didn’t really have a plan, just to juice 4 meals a day for three days. Long story short … I wasn’t starving and I lost 5#. I assumed the weight loss was water weight and would come right back on, but it’s been a few weeks and it never came back. I don’t really understand why. I went right back to my regular eating habits and even some fairly bad ones — lots of restaurant visits and Easter chocolate. We’ve juiced for dinner periodically, maybe once or twice a week … maybe that has something to do with it.

But it’s kind of a puzzler. I’m doing another 3-day reboot today, tomorrow and the next day, mainly out of curiosity about the weight loss.

Here’s another of recipe we found … Good Morning Juice. Yams, carrots and oranges. (I don’t bother peeling the yams any more.) This has become one of our favorites. I made the mistake the first time of not peeling the oranges. (Have I mentioned I’m lazy?) You can get away with the zest from one orange, but not four!

Funny story about this one. See how full it is? Yeah. It’s so much fun to juice stuff, I wasn’t even paying attention. One more inch of carrot and I would have had a mess on my hands. Well, my countertop, anyway! This one, too, is gorgeous and delicious.

As is pear-beet-spinach …

V9, while delicious, isn’t as purty …

Next up we’ll talk about cleaning the juicer and then about the economics of juicing.

What do you think?

I love popcorn and it’s a whole grain, but it loses its health benefits when you cook it in a ton of oil and smother it with salt and butter. So I put myself on a quest to figure it out. After all the turmoil, failed experiments, and hot kernels in my eye, I finally succeeded, so YAY me.

And then one day (about 47 seconds after my cookbook was published) I was walking through Target and saw this for $8.99 …

The Nordic Ware Microwave Popcorn Popper.

In 3 minutes it makes enough popcorn for hubs and myself. No oil, no mess, no fuss.

D’oh.

No, they aren’t paying me to pitch it, but if they wanted me to, I could do it in my sleep. That’s how much I love it. Perhaps I’ll shoot a hot kernel in my eye, though, for old times sake.

Are there any other secrets you people are keeping from me??

So, here are my answers:

1. What did you eat for dinner last night?

Actually, I didn’t eat dinner last night; I drank it, but not in the way you might be thinking. I just got a new juicer so I’ve been trying out some recipes. Last night was cucumber, celery, apples, kale, lemon and ginger. Delicious!

2. If you could make one food calorie-free for the next year, what would you choose?

Cake. Duh. Perhaps fried chicken. Or beer. Or cheeseburgers. No, cake. Or maybe potato chips.

3. How often do you go to the grocery store?

Once a week. Now with the juicer, I’ll probably need to go more often for produce, but perhaps I’ll figure out a better system than I’ve come up with so far which is, “Fill the fridge with greens and watch them wilt before your eyes.” Not as efficient as it sounds.

4. Do you make a list before buying groceries?

Always. When my kids were little and I stayed home with them we only had one car and hubs had it with him. I learned early on never to run out of things. Especially diapers. I’m lucky to have the benefit of a large pantry so when I open something, I write it on my list to get a new one next week. As the kids got older they knew that if it wasn’t on my list, I wasn’t buying it. They tried to sneak in items they wanted but knew I probably wouldn’t buy. I guess they were hoping for momentary lapses in my judgment. They were always disappointed, due to my overwhelming meanness.

5. List three things that can always be found in your kitchen.

Wholly Guacamole 100-calorie packs, Laughing Cow cheese wedges, and unsweetened chocolate almond milk.

6. How often do you clean out your fridge?

Whenever I spill something or the wine box drips.

7. Do you ever use a slow cooker? If so, will you share a recipe?

I used to, but mine broke and I haven’t replaced it. When hubs and I were newlyweds a thousand years ago, we’d throw in a turkey leg or two before we left for work. (Well, he would. The thought of touching raw poultry that early in the morning makes my gorge rise.) But after work … delicious! The apartment always smelled like Thanksgiving.

8. How often do you try new recipes?

Constantly. That’s how I develop recipes for my Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle cookbooks. I look for recipes that sound good but have too many calories, then I try to “health ‘em up.” I figure out the exact calorie count and determine specific portions. I hate recipes that say, “Serves 6″ so my recipes say things like, “Makes 6 one-cup servings.” The recipes also have to be incredibly simple (because I am oh-so lazy), with easy-to-find ingredients. I’ll never make anyone seek out an Ethiopian market to buy niter kibbeh to make chechebsa. You’re welcome.

9. What is the most delicious meal(s) you make?

So many good ones! Beef Burgundy Stew (249 calories) … Quick Seafood Soup (69 calories) … So Easy It’s A Crime Lasagne (209 calories). Great. Thanks. Now I’m hungry.

10. Share at least one thing that is currently in your kitchen even though you don’t like it.

Mayonnaise. But I’ll probably put a dollop in my tuna fish for a sandwich today. I just won’t look. Or listen.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Answer these questions on your blog, then come back here and post your link. At least tell me your answers to #2 and #10. (If you don’t have a blog, feel free to just post your answers as a comment.) And be sure to check back to see how other folks answered.

I read a short blurb in a magazine, one of those Q & A things: “Is it true you should never eat raw mushrooms?”

The answer surprised me. No, you should never eat raw mushrooms because they are indigestible and have small amounts of toxins in them.

But it made me wonder because every salad bar I’ve ever seen has had the ubiquitous bowl of raw mushrooms. Why would they serve them raw if you’re not supposed to eat them raw?

So I went on a bit of a mushroom expedition via my computer since I don’t live in mushroom country and it’s kind of windy out today. Plus, I don’t know where my shoes are.

First stop was David Campbell’s MycoWeb. He agrees it’s not a good idea to eat raw mushrooms, but the toxins are destroyed by cooking. He admits, though, we learn new things all the time about the food we eat.

“Bear in mind, there is much yet to be learned about eating mushrooms; wild or tame, cooked or raw…the research is in progress, and we the mycophagists are, by default, the guinea pigs. What we know of mushroom edibility is primarily the result of shared anecdotal information, as compiled and recorded over the course of human history.”

While he and I are both believers in moderation, he says since he doesn’t know anyone who got cancer from a mushroom and because they’re so delicious, he’s going to keep eating them.

That makes me nervous because I think it’s unlikely that people with tumors ever definitively know their cause.

Then my expedition led me to a video of Daryl Hannah getting a tour of Mushroom Wonderland from Paul Stamets.

She is breathlessly amazed by relatively insignificant details. He is much less so. He shows a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms and talks about their usefulness in fighting diseases and how researchers are using them. He explains why frogs hopping around are a good thing in his growing rooms. And then he explains that many experts think button and portabella mushrooms are highly carcinogenic when they’re digested. There’s a unique chemical in them which make eating them equivalent to smoking cigarettes. The difference is that mushrooms can cause tumors anywhere in your body rather than just in your lungs.

So, I’m not sure what I think. Over the years the experts have said that so many delicious things are carcinogenic one week and then perfectly safe the next that I tend to tune them out. As with all things, moderation and variety in your diet is probably key.

One thing is pretty clear, though. You shouldn’t eat raw mushrooms. I think that’s Nature’s benevolent way of saying, “Here, let’s sauté that up in a little butter and garlic.”

What do you think about mushrooms? Will you eat them in the raw? Will you eat them with your Ma? Will you place them in your jaw? Will you tattle to the law?

* I told you not to Google it!

I know you’re lazy, too, but you actually have to hover over the Recipes tab and then click on the recipes. Sorry for making you work so hard!

But then you’ll see Smoked Salmon Reubens … Cheezy Broccoli Soup … Grandma’s Vinegar Cake  …. and more!

Enjoy!

It was frustrating that the process seemed to be so drawn out, but I only have myself to blame. Because I was combining all the previously published recipes plus about 60 new ones, I kept finding things that were formatted differently.

I wrote each cookbook at different times, so in one book, for example, I’d capitalize the first word in the ingredient list and in another I wouldn’t. The reader wouldn’t notice because the continuity was there within a cookbook, just not between cookbooks. So when they were all compiled together, it became obvious.

But not so obvious I’d catch everything at once!

However, it’s done now and I want to thank everyone for their patience. I know you’ve been on me for a print book rather than digital, and I hope you think it was worth the wait.

Here’s the link to buy … (THANK YOU!)

And here’s the cover, front and back …