Progress Report, a Green Smoothie, and a Recipe from the Book

I have to admit I was dubious reading about green drinks and "delicious green smoothies" and such, but I decided to give it a try today with a combination that sounded good, with light citrus that seemed to work with spinach.

GREEN MELON SMOOTHIE

1/4 honeydew melon
3 oz. or 1/3 of the bag or a big handful or about 4 cups raw spinach
1 tangerine
1 small orange
1 kiwi
water and ice cubes for consistency

Combine ingredients and blend to desired consistency.

Verdict--Pretty Good. This was a good first try, and I'm actually encouraged to try again later. The fruit flavors aren't as intense as I'd like normally, but it's refreshing. I like it even better as I get near the end of the glass. About half of this makes a huge glassful.

GARDEN STUFFED VEGETABLES from Eat For Health: Lose Weight, Keep It Off, Look Younger, Live Longer (2 book set), by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

I adapted this recipe from the book, which calls for a mixture of veggies, quinoa, lentils, raisins, and walnuts stuffed into bell peppers, zucchini, and portabello mushrooms and topped with tomato sauce before baking. I substituted barley for the quinoa and used real mozzarella (about 3 oz) to hold the filling together instead of the cheese substitute in the recipe. I served this to the family on rice. Close to what the recipe suggests, I had mine over romaine with lite balsamic vinaigrette.

Verdict--Excellent! We all enjoyed this, and I'm glad there's some filling left over to do something with later.

By the way, I am contemplating joining the member center at drfuhrman.com, and the fee includes the above e-book "free," though I purchased it for about $25 several months ago. If anyone reading this is interested in getting that e-book at a nice discount, please email me at marsches@aol.com so we can discuss it. The customer service people said I am welcome to assign the link for the book to any computer I like.

TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--two egg whites scrambled with salsa on one half an Arnold Sandwich Thin (100 calories, 6 grams fiber for both halves), the other half with a spread of homemade strawberry jam

Lunch--1/2 cup Progresso lentil soup; 1/2 cup leftover PESTO SKILLET; GREEN MELON SMOOTHIE

Supper--GARDEN STUFFED VEGETABLES, apple

PROGRESS REPORT
Down three pounds from last week :-)