Juice and Cookies

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Great responses to my carrot cayenne juice! Happy to say that I continue to feel better. Nothing beats the healing power of fresh juice.

I like to think that I give you all a little range on CR. Sure, the vast bulk of my food falls on the super-healthy side of the spectrum, and that’s how I like it. But I also like to offer you foods that are both healthy and decadent, which is what today’s title is all about.

Since we were all wrapped up in a juice discussion after yesterday’s post, I wanted to share a recent juice that M and I made. Inspired by the blueberry pineapple juice I had at the Dole Summit…

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And happily surprised by the appearance of a pineapple in M’s veggie delivery box…

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…we decided to give our own version a try. The only problem was that we didn’t have any fresh blueberries—just frozen. Could we juice frozen berries? We weren’t sure, but we knew we were going to try.

Um, FAIL. Juicing frozen fruit, as it turns out, is a terrible idea. But we got just enough blueberry pulp and color to make a beverage that looked layered and pretty:

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What wasn’t a fail was our sampling of cookies from Just Real Ingredients. This small, all vegan company, which started out with bake sale-sized batches of cookies, prides itself on baked goods made only from the simplest and most whole ingredients: rolled oats, nuts, vegan dark chocolate, healthy oils, and healthy flours, like spelt. The lovely folks at Just Real Ingredients sent me two varieties of cookies and one bag of granola to taste. M and I first tried the #3: an elegant, crispy chocolate chip:

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And the #8, a hearty oat and chocolate mix:

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We really enjoyed both flavors, but we were particularly partial to the #8 cookie. They didn’t last long! I was also very impressed with the ingredient list:

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Organic spelt flour, rolled oats, sugar can juice, dark chocolate chips, walnuts, sunflower oil, applesauce, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, powder, and salt. That’s it!

Today, for breakfast, I gave the granola a try. As we all know, most store-bought granola is notoriously caloric and high in fat. There are plenty of high quality brands, of course—I love Ezekiel granolas, and some Nature’s Path varieties—but I’m choosy enough to opt for raw granolas most of the time instead, because they typically have cleaner ingredient lists. Just Real Ingredients, though, has finally come up with a toasted granola I love!

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Again, a really simple ingredient list:

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It’s very nutty, tastes a bit like coconut, and it was delicious along with some chopped banana and blueberries:

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Thanks to everyone at Just Real Ingredients for the wonderful samples! I love your commitment to simple, high-quality ingredients, and I also love that you don’t let quality dampen great taste.

From juice to dessert, that’s all she wrote for tonight. It was a long, emotional Friday (nothing bad, fear not—just draining) and I’m about to curl up with tea and a bit of work. Hope your weekends are off to a good start!

xo

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    18 Comments
  1. Juice and cookies…hee hee, that makes me think of after-school hours curled up with the latest Sweet Valley books (I can’t believe I used to like those series).

    I’m not much into raw granola bc of the odd chewy texture. The toasted ones from Just Real Ingredients sound gorgeous though! 🙂

  2. I have had a beyond long day myself…I blogged about my travel escapades. But I am now safely commenting on your post about cookies (god that makes me happy! :)) from the caribbean. And I just fixed a big green bowl of veggies and am about to dive in. After 24hrs of travel and no sleep, all I want is veggies…not even cookies, if you can believe that!

    Juicing frozen fruit…doesnt work too hot I’d imagine but the little bit of juice you did get looks good. I picked up a pineapple today at the market on my way to my house from the airport and cleaned it. Nothing like tropical pineapple.

    Stay warm and hope your weekend is going well, Gena! 🙂

  3. yum. just real ingredients’ granola sounds great. guess i have to do some online research now to figure out where to get it. 🙂

  4. Thanks for letting us know that frozen fruit can not be juiced 😉 It was a nice idea, I would have tried it too! And can never go wrong with cookies 🙂

    I hope you have a wonderful weekend beautiful!

    xoxo
    ~Lori

  5. I agree with #8 sounding the most fulfilling….if only I could taste it….AND I agree with Elmear Rose. When I was living in Switzerland it was pretty hard to find long ingredient lists and the granola cereal “half-aisle” was honoured mostly with Muesli. The cows were smiling most of the time too…

  6. If you let the fruit melt first I imagine it would be ok?
    Everytime I read an American blogger expressing amazement at short ingredient lists I feel so sorry! It’s so much easier in the UK to buy fairly natural products in ordinary supermarkets and from popular brands. Obviously we have Kelloggs cereals and all their mimcs, but half the cereal aisle is taken up with mueslis, porridge oats and granola with natural ingredients. Is the demand just different in the US?

  7. i love reading all ur posts gena… and i envy how uv got a new one up every day or so… i struggle to find the time!
    but there will be a day… when all i do is blog! that will be the day 🙂

    YUM! i want luice, and berries, and frozen fruit. MMM 🙂

  8. Ok I may sound kind of dumb here, but I never am quite sure what people mean when they say “clean” food. Less processed? Healthier? Just trying to get my vocab down.

    Cookies and juice sound like a fun treat. I have an idea for blueberry juice: blend in the blender with a bit of water, then strain in a fine strainer or nutmilk bag. I do that with cranberries to make juice.

    • B,

      You don’t sound dumb; it’s actually a meaningless term, or rather, it has no specific and agreed upon meaning. To ME, it means short ingredient lists that don’t include too many preservatives and fillers. To others, it may mean something else. It’s actually a term I hate, because it implies that certain foods are “dirty” (a mindset that just sounds disordered to me), but I use it now and then simply for expediency.

      G

      • ok yeah the term is a bit weird to me because i keep thinking of a clean washed carrot versus one with dirt on it. 🙂

  9. Glad you posted a juicing “mistake” photo– now I don’t feel so bad when my cooking and photo results turn out like rubbish!

    Have a good night, Gena!

  10. My juicer has a plate for frozen fruit.. it comes out like sorbet.

    The granola cracked me up.. real almonds, real flax seeds.. I guess some foods are full of fake this and that! ( i remember my ex used to get a blueberry cereal and it had no blueberries in it.. only blueberry flavored dry things that kind of resembled blueberries. I was horrified! )

  11. Yum! That granola sounds really good. I don’t like a lot of the commercial granolas because they are either too sweet or too fake tasting. This one sounds like it’s made from wholesome ingredients. Thanks for the review. I hope your weekend is a more relaxing one! 🙂