Sunday 17 January 2010

Juicy Ninja!

Hi

Gym Ninja is back after a very enjoyable birthday yesterday. Yes, GN is one of those people who love the birthday fuss. Gifts although welcome, are not the real reason she loves her birthday. It is that 1 day of attention that she finds so wonderful.  Anyway, yesterday was a fantastic birthday...

Firstly, she went to visit her family & received her presents. Always fun! Her sister had made her a birthday cake too. Now Gym Ninja does not eat cake, but her family do hence the huge masterpiece that awaited her...apparently this was a fondant icing replica of Gym Ninja!


Her favourite gift was the Jack Lalanne juicer she's been harping on about. FANTASTIC machine. It wasn't until the day after that GN got chance to road test it, but it is truly marvelous. MUCH quieter than past juicers she has owned, & if you put a plastic bag in the pulp collector then there is minimal washing needed.

  The New Juicer!!!

Just to leap forward a day, Gym Ninja decided to share her first 'new' juicing experience with you all. Today, Gym Ninja made...


'Spring Clean Tonic'

Now she has a fantastic book called 'Superjuice' by Michael Van Straten. She's had it for years and this book shows you exactly what each drink is supposed to do and also has a cross-reference guide at the back for ailments and almost a 'prescription' of juices to take to help with ailments. Anyway, GN based her choice on what stuff she had in the fridge, and the Spring Clean Tonic is supposed to boost your system after winter, purify the blood, cleanse the body and give you vitality. All this from a drink!

Gym Ninja followed the recipe, scrubbed the organic veg and then shoved it down the shoot of the machine as per the recipe...in went the following:
3 UNpeeled carrots
1 large lettuce leaf
1/2 cucumber
1/4 of a red pepper
1 generous handful of spinach
1 generous handful of watercress


This was after she'd added the 'green' stuff...  
Then she pushed through ALL the green stuff and got this....



And then she added the coloured stuff and got....er.....this...


Hmmm......not EXACTLY the most appetising drink she'd ever seen. Oh and just HOW Much was created too? FAR more than a normal juicer. Fine if it tastes OK, not so fine if it tastes yak?

She grabbed the glass and sniffed the murky coloured drink.




Hmmm.

NEVER stare directly into a glass of raw vegetable juice. It doesn't stimulate one's tastebuds!!!!!


It smells like peppery grass.
She took a large gulp...

Yuk! it TASTES like peppery grass too. Oh bugger! But GN KNOWS this is good for her, so she does what any normal sensible grown up would do.....she holds her breath and drinks it!

It takes 5 attempts to finish the glass, but once she does she feels very virtuous indeed. Her stomach seems a tad suspicious mind, but apart from feeling it is saying, 'oooer, what's all this juicy raw stuff?' , she felt fine and as of yet, 7 hours later, has had no nasty side effects or reactions.

More to follow over the next coming week...

So, back to the birthday story...

Later that evening, she had arranged a birthday meal with some old school friends, so having dolled herself up in a black outfit (what else), she met up with her friends at Gusto, Albert Dock Liverpool for her birthday meal.  The group were ushered away into a private area that overlooked the dock, & settled down to mooch through the menu.
The good thing about Gusto is that they have a healthy menu too, that gives the nutritional breakdown of the meal.  Gym Ninja decided upon Sea Bass. Mmmm. Yum. She also decided to order some steamed spinach as an additional side order too. Fantastic!

As they were all waiting for their meals (and yes, Mrs C, here IS the place to name and shame the girl who virtuously ordered a salad for her main course...then added a side order of CHIPS!), everyone faffed around with their cameras doing the obligatory poses, trying to ignore the odd Gusto style features (magician-style gold lame curtains anyone?). After a long wait (apparently Gym Ninja's sea bass would take half an hour!) the meals arrived. YUM!

This is what was put in front of Gym Ninja...










Wow.
They weren't kidding when they described it as 'sea bass'. They are REALLY spoiling her with that lemon! Gym Ninja kind of thought it may have had something else on the plate! But wait! She'd ordered her spinach remember....??










Oh.

Look. Let us just say, that not only was the sea bass delicious, it was also EXTREMELY waist-friendly!  NO chance of breaking anyone's diet in here!  (plus a good job GN had a protein bar in her bag!)

Now GN knows what you are all wondering? Did she break her no-alcohol rule? Well yes, she decided to treat herself to one alcoholic drink, and went to the bar to order a single malt.

GN: "Hi-what single malts do you have please?"
Barman: "We have this (points to one 12 year old single malt) and this one (points at a 12 year old single malt that is Japanese)."


Gym Ninja is none the wiser!

GN"What do you recommend?"
Barman: "I like this one actually-would you care to try it?"  He enquires, wafting the Japanese bottle at her.

Gym Ninja nods, and watches as the barman grabs a glass and decants the tiniest amount of whisky into the glass possible.  She tries it, and it rips the back of her throat off.

GN:" I'll have that please, on the rocks".

As she is paying an EXTORTIONATE amount of cash for this shot of whisky (whilst lookig for Dick Turpin to turn up!) the barman looks at her and smiles as he says,
"I must admit, I'm impressed when a lady orders a single malt".


IMMEDIATELY, his colleague blurts out,
"We don't actually KNOW if she's a lady yet do we?" *he smirks and elbows his colleague as he winks at GN*

WTF? Does Gym Ninja look like Dial-A-Slapper???

Having had a fantastic night and also received her birthday dessert of lemon sorbet (See? GN is a healthy girl!) which did actually remind GN of something else (see if you can guess what??), they headed off into the night....










The Birthday Sorbet!!!!



See you all tomorrow!!!!!!!

Gym Ninja xx