Mangoes are all the Rage this Summer

Mangoes Here ...Mangoes There ...Mangoes, Mangoes Everywhere..

I love Mangoes and today I made up a Mango Black Bean Salsa for dinner. The recipe can be found at our sister blog Recipes 4 Shweet Living.
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Mangos taste so good that people forget they are also healthy!  Discover how the “king of fruits” can help you, plus fascinating trivia and a few mango cautions and concerns.

Health Benefits:

1.  Prevents Cancer: Research has shown antioxidant compounds in mango fruit have been found to protect against colon, breast, leukemia and prostate cancers. These compounds include quercetin, isoquercitrin, astragalin, fisetin, gallic acid and methylgallat, as well as the abundant enzymes.

2.  Lowers Cholesterol: The high levels of fiber, pectin and vitamin C help to lower serum cholesterol levels, specifically Low-Density Lipoprotein (the bad stuff)

3.  Clears the Skin: Can be used both internally and externally for the skin. Mangos clear clogged pores and eliminate pimples. (Read more on page 5.)

4.  Eye Health: One cup of sliced mangoes supplies 25 percent of the needed daily value of vitamin A, which promotes good eyesight and prevents night blindness and dry eyes.

5.  Alkalizes the Whole Body: The tartaric acid, malic acid, and a trace of citric acid found in the fruit help to maintain the alkali reserve of the body.

6. Helps in Diabetes: Mango leaves help normalize insulin levels in the blood.  The traditional home remedy involves boiling leaves in water, soaking through the night and then consuming the filtered decoction in the morning. Mango fruit also have a relatively low glycemic index (41-60) so moderate quantities will not spike your sugar levels.

7. Improved Sex: Mangos are a great source of vitamin E. Even though the popular connection between sex drive and vitamin E was originally created by a mistaken generalization on rat studies, further research has shown balanced proper amounts (as from whole food) does help in this area.

8. Improves Digestion: Papayas are not the only fruit that contain enzymes for breaking down protein. There are several fruits, including mangoes, which have this healthful quality. The fiber in mangos also helps digestion and elimination.

9. Remedy for Heat Stroke: Juicing the fruit from green mango and mixing with water and a sweetener helps to cool down the body and prevent harm to the body. From an ayurvedic viewpoint, the reason people often get diuretic and exhausted when visiting equatorial climates is because the strong “sun energy” is burning up your body, particularly the muscles.  The kidneys then become overloaded with the toxins from this process. ****Use Coconut water with Mango to balance without having to add a sweetener. ****

10. Boosts Immune system The generous amounts of vitamin C and vitamin A in mangos, plus 25 different kinds of carotenoids keep your immune system healthy and strong.

Info from an Article by Diana Herrington

Wonderful Saturday Morning!! Fresh Food and A Promising Outlook

This was a wonderful way to start the weekend. We got up early and went to pick up our Bountiful Basket.
What is a Bountiful Basket you ask?
BBFC is a group of people who work together for mutual benefit. This is a grassroots, all volunteer, no contracts, no catch co-operative. Since there are no employees at Bountiful Baskets, we as a group pay rock bottom prices on your food. This also means the co-op would not happen without volunteers. If you are interested in the co-op continuing, please volunteer occasionally. All it takes is a little time, energy and a smile. Volunteer opportunities include helping prepare the baskets, breaking down boxes, assisting with the distribution, and packing up. To help out, simply arrive an hour early dressed and ready to work with water to drink.<br>
To find out more about Bountiful Baskets in your community check out their website.

This was our first time to but it certainly won't be the last. This is what we got....

 We ordered the Bountiful Basket  plus Tropical add box on contained 1 box of mushrooms, 5 red apples, 5 bananas,5 yellow bell peppers, 8 bags of carrots ( got more because we helped out and there were left over’s), 34 Bussell sprouts, 7 nectarines, 1 big bag of green grapes, 2 avocados, 1 cabana melon, 1 coconut, 6 yellow mangoes, 5 limes, 1 butter lettuce, 1 plantain and 4 vanilla beans. Might have forgotten something but it was a lot of stuff. 

After we left the place were we picked up our baskets and volunteered, we decided to visit the Heart of Texas Show in Plano. Boy was I so happy we stopped in. We ran into Dr Ferrell and his wife from The Wellness Institute in Frisco. After talking to them he offered to have me come to the Institute so they can see if they can find the cause of all my problems. Also after talking to them Marty and I realized the chiropractor we were going to was really just doing PT. I am very excited. Got good food and positive outlook for maybe get a handle on this pain and illness.

Well off to watch my God Daughters' graduate via live feed and hopefully make it to Sat Mass. We have a new priest starting today and can't wait to see if I can read his lips. 

Check the recipe blog tomorrow for a new  juice recipe.

Stay healthy and Juice ON

It's a New Juicing Month!

September is here and with it a new challenge... Work out 3 days a week at the gym and get the weight lowered some more. It has been 5 1/2 months since I started my journey to better health. So far I have lowered by weight from 259 pounds to 204 pounds. At the present my weight is up a little from that but part of that is from some unexplained swelling in my legs. Even so I am very happy and feel so much better than I did when I started 2012.

 My goal this month is to hit the 200 mark. To keep me honest and on point I commit to sharing with  You my friends, my daily steps.

Stepping I did this morning with my Beet It Juice and an hour walk around the Apt Complex. Not to bad heat wise at 7:30am and Chico my hearing ear dog loved it.

Lunch was created with some extra zip from my plums that were getting soft. YUMMM.
One thing I know I need to do is lower my fruits and raise my greens and veggies in my juices. So hard when it is hot outside and I just want ice cream SO BAD. But I just might have reached the perfect combo for my lunch juice. I have some freezing for a quick whip in the blender tonight for an "Ice Dessert".

My lunch juice was

6 plums ( smaller)
1 Cup of Fresh Cherries
3 Slices of Fresh Pineapple

1 Beet
2 Oranges
12 Carrots
1 Organic Cucumber

Juice in the order listed... The reason being that the harder produce will wash out the residue left from the softer produce... Nothing is wasted.

So now I am off to make Mean Green and do some sewing for my grand daughter's 1st Birthday.
Til Later
Sandi

Recipes 4 Shweet Living Has New Additions

Pop over to our Recipe Blog, Recipes 4 Shweet Living and check out some of the newest additions for your juicing pleasure.
We added our newest favorite Sandi's Beet It Juice Recipe today.
If you like Mangoes come by and check out Mango Madness.
From Breakfast Juices to Chips and Salsa Juice... Lunch to creations to make from your pulps we have created some fun and funky new ideas that we are sharing with all of you.
Juice On... Stay Healthy....Live Long!
Shweet Sandi

Tomato Basil Delights...

When I started writing this blog I knew I wanted to share my recipes for juice as well as other healthy creations. So as you know, I also started a Recipe Blog, Recipes 4 Shweet Living,  where you can find all the Recipes that we have come up with as well as some that I am sharing from my friends.
Tomato Juice has really helped me this past month. I have a great deal of pain from my Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, pulling my back out, kidney and gallstones and tomato juice has helped me to control my pain level without having to take medicine. I just wanted to share a couple things that I created from Tomatoes on my Recipe Blog. Wanted to make sure you saw them so that maybe they will help you out too. (PS Tomatoes are great for fighting cancers too!)

Come by Recipes 4 Shweet Living and check out the Tomato Basil Juice Recipe.

While you are there come see what we did with the Pulp from the Juice. Don't want to throw away something so good, we want to use everything we can. YUMMO


Til Tomorrow
Stay Juicy
~Sandi

Farmer's Market Find and a New Juice..Yummo

Went to the Farmer's Market today with the family. It was so much fun strolling through the booths, picking out the fruits and vegetables we wanted to bring home to juice and eat. Zoe is the perfect age to teach her new foods and let her sample. Those 2 pearly teeth she has can do a good job on watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries. Today she tried fresh peaches and tomatoes. She seemed to love them both! Yeah! Score 1 for healthy living!

Since we arrived at the Market towards the end of the day and we found some great bargains from our favorite vendors. Omar gave us a grocery bag FULL of bananas for only $2.00! (Wish I was eating Smoothies now.) We shared those with Keelee and Zoe. We went to Wes's Tomatoes and hit pay dirt... 25 pounds of beautiful big red tomatoes for $12.00! (Took the picture above after we shared with Keelee and I made my new Tomato Basil Juice too.)

The lessons I learned today....

1.When you visit your local Farmer's Market, visit towards the end of the day. You will get good deals.

2.Ask for a Better Deal... don't be afraid to ask too. Many vendors don't want to throw away really ripe veggies and fruits and if they know what you are doing with them...aka making juice, they are more likely to give you a good deal. ASK all they can say is no.

3. Make friends with the vendors you purchase your produce from. Learn their names and when you show up at their booth, call them by name. It may take a couple visits but after that the vendor will know and recognize you and you most likely will get a better deal. It might be lower prices or in our case our favorite vendor Omar gives us extra produce each visit.

4. Bring your friends and family to the Market and introduce them to your vendor friends! Spread the word about the good service and produce you receive! Blog about them, write a note to the owner of the Farmer's Market thanking them for being there and if it is run by the city like our Dallas market is...write to the city letting them know you are happy to have the Market there and how wonderful the produce is.

WHY? We want to keep our local Farmer's Market there for us to visit and shoppe from and to do that we need the owners and Cities to know how important they are to us. Don't assume that they know...one day they might be gone when you show up and then it will be to late.

One last thing before I close...Can't leave without sharing where you can find the Tomato Basil Juice Recipe... You know the one I mentioned earlier, just visit Recipes 4 Shweet Living. There you will find our new recipe and lots of others as well. 

Til Tomorrow

~Stay Juicy

Sandi

Day 71 Down to A Size 18 Feeling WONDERFUL

Hello my wonderful friends and fellow Juicing Peeps! I am so exciting and frankly amazed to say it is now Day 71 of my Juice Cleanse. WOW 71 Days Straight of nothing but lovely Fresh Raw Vegetable Fruit Juice! I must say I never thought I would last a week much less *71* days! I started out at 259 pounds and a size 24 and at my last weight in some time last week (before I put my scale away for a month) I weighed 215. I now am wearing a size 18 and the one pair of jeans I purchased are getting  a wee bit loose...and I LOVE IT!
I still have a long way to go and it is still tough going many days. Do I miss food? There are many days when Kassy walks in the house with her french fries I could just grab one of her hand and eat it, but I don't. It would defeat all I have done. So instead I grab a juice. I keep them made up just for that reason!

I try to remember to go to the pool  when I can and water walk , water run and swim around some. Have to beat the kids  out there now that school is out for the summer. So guess I will be getting up in the mornings and heading out and stepping into a nice COOL POOL...Guess that is a good way to wake up the body in the morning right? I decided to be very brave and post a picture of my and Zoe swimming last Sunday at my nephew's birthday party. I lost so much weight in my arms I now have *turkey arms*. I have to work on those too to firm up the skin,( but first have to unfreeze the shoulders so I can). So if you know of any good low impact exercises for turkey arms post those suggestions right here!

  Tomorrow starts a new month and a new day. Just remember if you decide to try your hand at adding a Juice Cleanse to your life, it is something you don't have to do all the time like I am doing. Tomorrow I will tell you how we are incorporating it into my husband's life. He has chosen to use juice in a different way. each person must listen to their own body and follow it.  
Until Tomorrow.
Stay Juicy~

New Recipe will be on the Recipes Blog tonight
~Sandi

Recipe for Today Yummo! Red, White and Blue Juice

Perfect Juice for the HOT Memorial Weekend!

Strawberry Blueberry Jicama Juice.

Very Easy to Make and Oh So Good For YOU!

1 Jicima (peeled and cut into pieces)

1 cups of fresh blueberries

6 oz  Strawberries

        Juice all of the above together and drink cold. If you like things to drink smoothies, no problem at all. Simply throw the juice into a blender add ice and blend. You now have a nice Red, White and Blue Smoothie. Jicama when juiced  creates a great deal of cloudy white liquid that is a slightly vanilla taste. It is loaded with vitamins C, A and B, along with calcium and phosphorus.

Enjoy this Good tasty juice that has lots of purposes this holiday weekend!

Remember to stop and thank those how gave their lives to make and keep us safe!

~Til later~

Stay Juicey and Healthy~

Sandi

Cantaloupe as BIG as a Basketball!

Just the other day we were walking into Kroger's to pick up our nightly kale for our Mean Green. Now we go get our kale there because it is always beautiful and the produce guy saves it specially for me each day. As we approached the store we saw the biggest cantaloupes I have ever seen in my life. These cantaloupes were bigger than personal watermelons. WERE THEY CANTALOUPES EVEN?

Into the store we went to check out this monster size melons.So we discover the name of these basketball size beauties...*Athana Cantaloupes*. Yes they are a cantaloupe! In fact they are a hybrid of a regular ole cantaloupe they are quite a bit bigger and on so much shweetier! They are mainly grown in the South and Eastern US and have a very short growing period so you have to grab them when you see them. They have a salmon colored flesh, about 125 seeds that can be removed and planted once they are dried, and the flesh melts in your mouth (so my husband and grand baby says).

We decided we just had to show you the difference this melon was so we took a picture of it beside a regular cantaloupe and a personal watermelon. See what we mean?  

 My first one weighed in at 7.5 pounds and the cost was only $2.00. So you get a whole lot of melon for a little bit of money! and boy does it make a bunch of juice too! This is how much juice one melon made....

So for this next juice we added the personal melon and 2 kiwi to the Athana. Turned out quite nice. (Yes I know i tell you all the time no all fruit juices but every now and then you can treat yourself and this also makes a great treat as a frozen pop.)

Athana Cantaloupe Watermelon Kiwi Juice

1 Athana Cantaloupe
1 Personal Watermelon (all the watermelon rind and all)
2 Kiwi peeled
Juice all the above together. Stain well and serve nice and cold.

To make as Popsicle
Need:
Paper Solo Cups smallest size I use the bathroom size.
Wood Popsicle Sticks
(or you can purchase the store made plastic Popsicle containers.)

Pour your juice into the cups til about 1/2 inch from the top of the cup. Place the cups on a flat surface that will fit into your freezer. Place into your freezer. Check on your cups, when they have reached the point where they are at the *slush* stage, place a wooden Popsicle stick in the center of each one. The stick needs to be able to stand in the cup and then place them back int the freezer to freeze rest of the way. Once they are frozen you can place them into a large plastic Ziploc bag, storage container or peel off the paper cup and eat one!

Enjoy these while you can!

So excite I Finally Got THE BLOG SET UP! RECIPE BLOG TOO!

I AM SO EXCITED! Can you tell? Marty and I were talking and we decided that since we juice 1 sometimes twice a day and I always make something out of the pulp at least once a day that I just had to add a RECIPE Blog as a companion blog to the Living the Shweet Life Blog. So of course I set to work getting that set up on Wednesday night. I have connected the two blogs together and yet they are also each stand alone blogs in case there are folks who don't want to listen to me ramble on and on... LOL

So Hope you will come by and check out Recipes 4 Shweet Living . I started adding some of our recipes that we are created and that we like. We try to work on the 80/20 ratio  but there are times when it is not that. I will let ya know if it is all fruits so you can be warned.  Like the one I will be blogging about tomorrow and the reason I am still up tonight. OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS SO GOOD!

Just looked at that picture...looks good to eat but you really can't read it to well. Thinking I just need some good graphics from my Shweet gal Carm.

Til Tomorrow
Stay Juicy
~ Sandi