Green smoothie with feijoas... and more flowers from the garden

Like most people in New Zealand I am loaded with feijoa this April. A good way to use them is in smoothies, and this is a particularly good one: feijoa, banana, spinach leaves and coconut water. Quantities to taste!

And now some flowers from the garden for my Pinterest board!

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

More healthy: smoothie: green, croquettes: baked!

Nothing beats a green green green smoothie! Kale, spinach, banana, frozen mango, and coconut water as a base.  The croquettes are zucchini (raw and grated) mixed with feta, eggs, herbs and bread (stale bread soaked and crushed) and instead of frying them, as I usually do, I just drizzled them with olive oil and place them in the oven. Turn over halfway through baking and add more oil in necessary, you will be happy for how good they taste, even if they are not fried!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Beautiful beetroots!

I love making fresh juice with red beetroots, it tastes great and the colour always cheers me up. Then the other day my friend Alan from Dream of Italy gave me an Italian beetroot from his garden, I think that it must be this one. Well, when I cut it I though that it looked so pretty that I didn't want to juice it! So I just cooked it al dente, and then cooled it under cold water and added extra virgin olive oil, lemon and salt. Unfortunately the cooking took the colour away, but it still looked really pretty (scroll down for the photo). Next time I'll get another beet from Alan I'll try it raw, cut into very thin slices.

And then I used a 'normal' red beetroot for my juice!
1 large red beetroot, 6 large carrots, 4 stalks of celery, half a cucumber and 6 pears.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Celery, cucumber and coriander juice

Green, cleansing and refreshing! 

Celery stalks and leaves, cucumber, and a few sprigs and leaves of coriander (to taste, it can be really strong).

Happy detoxing!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Grape juice and a glass full of memories

There are some beautiful grapes on sale at the Dragicevich Orchard in Oratia, those old fashion grapes that really smell and taste like grapes (not like the stuff that you find in supermarkets). And they make a wonderful juice. Apparently grape juice has antioxidant effects, well, this would be a bonus, but the only thing that I can say so far is that it is delicious, and the aroma brings back happy childhood memories of picking grapes at my Grandma's in Italy. Yes, memories in a small glass! Have you ever had a similar experience with food and drinks?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Naturally green ideas for St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day! Around this time of the year I see a lot of pins and posts full of green food which, sadly, tends to be full of… green coloring! Why? I like to take advantage of this celebration to propose that we eat more greens, and I mean natural greens! So, here to a healthy St Patrick's Day!

I'll start super healthy, with this super green juice with cucumber, celery and silver beet.

or more green juices if you like to add some fruit too:

Celery lemon and green apple

Cucumber, celery and green apple

And here one to detox if you drink too much Guinness!

Celery, Rhubarb, cucumber and apple

For a starter I love a Garlic and cilantro guacamole, vegan and gluten free, and the kids love it too!

Garlic and cilantro guacamole

For a green main I love pasta with green sauces, like this Pasta with chive sauce

And here some more delicious vegetarian and vegan recipes

Spanakopita

Cous cous with Broccoli romani

Palak Paneer 

And for for dessert

Agar agar Feijoa jelly, vegan and gluten free

Or this Green Frangipane Tart 

These little homemade marzipans are colored with spiraling, and topped with pistachio, a lovely green, vegan, raw and gluten free treat for a special occasion, or for a edible present. So here we are, lots of naturally green suggestions, Happy St Patrick's Day!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fresh juice using beetroot stalks and leaves….

… plus beetroots from the garden, carrots, apples, and a little ginger. For five juices I used about 1.5 kg of carrots, plus a few local apples, and i picked two beetroots from my veggie garden, they were small but the leaves and stalks are perfect for juicing too (of salad) so nothing get wasted. I used just a little ginger (not all the piece in the photo) to give the juice a little zest. It was really sweet and delicious!

And now, just because I like these flowers so much, here are a couple of shots of Hydrangeas from Ponsonby Central. Have a great day!

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Mostly raw: two juices and a lunch box

While summer produce abounds it is easy to make juices and to eat more raw food.

Green juices are the best, of course, above celery, cucumber and green apple, light and refreshing.

 This one is a smoothie and the kids made it: melon, natural apple juice, banana and apricot, decorated with borage flowers.

And below a fruit lunch box: grapes, melon, watermelon, strawberries and wild strawberries (these are from the garden), plum and apricot, plus some mini pikelets. Easy as!

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Refreshing orange and carrot juice, garden produce and flops

The juice of the day is just carrots and orange. Usually I have this in winter, but I had a couple of oranges to use and it is refreshing (it has been hot!)

In the garden: we ate all our first corn, and it was sweet and delicious, but I now would like to ask a question to all gardeners out there: when can I pick the second ears of corn? The are still so small...

Zucchini: the ratio in my garden seems to be three yellow for every green one! This happens every year, I wonder why the yellow plant produces lots, and the green one doesn't!

Tomatoes: after a good start only the cherry tomatoes are doing well, the plum tomatoes and beef tomatoes… well, both plants got sick and only gave me a few tomatoes in the end (and the beef are quite small). Maybe I should plant them in boxes in the sun next year! Fortunately I have a zillion plants of cherry tomatoes (mostly self seeding) coming up now, so I am picking about a dozen a day now and the harvest should increase in the next few weeks. The yellow and black cherry tomatoes are not producing yet, but I did plant them later, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for a few more weeks of summer!

Off topic, but let's celebrate, I got over 150,000 page views in the last month :-)!

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Detox! Celery, rhubarb, cucumber and apple juice

This juice tastes good and feels good! For four glasses I used seven stalks of celery (no leaves this time) half a telegraph cucumber, two stalks of rhubarb from the garden (yes, raw!) and then topped up to taste with natural apple juice (no sugar added). The apple juice is optional, of course, but I like it ;-).

For a change in my weekly bouquet from the garden I picked some parsley flowers. They look quite pretty actually, and there is no parsley smell around (I was a bit worried about that!).

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Raw juice magic: celery, lemon and apple juice… and Atlas Power Coffee in Cambridge

I am so into juicing these days, and the kids drink all sort of vegetable and fruit juices, the greener the better! This one is particularly good: for four glasses I used half a stalk of celery (I use the stalks and only a few leaves - mostly to give it colour, usually I keep the leaves for cooking) then half a lemon and  to top a little (about 10-20%) natural apple juice. I will make this again and again, too good!

And now for my coffee indulgence: recently we went on holiday (will post about it later on) and on the way south of Auckland we stopped in Cambridge for coffee here (yes, the coffee shop is in a old church!).

And then I noticed that the coffee was from my friend Mark from Atlas Power Coffee! Mark, just to let you know, the coffee was good, and in fact we decided to stop there on our return trip to Auckland too!

And now for something completely different:

Nearly bought this one… :-)

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©