Juicing!

My sweet friend Nicole (whom this post is dedicated to) recently asked me if I use a juicer. I do indeed. I love fruits and vegetables, and although most of the time I would rather eat them whole and get the maximum nutritional benefit from them, we love juice as a treat on its own, as a smoothie base, in hot cereal instead of water, etc. For those who struggle to eat their recommended servings of fruits and vegetables each day, a juicer is a great idea--there is still plenty of goodness in the glass (especially compared to a lot of the store-bought stuff)! Juicing seems to be getting more and more attention lately, so there's lots of info/suggestions/recipe out there--this is just a little about why I like it.

As far as money goes, yes, I spend more for less as compared to the big $.99 bottle of juice on the store shelf with who knows what in it. But the amazing taste, the extra nutrients and the absence of any additives is far worth it to me and my family. And as usual, I am creating flavor combinations based on what fruits and veggies I find at the farmers market or on sale at the grocery store, so I still do it as economically as possible. We did splurge a little on our Jack LaLanne Power Juicer, but it is wonderful and has held up like a champ!




Not only is the result fresh and delicious, I love having creative control over my juices as far as what does and doesn't go in them. And the flavor combinations are endless--it's really fun to experiment! I like to use vegetables along with just a bit of something like apple, kiwi or even carrots to sweeten it ever so slightly and make it a bit more palatable for the kids, but I am a big fan of the strictly veggie ones as well  (I love the combo of tomato, celery, carrots, spinach and a very small amount of onion).

These are some of our favorite flavor combos so far:

Orange, Strawberry, Pineapple

Spinach, Apple, Carrot, Kiwi

Blueberry Grape

And the finished products, in the same order as pictures above:

Crummy pic as usual, but it's a beautiful, swirly, pinky-peach color!

Admittedly a bit swamp juice-ish looking, but the color is the only noticeable trace of the spinach. It's a sweet, delicious concoction!

A gorgeous plum-purple color, tastes just as good as it looks!