Getting Greener....

I was hoping to relieve those of you who have been wondering if I've gone off the deep end with all this talk of raw food, and write a post about the breads I've been (secretly) baking in the meantime.
I will get to that, I promise!

However, I felt inclined to post again about the amazing effect raw greens have had on me. I admit it: even though I have been veg*n for the majority of my life, I have really not been that good about eating dark, leafy greens on a regular basis. There have been times when I bought big bunches of kale with the intent of making it a regular part of my diet, but all too often I would end up with a bunch of wilted yellowing leaves in my refrigerator. I really hate wasting food like that, but I never had a really good recipe for kale. I got excited about a recipe I found for "kale chips" last fall, but I found them unpalatable, so sauteed with a little garlic and lemon remained my go-to, though boring, way to prepare greens.
 I don't think I expressed the extent of my joy to discover a recipe for Raw Kale Salad. Most of the people I mention this to give me a weird look and say, "RAW kale? Really?".  If you massage the kale a bit, it wilts and becomes so tender and tasty.  I posted a recipe in my last post, and you can find another version on my friend Brandy's blog.  I also discovered that green smoothies are also a really easy and tasty way to pack in my daily greens!

A couple weeks ago I was making at least one green smoothie a day, but out of convenience, or perhaps having not gone to the grocery store in a while, I started slipping back to cooked foods again. The first couple of meals were great; they were soft and comforting, but I quickly realized that I didn't feel as happy or energetic as I did as when I was eating a diet of about 80% raw food.  The situation got dire when I ran out of greens for a few days over Memorial Day weekend, and I really started noticing the difference --my body started demanding fresh greens. 

As luck would have it, an old friend mailed me a couple of her raw food books the other day and I got yet another recipe for a green drink.  Apparently this is a pretty common concoction in the raw food world which goes by different names: it's "Green Lemonade" in the Raw Food Detox Diet, and there is a similar recipe in  Raw Food Real World called "Basic Green".

When I get the ingredients out of the fridge to make this, my 1 year old finds a cup and brings it over to me!  She sucks down this juice like it's going out of style! I crave it as well. (My 3 year old prefers smoothies to juice, but she will sip this a bit, too.)

Edited to add:
Since I published this post, this thought has been running through my head: "Basic Green Lemonade" is way too boring a title for this juice.  Let it be henceforth known as:
 
Basic Green "Lemonade"  
Emerald Love Elixir of Life :)
1 head of romaine and/or
a couple stalks of celery
8-10 large leaves of kale, chard, or collards (or a combination)
1 whole organic lemon
1-2 organic apples

Run all ingredients through a juicer. Yum!