Grapefruit Season

We have a tree in our back yard which gives us these delicious white grapefruits all year around. However, since my family and I spend most of the winter cursing at seagulls and catching rain water from the skylights - we only bother to pick them when it's warm.

And picked they were.

I ate all the unhappiest ones first.

My mother went on a frenzy. Soon our kitchen was filled with more grapefruits than anyone knew what to do with - stacked in bowls, in boxes, all over the counters. A Mecca of organic citrus. We ate them for breakfast, we drank the juice, I used them in my tea when we ran out of lemons. We gave them away to friends. We even marinated fish with some. I woke up naked on the roof of the community center - mouth sore, and partially blinded by juice - with a grapefruit spoon in one hand and a double barrel shotgun in the other. Oh God. Who did I kill?

It was out of control.

Needless to say, we picked them all. It is only now that I am in my right mind again that I can return to normal life activities like blogging.

Can't wait for next year.

-♥A.H.

Spicy Ginger Spinach Couscous

1/2 cup vegetable broth (I use Cadia, which uses carrot juice instead of a tomato base) 1/4 cup Lundberg brown rice couscous 1/4 of a yellow bell pepper 1/2 clove of garlic, minced 1 tsp dried ginger root A pinch of sea salt 1 cup frozen peas A handful of fresh baby spinach 1. Combine broth, peppers, garlic, ginger and salt in a saucepan and bring to a low boil. 2. Add rice couscous, cover, lower heat to simmer. Set kitchen timer for 13 minutes. 3. With about 6 minutes left, uncover to add peas and enough spinach to fill up the saucepan. Cover again. 4. At the end of the 13 minutes, stir the spinach and peas down into the mix, cover again and wait another 2-3 minutes. Stir again if necessary. 5. Eat.

I love rice couscous. It's essentially just brown rice ground into granules, but I prefer the texture of it to plain rice. A handful of gluten-free alternatives are not up to the challenge of being as good as their wheat laden counterparts, but I think rice couscous is a very viable substitute - if you can find it.

I normally take the time to put more fresh ingredients in, but I wasn't feeling very well when I made this. It is also very spicy! I would suggest accompanying this dish with a glass of soy or hemp milk, or some manner of garlic bread. If you are not good with spicy things, you may want to use half as much ginger. Personally, I like a lot of ginger.

I also like to eat all my rice-veggie dishes out of my favorite bowl. It has a giraffe on it. I named him Bogart.

Holds onto all my food and doesn't even like it. What a jerk.

-♥A.H.

Green Drank

Perhaps you've heard of the infamous green drink. "SUPERFOODS" is a great buzzword traveling around these days, and green drinks are supposedly full of 'em.

1 scoop Green Vibrance ½ cup unsweetened soy milk 7 drops liquid stevia extract Vanilla extract to taste 6-8 oz distilled water Lots of ice

If you haven't had a green drink before, it's pretty understandable. Vegetable juices never held much appeal for me. I started reading about the possible benefits of green drinks for someone with my particular health concerns, and was sold on the idea but not the taste. Finally, health food store employees managed to trick me into thinking I liked it by adding apple juice to their samples and forgetting to mention it. Sneaky.

So I went ahead and bought the $50 jar of green stuff, determined to make it taste drinkable, if it was truly going to be as wonderful as all the hippies made it out to be. Turns out they are onto something. My insides are definitely happier when I drink it every day than when I don't at all. Two a day makes me start to feel like a decent human again, but honestly, I just can't afford that. So periodically I treat myself to a week or so of slightly improved health before I turn back into a broke, bedridden pumpkin.

Something about those superfoods makes it truly super. I highly recommend having a green drink every day, for anyone who wants to be healthy, and especially for anyone who is sick. For me it really seems to help.

Green Drink! AWAY!

-♥A.H.

Apology Salad

No one likes likes to apologize, but sometimes you just gotta know when to man up and do it. After yesterday's bacon episode I felt pretty yucky, so I made this.

Sliced cucumber topped with sherry vinegar and Bragg sprinkle

Give yourself a hug.

-♥A.H.

Almond Butter Turkey Bacon Quesadilla

What a mouthful. What a delicious, delicious mouthful. I can't believe I ate this today. Oh God. It was too much. Too glorious. Too...

About 1½ tbsp raw almond butter About 1½ tsp agave nectar A dash of cinnamon A pinch of sea salt 1 strip of free-range turkey bacon 1 brown rice tortilla Butter or margarine (optional) 1. Mix the almond butter, agave, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. 2. Cook the bacon to desired burntitude, cut into pieces. Set aside. 3. Butter the tortilla and heat. (I cook on iron. Feel free to omit the buttering if you dont.) 4. Add the almond butter mixture and bacon, fold in half and cook until your psyche feels satisfied with the gesture. 5. Eat carefully.

Alternatively named: The Gluten-Free Heart Attack. I ate this with some fresh veggies and fruit in an effort to apologize.

Meat and starch is not a good combination for anyone who hopes to be kind to their digestive system, so it's not normally a thing that I do, but I had to try it at least once while all these things were in my kitchen. Hours later I still feel a bit greasy inside. Definitely not going to fry anything else for a couple days.

-♥A.H.