my little poney juice and the cutest flax seed crackers ever!

I should start off by mentioning that the following recipes in this post do require some appliances that you might not have at home. The first is a juicer (which I actually bought for my mom for her birthday during her short-lived juice phase. She never used so when I moved into my new apartment she sort of re-gifted it back to me as a house warming gift. I was down) The juicer I have is by no means a fancy-shmancy industrial one, like those you find at a juice press. This is the exact juicer that I bought (yup, I have a pink juicer!) and it does the job just fine. Part two of this post calls for a dehydrator. I got my dehydrator as a holiday present a few years ago (isn't that what all 17 year-old girls wish for??) and it is probably the cheapest models out there, but it does exactly what I need it to. However, if you're not into obscure kitchen appliances like I am, you can definitely substitute with things you might already have in your kitchen, like a blender and an oven on a low-heat setting.

So, onto part I: My Little Poney Juice

Sometimes, on a [rare] day-off, when I have time to move really slowly in the morning and want something light, I will make some juice. I like juicing from time to time because it allows my body to take a break from working so hard at digesting all the (delicious and healthy) food that I put into it everyday. When my body takes a break from digesting, it has time to clean itself out. Raw juice is also full of enzymes and phytonutrients and really just makes you feel amazing. Hungover? Juice. About to get sick? Juice. This isn't so much a recipe (as I didn't measure anything and chose my ingredients based on what needed to use up in my fridge) but I wanted to share because it tasted great but most importantly made the silliest color.

Into the juicer went: red cabbage, kale and spinach stems (best use for these guys ever! since I stopped eating them raw in my salads after realizing they were a but hard to digest), 2 celery stalks, and a small pear. Afterwords, I added 1/2 tsp spiralina & a squeeze of lemon juice. Mmm.

mmm purple stuff

So after my little juice party, I went to clean up the mess I made and discovered inside the base of the juicer remained all the fibery veg pulp from my juice! I couldn't let this stuff go to waste!

Moving along to Part deux: The Cutest Flax Seed Crackers I Ever Done Seen!

The obvious decision was to make this carnival-colored puree of goodness into some flax seed crackers to be enjoyed at a later date. I walked you through how to make flax seeds crackers in detail in an earlier post. Again, not a real recipe, but if you ever find yourself with about 1.5 cups of vegetable mush (you'd be surprised how often that is in my household) simply stir it into a big bowl that has 1/2 cup of flax seeds that have been soaking in 1 cup of water until it turns into a jell (about 15 mins). I also added some garlic powder, black pepper and Himalayan sea salt to the mix. That's it. Spread the "dough" onto a dehydrator tray lined with parchment paper, plugged it in and went about my day only to come home to some funfetti-esqu flax crackers :) I've also made these over-night which is nice because I find they need a solid 10-12 hours to fully dehydrate and become crunchy. Otherwise you are left with more of a flax tortilla. Alternatively, you can make flax seed crackers in the oven, they just won't be entirely raw and you can't leave the house while they "cook".

I mentioned this in my earlier post, but adding spices is a great idea as the flax seed crackers are pretty neutral on their own. Garlic powder, nutritional yeast, a dash of cayenne and pumpkin seeds have all been winners in my experience.

What is your favorite way to use up veg pulp? Ever tried making flax seed crackers?