Morning Healthy Treats: Pomegranate Juice with Honey

I love healthy mornings, and drinking something fresh is part of my daily ritual. Either tea or some smoothie is definitely worth to wake up 10 minutes early to have enough time to prepare and clean the utensils.

As the Jewish New Year traditionally involves using a lot of pomegranates - and honey too - after everything is over, there are a couple of bowls full of seeds left over that I don't have the heart to throw to the trash. The easiest way to use them, besides adding them to some salads or maybe to a batch of cake is by making a juice out of them. As simple as that!

For one glass of juice, I used the seeds from one medium-sized pomegranate, plus one tablespoon of honey and one glass of cold water. Added all those ingredients in the smoothie maker and blended at moderate speed for 2 minutes.

The most complicated - but not impossible - part is to come: the pomegranate do have strong seeds that during the blending process are took out, but should be filtered through a strainer. It takes another minute to do so and after that your juice is ready. 

As I had the curiosity to taste various ready-made pomegranate juices, I enjoyed mine much better, as it has the right sweet balance and the original taste, which I do not fancy, is diluted. Therefore, at least for the winter, I might consider including pomegranate part of my regular diet, given also its natural qualities, which go beyond the skin-care protection generously offered. For instance, pomegranate seeds contain antioxidants which fight cholesterol, increase oxygen levels to the heart, fight cell damage and can also balance your weight. Compared to other fruits, the pomegranate juice has the same healthy concentration as the fruits and the seeds. 

Colours of cheese

I am late with more than 10 posts and pictures, but due to other professional and family obligations, I will take it as slowly as possible. Meanwhile, will continue to document new and new post and maybe if one day will dedicate more than 5 hours to blogging will be able to end up with having the plenty of posts I am dreaming about.

Till then, some short visual memories from the last Rosh Hashanah, when in one of the days I served the following colorful combination:

Emmentaller cheese+2 types of camembert+another non-branded sort of cheese

Pomegranate seeds

Olive oil - even though it looks in the picture as honey (and probably it works very well with honey)

With the green tablecloth and the red roses, it created an amazing effect that made the ambiance even more enjoyable. 

A fresh salad for a new beginning

This wonderfully green-looking salad was part of the never ending menu prepared for Rosh Hashanah.

The ingredients:
lettuce
avocado - half, finelly chopped
pomegranate seeds - 1/4
olive oil
1 table spoon of honey
Mixed them all together and serve them as often as possible. The final taste is delicious.

Avocado-Pomegranate Salat

I am not following too many recipes, but for the sake of diversification and given my limited experience in the issues of cooking, I need to use some books.

I have already four big colourful ones in my library, a very modest presence, in comparison with the volume of my books.

But, I have Internet, so no worries about my bibliography and actually, I prefer the virtual option, as I can find useful video posts - maybe one day I will try to do it too.

The following recipe is adapted from Elizabeth Wolf Cohen's Jüdische Küche. 100 authentische Rezepte.

What do you need is:

1 pomegranate

2 oranges

2 avocados

10 fresh mint leaves

Cayenne pepper, on taste

1 spoon of honey

25 gr. of salt

Prepare the orange juice and mix together with salt, pepper, the salt and the honey.

Remove the seeds of the pomegranate, peel the avocado and slice it.

Pour the orange mixture and wait another 10 minutes.

The total amount of time is maximum 25 minutes.

I served together with some fish recipes, fighting hard the temptation to eat it as a separate meal. A lovely and unique taste, worthy to taste it!