Natural Boost Super Juice!

 From the moment I opened my eyes this morning I felt tired. I'd a very long and busy day yesterday and today was equally busy, so I think I may have had a tiredness hangover (if such a thing exists). Despite having a good breakfast and a big cup of coffee I was still exhausted when I left the house. So I had to go with something I knew would work...my super juice! I sometimes also call this just my "hulk juice" because it's big,green, strong and makes you go "Arrrrrhh"!

 

I don't have a set list of ingredients but 4 things that I try always put in the juice are: spinach, ginger, apple and carrot. Today I also added an orange, 2 kiwis, 1/2 a lemon and some lovely Irish kale. I just bung it all in to our Philips Juicer and let the goodness of all the vitamins and minerals work away! Juicers are a bit of an investment but I really think they're worth it. I love adding loads of ginger (unpeeled) in my juices, enough to make your whole mouth tingle, along side lots and lots of greens. The orange and apple balance out the spinach and/or kale really nicely and in a big glass with lots of ice it's the perfect pick-me-up!

Thankfully it's stayed nice and sunny since lunch-time today so I was able to enjoy my super juice outside in the sunshine and had a lovely furry helper (Honey) while I took these shots!

Sunny Springtime Salad

Doesn't everything seem better when the sun is out? I think so. I love salads, but too often I'm put off them by the dull Irish weather. I mean, who really wants to eat a salad when it's lashing rain outside and you have the heating on full blast? Thankfully, today is not one of those days..yey! Finally some lovely spring sunshine. So for lunch today Isaac and I had this beautiful sunny salad.

I love the colours of this salad, the green from the baby spinach and mint, dark red from the roasted pimentón peppers, orange burts from the little satsumas, soft purple from the red onion and the light char on the halloumi and pine nuts. Very simple, but all together says "spring is finally here!".

The Weekly Shop

I thought I'd be fun to show you what we bought when we went food shopping over the weekend. We normally do a "small shop" (lidl) every week and then a "big shop" (lidl and tesco) every second week. We try to eat as well as we can, so lots of fruits and veggies, not too many processed foods and organic and Irish when possible! It really depends on what we need, sometimes we need more in one shop than we do in another, so as you'd expect what we buy changes constantly. None the less, here is what we picked up from our "big shop".

Aubergines x2, field mushrooms, lemons, limes, spring onions, bananas, apples, blueberries (in wide shot), almonds x2, spinach x2, baby asparagus and tender stem broccoli, clementines.

 Belvita breakfast milk & cereals, flour tortilla wraps, halloumi, new potatoes, ground cumin, ground coriander, bulgar wheat, butterbeans x2, chickpeas x2, raisins, pumpkin seeds, strawberry jam, low-fat milk x2, orange juice x2, cooking olive oil.

And finally, free range eggs, pure dairy free sunflower, Quorn chicken pieces, fresh coriander, pak choi, avocado x2


We normally pick up fruit and veg from Lidl, our local one always has a great supply of organic and Irish produce. We then pick up any extras that we need in Tesco. Items we very frequently buy but didn't need to pick up this week: peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, cheese and meat for Isaac, salad leaves, bread flour and tomatoes. I'm sure there are other ones I'm forgetting but I hope you enjoyed a look at what we bought this week. If you have a blog, I'd love to see what different and interesting things you buy. Hope you enjoyed a look at what we bought!