Sunday, December 17, 2017

How Not to Die Cookbook - Sips

I turned 46 in November and while I'm not big on celebrating my birthday, I'm certainly not getting any younger so I decided to treat myself to a cast iron dutch oven. No regrets, love using it almost daily. I now use cast iron almost exclusively and I will never go back to cooking with anything else. Wait, I still use my Instant Pot too, but if I'm cooking on the stove top it is cast iron all the way. 

I also pre-ordered the How Not to Die Cookbook. It came last week and I started with the back. I know most people would start with an entree and some people would start with desserts, but I was drawn to the "sips" section.
My first recipe from the How Not to Die Cookbook was the Cherry-Berry Smoothie. Partly because I had all the ingredients on hand, but also because we are in a big daily smoothie routine. I've made this a few times now and I add unsweetened soy milk instead of water, ground flax seeds, beet juice, alma powder*, and dried barberries. This has quickly become the kids' favorite breakfast or snack smoothie so I started adding some greens (like arugula) to it as well.
I prefer my breakfast to be more savory so I couldn't wait to try the V-12 Vegetable Blast! It turned out a vibrant green so I couldn't help but add some yellow sprinkles. All three kids tried the V-12 and only Josie would take more than a sip or two, but she still won't drink an entire glass. I make mine pretty spicy so they will come around eventually, but they all said it would taste good as a soup, but the cold  savory smoothie was just not what they are used to. I used chopped frozen spinach and cold water (we don't normally have ice cubes around) the first time. I think I prefer to use fresh kale, but play around with it and make it your own. If you want to make the V-12 Vegetable Blast yourself (and I know you do) then find the recipe here. Or watch Dr. Greger make a modified version on this video: