Love yourself first

It's again "that" weekend of the year. Everyone's in love. Red hearts and sweet "love you" messages everywhere.
I'm not a "non-romantic" or "Valentine's day hater", but I don't care much about it either. Ohhhhhhh, yes, I love to receive a little attention like everyone else, but not in the form of a useless dust-collecting gift and once a year only, I love to be loved every single moment/hour/day of the year.
But what I wanted to say today is "love yourself in the first place, to be able to love everyone else". Being a wife, a mother, takes up a lot of energy. I often feel squeezed out like those orange or lemon skins.
I've chosen to care about myself and love myself through the food I take.  And not everyone understands that. You'll rarely find ready-to-use, pre-packaged food in my home. I know, it is in a way a luxury a stay-at-home mom can afford, but if you think about it carefully, it really isn't. Don't try convincing me that frozen soup tastes just as good as the homemade one (my MIL has tried often ^__^), I don't buy it.
Preparing something fresh and from scratch doesn't necessarily mean you need to spend hours cooking. It's all about love, folks. And good organization. And if you only think about how much time an avarage person spends in front of a TV, you'll definitely discover there's plenty of time to dedicate to a healthy meal as well.
And here I want to come to another point. Very often we convince ourselves that we hate certain food, ingredients, products. And very often I've come to a conclusion, that it applies almost exclusively to industrial products. Try making that same food at home with fresh ingredients and you may actually discover you love it.
One of "those cases" for me was ACE juice - carrot, orange, lemon. I simply couldn't imagine drinking something tasting so horrible (yes, I've actually tasted it), even knowing it contained A-C-E vitamins. But also knowing that storebought fruit juices have as the largest portion of ingredients sugar and water, while fruit itself arrives perhaps to 30%, was never convincing. Lazyness, being always at hand, ready to be drunk, that's what I think convinces many people to buy and drink them. Not me.
It really takes no time, less then 5 minutes, once a day to drink a glass of vitamins, to love yourself.
And this one, trust me, tastes more than DELICIOUS.
And, to love myself even more, I used only organic ingredients ^__^

ACE juice with honey
(1 serving):

1 carrot
1 orange
1/2 grapefruit
1/2 lemon
1 TBspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon soy lecithin*

Carefully wash and peel the carrot. Slice it thinly (I used a mandolin).
Put the sliced carrot into your blender cup, add the squeezed orange, grapefruit and lemon juices, the honey and the lecithin.
Add a few crashed ice cubes and blend everything well for a minute or two until smooth.
Pour into a glass and drink. Do not let it sit around or you'll lose the vitamins.

*Soy lecithin is rich in Vitamin E, and it has antioxidant proprieties. There are studies that show soy-derived lecithin has significant effects on lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, while increasing HDL ("good cholesterol") levels in the blood. It helps improve your memory and cognitive capabilities.

ACE al miele
(per 1 persona):

1 carota
1 arancia
1/2 pompelmo
1/2 limone
1 cucchiaio di miele di millefiori
1/2 cucchiaino di lecitina di soia*

Lavate e pelate la carota. Tagliatela a rondelle sottili.
Unite nel bicchiere del frullatore la carota, i succhi spremuti dell'arancia, limone e pompelmo, il miele e la lecitina. Aggiungete qualche cubetto di ghiaccio spezzettato.
Frullate per un minuto o due e consumatelo subito perché non perda le vitamine.

*LECITINA DI SOIA: La Lecitina di Soia è ottimale per il trattamento delle malattie cardiovascolari avendo effetto su livelli di colesterolo cattivo alti o con un coefficiente HDL/LDL squilibrato. Molti studi riconoscono che il consumo di Lecitina di Soia sia efficace nella riduzione del colesterolo cattivo. Limita l’infiltrazione dei grassi nel fegato e l’esposizione epatica a sostanze nocive.
Contiene la vitamina E, e ha le proprietà antiossidanti.
Studi recenti hanno dimostrato che la Fosfatidilserina (sostanza di cui è ricca la lecitina di soia) migliora la memoria e la capacità cognitiva.

S ovim receptom sudjelujem u ovomjesečnom krugu igre Ajme koliko nas je, čija je domaćica ovaj mjesec Aleksandra, s bloga Sweet food,  odabrala kao temu MED.

ACE sok s medom
(za 1 osobu):

1 mrkva
1 naranča
1/2 grejpfruta
1/2 limuna
1 žlica cvjetnog ili livadskog meda
1/2 žličice sojinog lecitina*

Dobro operite i ogulite mrkvu. Narežite je na tanke kolutiće (ja sam to napravila za čas na ribež za kupus).
Stavite u čašu blendera mrkvu, iscijeđene sokove naranče, limuna (procijedite da odstranite sjemenke) i grejpfruta (ako ne volite grejp, stavite sok dvije naranče).
Dodajte med i sojin lecitin. Po želji dodajte i 2-3 kockice leda ako želite svježi napitak.
Izmiksajte sve dobro 1-2 minute, uspite u čašu i popijte odmah da ne izgubite vitamine.

*SOJIN LECITIN: sadrži vitamin E e ima antioksidantna svojstva. Mnogi studiji pokazali su njegovu efikasnost na smanjenje kolesterola (onog "lošeg", ne smanjujući razinu "dobrog") i triglicerida. Ograničava infltracije masnoće u jetru. Poboljšava pamćenje i kognitivne sposobnosti.