Orange You Glad Tomorrow's a Holiday?

This is a must try recipe.  It was particularly refreshing on this 90+ degree day.

Lemon-Orange Juice
1 head romaine lettuce
7 carrots
1 lemon
2 oranges
1 apple

The juice naturally separates after a couple minutes.

Purple Juice!

Huzzah!  Purple juice!  I've been adding red cabbage to my recipes lately, trying to make a pretty purple juice and it has kept turning out brown.  Until today. And now, the long awaited, deliciously understated, mildly mellow, satisfyingly sweet juice recipe!

Purple Prose for You:
2 c. red cabbage
2 c. iceberg lettuce
3 celery stalks
1 carrot
2 apples
2 plums

Optional addition of a little "cheese".

ta-da!

Buckling Down

You know it's time to stop eating chocolate when your 10 year old expresses relief at having a green salad with dinner.  This is how it always goes, though.  Easter baskets (halloween bags, Christmas stockings, etc) are full of a variety of goodies, then they slowly get picked over until a week later when there are just Dots, Now and Laters and stale Peeps leftover.  This is the point when Mommy chooses to discreetly THROW IT ALL AWAY.  (good riddance!)

Sometimes we need to have a break from celebrating and return to normal, sweets-are-rare, life!

By the way, here is a link to an awesome list of tips on avoiding that nagging chocolate craving.

Back To Business:
5 branches kale
5 stalks celery
1 cucumber
2 oranges
1 apple

Holy Ripe Bananas, Batman!

Bananas fall into the "unjuicable" category of produce.   I have read that they make a mess and clog a juicer because of their soft, non-juicy texture.  Other unjuicables include avocados, coconut and (for some juicers) mangos.

Today, my daughters and I made a Sunday-fruit-juice-special, and then added half the juice to the blender where I had previously pureed two ripe bananas.  After blending it all together the final product was thick and smooth, like, well, a smoothie.  My husband, who likes all banana flavors (natural and artificial), went ape for this juice.  I thought the banana flavor paired well with fruit juice, but I think I'm more of a veggie juice girl after all.

Juicy-Smoothie:
1/4 watermelon
1 large tomato
8 strawberries
1/3 fresh pineapple

blend above juice with 2 pureed bananas, though the juice can stand alone.

This is your juice.

This is your juice on bananas.

Glowing Juice, Glowing Reviews

The color of this juice caused my watching children to inhale sharply; it was like pouring sunshine into a glass.  The flavor was no less impressive.  Sweet, fresh, invigorating.

Roots and Fruits:
4 carrots
2 radishes
5 stalks celery
1 large tomato
1 1/2 navel oranges
2 apples

Bulking Up Juice

Do other juicers notice that some of the greenest, and seemingly most nutritionally dense vegetables make very little juice?  I guess it makes sense.  They're just not very watery.

I find this gets in my way of trying to make a vegetable-prominent juice.  After I juice all the greens, there's not enough juice for two servings.  But I want to avoid just adding more fruit (though they do add volume to the juice), the flavor really gets tooooo sweet.

This is when my trusty cucumber and celery take center stage.  Today I juiced my planned and prepped arrangement only to find that it made just 15 oz of juice.  I peeled a giant English cucumber and it bulked up the volume by 10 more ounces.  Voila!  Now we are talking.

Now, With More Volume!
1 c. broccoli
6 branches kale
2 stalks celery
2 apples
6 strawberrries
1 english cucumber

Love Is Like A Red, Red Juice

Want a sweet recipe for the valentine in your life?  This juice will satisfy a sweet tooth and make your beloved's heart "beet" for you.  Puns aside, the heart really does benefit from beet juice.  From blood cells to blood pressure, one can't go wrong with this beverage!

Love Potion Number 9:
1 beet, stalk and all
1 zucchini unpeeled
3 stalks of celery
1/3 cantaloupe, rind on
1 apple

"I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink..."

A Challenge

One cucumber, one grapefruit, three apples, one half head of romaine lettuce and two celery stalks juiced makes 35 ounces of tasty raw juice.  This would be more juice than I ever consumed in one day before.  Can I do it?  It is a challenge I am up for!

P.S.  Thanks to my in-laws for bringing juice ingredients over yesterday for a sweet Sunday recipe.

Tropical Tang

As it turns out, celery may be my favorite juice ingredient for many reasons:

• it's flavor is subtle and works with almost any other veggie and fruit
• celery is very juicy, leaving very little pulp
• it's inexpensive
• it's extremely healthy
• frankly, celery is fun to send down the hopper, watching the greens lower bit by bit to their juicy fate

Here's a great juice that has a heavenly, light foamy body and yet it's not super sweet: almost sour, in fact. 

Sensible Drinking:
5 stalks of celery
1/2 pineapple
1 grapefruit (peeled)
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 stalk of kale

A guy walks into the doctor's office. A banana stuck in one of his ears, a celery stalk in the other ear,
and a carrot stuck in one nostril. The man says, "Doc, this is terrible. What's wrong with me?" 

The doctor says, "Well, first of all, you need to eat more sensibly."

Mixing Melons

Rather new to the juicing world, I have been selecting ingredients soley based on personal craving.  Additionally, I have been cautious with my new juicer and have taken a bit of time to "prep" fruits and veggies before I juice them.  Cutting stems and seeds out of fruit, peeling clementines, etc.

Today I used cantaloupe with my other standard fruits and veggies.  It was delicious and slightly tropical tasting.  Although, I think I'll halve the amount of melon I use next time (from 1/2 melon to 1/4 melon), as it was a super sweet juice.

But I read today that some people advise against mixing any other fruits with melons when you juice.  Apparently this can cause some kind of bad reaction?  Also interesting is that many cantaloupe nutrients are in the rind.  I cut the rind off today, but next time I will definitely try leaving it on!

Today's concoction:
1/2 cantaloupe (rind and pulp removed)
2 apples
1 pear
3 celery stalks
1 1/2 c. raw kale