Tricking the Children

Imitating a college professor who served coffee during final exams, I used to serve coffee to my 8th grade students for a big test when I was a History Teacher.  What the 8th graders didn't know was that it was decaffinated coffee.  Who was I to tell them the truth that they weren't actually experiencing a caffeine buzz?  It was too much fun to watch them pretend to be jittery.

Tonight I made "Pulp Muffins" with this afternoon's juice pulp.  The muffins turned out to be quite green so I called them "St. Patrick's Day Muffins".  I thought it would be more appealing than Spinach-Lettuce-Celery Muffins.  They were none the wiser.

Vegetable Juice:
1 cucumber
1 c. spinach
1/2 head romaine lettuce
2 stalks of celery
8 strawberries
1 orange

This juice smelled like strawberry heaven, but tasted like vegetables.

The juice made about 3/4 cup of damp pulp.

Tricky Muffins

Color Therapy

One of my favorite elements of juicing is watching the layers of pure hue stack in the juice pitcher as I feed in each different ingredient.  After I finish, I stir all the colors together and enjoy seeing what color the juice ends up being.

Today I did part beet and part kale thinking that green plus red equals brown...but red won out.  Even my nine year old commented spontaneously, "Wow, the red really dominates the green!"

Full Spectrum:
1/2 beet
2 c. raw kale
2 stalks of celery
2 apples
2 pears

p.s.  Tomorrow my family will eat a loaf of quick bread I made from the pulp of today's recipe...I followed a zucchini bread recipe, but substituted today's very green pulp for shredded zucchini.

Eating the Pulp

From the manual that came with the juicer, down to blog after blog, even in juicing how-to videos, everyone recommends eating the pulp that is left over after juicing.  The pulp that is caught by centrifugal juicers is not very appetizing-looking, though.

Tonight I gave it a whirl with this afternoon's juice pulp.  I added nothing to the pulp, but shaped it into patties.  Coated in bread crumbs, I cooked them in a tablespoon of olive oil until golden brown.  After that, I imitated a typical eggplant parmesan recipe.

The result?  It tasted a lot like eggplant.  Crispy on the outside, moist and non-offensive on the inside.  But it wasn't eggplant.  It was a whole variety of bits of fibrous goodness that would have otherwise been thrown away.   

This Juice Makes Good Pulp:
2 apples
1 pear
3 carrots
1/2 cucumber (peeled)
1 1/2 c. raw spinach
3 radishes