Photography by: Cynthia K Cortes

SPRING FLING 

Spring is upon us and it’s all about cleaning and shedding.  A quick juice fast is beneficial to everyone not just those looking to eliminate winter belly as we prep for bikini season.  There’s more to fasting with fresh pressed juice than just looking healthier; a detoxification of the body is essential every now and then, fasting allows the digestive organs to get some much needed rest, it provides cures to many health problems and gives you revitalizes energy.  Studies show more than 10% of the body’s energy is normally involved in eating and digesting.  Combine that with a daily intake of natural ingredients proven to supply you with energy you’ll have enough stamina to get you through how ever many days of fasting you commit to.

I recommended a 1 to 3 day stretch.  When considering a juice fast of more than a day one should consult a qualified health professional. Drink approximately 1.5 liter  of water per every 40 pounds of your body weight a day in addition to the juice.  You also want to take into consideration gradually introducing solid foods back into the diet to avoid adverse reactions when you are done with the fast.  I usually do raw foods the day after a fast.

Here’s some recipes I love.  Fasting should be fun.  Try doing it when you are off of work like a weekend so you can relax and enjoy coming up with recipes of your own.  If you don’t have a juicer I recommend any of the Breville Juice Fountain series, they’re the hottest ones on the market and comparable to the professional units you see at juice bars.
Cheers to good health and a fabulous summer!

GREEN LEMONADE

Juice 5 kale leaves & 2 granny smith apples.  Add juice of ½ a lemon.  I usually double this recipe because it’s just so delicious.

AVOCADO SHAKE

Juice 2 pears, 1 apple, 1 celery stalk and ½ bunch of mint. Add juice of half of a lime.  Divide the juice in half and combine one portion of the juice with half of an avocado and blend.  I recommend an immersion blender but a traditional blender will do.  When smooth add the remaining ½ portion of juice and blend again.  Additionally I’ve added a list of ingredients that will make creating your own a bit easier.

ENERGY COCKTAIL

Juice 5 leaves of kale, 1 bunch parsley, 1/4 papaya, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 celery and ½ cucumber.  Add 2 tsp. spirulina and blend smooth.

SIX CITRUS JUICE

Using a citrus juicer juice 1 grapefruit, 1 blood orange, ¼ lemon, ½ lime, 1 minneola, 1 tangelo.  I like to strain the juice to remove pulp and seeds if I’m not using an electric citrus juicer which comes outfitted with a strainer.

CARROT ORANGE **

Juice a small piece of ginger with 3 carrots, combine with the juice of 2 oranges.

HYDRATE COOLER **

Mix juice of ½ cucumber with small box of coconut water and 2 oz. whole leaf aloe vera juice.

Ingredients to play around with;

Açaí

Apples

Alfalfa sprouts

Aloe Vera

Avocado

Bananas

Bee Pollen

Beet

Bilberry

Blueberries

Blue Green Algae

Broccoli

Carrots

Celery

Chlorella

Citrus

Cucumber

Cranberries

Flax seed

Ginger

Kale

Maca root

Noni Fruit

Papaya

Parsley

Probiotics

Raspberries

Spinach

Spirulina

Watercress

“Fasting, the greatest remedy, the physician within” – Hippocrates
“Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor.” – Egyptian pyramid inscription, 3800 B.C.

I LOVE THIS !!! Thank you Camille for your lovely recipes for a healthy and tasty juicing experience. I am a huge fan of juicing and my mouth was watering as I was reading along. I especially loved the Green Lemonade, Carrot Orange and the Hydrating Cooler. I can not wait to whip one up for myself! 

xoxo Karin

Share/Save

BORICUA BEANS  by Camille Becerra

As a child I grew up on rice and beans, by that I mean everyday.  A few years ago I was watching a Barbara Walter’s special or some other similar celebrity interview program in which sexy boricua Jennifer Lopez at the height of the “Jenny from the Block” craze was being featured.  She was demonstrating her cooking chops to America by making beans.   A fellow boricua cooking, I had to watch.   Sadly it was a mess, I couldn’t believe my eyes, first she dumped a can of Goya beans into a pot then filled the empty can with water and added it to the beans.  Beans are not Campbell soup.  Afterwards she made a big deal about a secret ingredient, I got really excited as I thought someone was about to spread light to the backbone of all Puerto Rican cookery, sofrito. But instead she pulled out Sasson; this little orange packet is what I like to refer to as P.R.M.S.G.   The producers did right by not highlighting the end result of this soupy, two ingredient version of Puerto Rican beans.  They did however show her serving it to Ben Affleck her hottie at the time, I expected more from an Oscar award-winning actor in covering up the slight dissatisfaction.  

I love La Lopez, she has impeccable fashion style, true NYC swagger and she oozes sexy.  Hoping to help her and whom ever else would like to round out their inner Latin I give you my family’s recipe for beans.  This recipe is my go to comfort food, a great antidote for those at your doorstep needing a little warmth and love.  I recommend it over rice and accompanied with a salad.  When entertaining a larger group I like to serve it with a juicy piece of free-range strip steak and sweet plantains too. 

BORICUA BEANS

Serves 4 

¼ cup  olive oil

2 tbl   Sofrito (recipe below)

½ can   tomato paste

2 tbl  Goya Alcaparrado, a mixture of olives, pimientos strips and capers

1 can   Goya or Organic Pink Beans

1   garlic clove, minced fine

2 tbl  pickling juice from the Alcaparrado 

In a saucepot over medium heat add the olive oil and sofrito and allow them to come up to temperature together.  When the sofrito begins to cook and sizzle quietly add the tomato paste and stir constantly to prevent burning.  When the oil, sofrito and tomato paste are well incorporated and the mixture begins to sizzle slightly add the alcaparrado, mix well.  Add the beans and simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes.  Stir every so often to prevent beans from sticking to the bottom of pot and burning.  Five minutes before removing the beans from fire add the finely minced garlic.  Right before serving add the pickling juice, this brightens the flavors. 
 

SOFRITO 

This recipe makes a healthy batch that you can keep in the freezer pulling from it whenever you need.   

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch culantro

4 heads of garlic

5 medium onions

1 bell pepper or 7 sweet aji peppers

¼ to ½ cup olive oil 

Pulse all but the oil in a food processor in batches till it resemples a chunky pesto.  Add small amounts of oil to mixture when ingredients refuse to process.

Camille Becerra is bringing me back to my roots. It is a real treat when I get to savor real Puerto Rican beans made by no other. She made me smile as she mentions the true secret of making the beans burst sensationally in your mouth… “Sofrito!”  Yes, a latin secret that is embedded in all of us Latinos.  Sexy Camille reveals it all. She is sensational. There’s a buzz about a new restaurant. If that is certainly true, I can not wait !  

To learn more click on: “Vemille’s New Adventure“.

Thank you Camille!  

Note: Camille Becerra will also be in Glamour Magazine this July !

xoxo Karin

Share/Save

Photographs by: Cynthia K Cortes 

Sexy Camille Becerra has more recipes for you and me to sink into. I just love when I hear from Camille as she really has great stories with fantastic endings.  Of course, our lovely Camille can really put you in the mood to cook in these days. She delivers easy and quick recipes for a fantastic dish always. Why not cook in?!  

Camille: I had plans to go out to dinner Friday night.  I was dressed and ready to walk out the door when I received a phone call from my date apologizing that he’d been stuck on a project in the office and didn’t know how long it would take.  After all was said and done two hours had passed when my boy on his Vespa arrived at my door.  At this point leaving my apartment to go to the intended restaurant on a Friday night at 9:30 was not the look.  The wait would be excruciating not only for me as that’s all I’d been doing but for Romeo as well – he was famished.  I offered to cook but immediately realized it would be the first meal I would prepare for him, the thought of an extravagant dinner was out of my enthusiasm level.  I persevered through the downer of not being able to wow him with an elaborate first meal and offered my Italian boy a quick bowl of what else but Spaghetti.  It was really all I had in the pantry that night.  I accompanied it with a salad of shaved fennel and parmesan with a truffle oil and lemon dressing.  This pasta recipe is super easy and fast to make, the breadcrumbs are  the secret ingredient here, they allow the sauce to coat and stick to the pasta. 

Definitely not a meal to impress the socks off a foodie but a meal comforting enough to have socks come flying off during this hot date. 

ITALIAN BOY’S SPAGHETTI

½ box Spaghetti 

            salt

¼ cup  extra virgin-olive oil 

½ sprig rosemary

1  chili de arbol, crumbled in your hands

3  cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

3 sprigs thyme

3  anchovy fillets

1  14.5 oz. can of crushed tomato

¼ cup  breadcrumbs

1 tbl.  capers

¼ cup  cured black olives, quartered

salt & cracked peppercorn 
 

Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil over high heat.  Drop pasta into boiling water and cook till al dente.   

Heat a medium sauté pan over high heat for 2 minutes.  Pour olive oil, and add the rosemary and chili allowing them to sizzle.  Lower the heat to medium and add the garlic stirring till they turn light brown.  Add the anchovy fillets and mash until they melt into the oil.  Add the thyme, allow it to snap, crackle and pop.  Add the tomato and simmer for 3 minutes while stirring to prevent the bottom from burning.  Add the capers, olives and 1 tablespoon of the caper liquid.   

Remove the rosemary and thyme sprigs.  Add the cooked pasta and breadcrumbs to the sauce and toss till well coated over low heat.  

This recipe is an adaptation of my friend Rocco DiSpirito’s Spaghetti Scarpariello.

Thank you again Camille for such a quick and easy recipe. I am already boiling the water! 

xoxo Karin

Share/Save