Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Joys of Juicing

Happy Hump Day everyone! It is another absolutely beautiful day here in Texas. <3 Lets get started with another great song today!



Im sure I've shared this before, but I LOVE this song - it makes me want to get up and dance!

This morning JT and I were dragging a bit and running late so my plan of juicing for the two of us didn't work out. After he left, however, I decided I would juice for myself! A lot of people ask how we consume so many raw fruits and veggies -- juicing is exactly how!

We jumped on the juicing bandwagon after watching "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead."  Before going out and purchasing a juicer, we did some research (Melanie also did a lot of research and shared with us!) and we found that a masticating juicer would yield the most juice. Well, masticating juicers are expensive, so we opted for a cheapo centrifugal walmart juicer just to get started and see if it was something we really wanted to do. We started with a cheaper Hamilton Beach juicer,  and then after using it for a couple of weeks traded up for a black and decker big mouth juicer. The 2nd (and current) juicer works MUCH better than the other and was still pretty cheap (about 50 dollars.) The only problem we've really found is that we cannot juice greens. So, to remedy that problem, we purchased a wheat grass juicer! HERE it is.

It works GREAT! And, the two of those are still much cheaper than a quality masticating juicer. We do plan to get a masticating juicer in the future, but for now these two things works for us.

Before I even start, I just want to say that juicing is EASY. Just pick some fruits and veggies that you love and mix them! There are also lots of resources available online with recipes you can be sure taste great. We usually focus on green juice (green apples, cucumbers, celery, spinach, kale etc....) But we've made straight carrot juice, straight apple, orange juice etc... You can do anything.

This is what I started with this morning:
As you can probably see I have one cucumber, one green apple, celery and carrots. With JT I would use 2 cucumbers and 2 apples as well as a couple of extra celery stalks and carrots.

The first thing I juiced was the cucumber. I always start with the highest yielding veggies to be sure I get as much juice from them as possible. As you go through all of your ingredients, the screen gets full, so unless you wash it in the middle start with the highest yielding stuff to get the most juice possible.

 A lot of people don't think they like the taste of cucumber juice, but we've found that the quality of the cucumber you get makes a huge difference. If you get cucumbers  from walmart that are not organic, they aren't very tasty, but, if you get them from a farmers market (or in our case the mexican market) they are SO delicious!

And like I said, they yield SO much juice and are so cheap so they are a great base for any juice you make. Cucumbers are also nutritionally dense - they are great for the skin and have a lot of trace elements that our bodies need. :)

Here is what my cucumber yielded juice wise. As you can see, more juice is still coming out!
Next, I chopped up and added my green apple.
I don't even bother seeding them or anything, the screen takes care of that kind of thing!
Next I added the celery and finally the carrots. (no pics of the celery... but the carrot juice is SO beautiful!)
This is what the aftermath of the juicing looked like.


And this is what the pulp looks like:
Another complaint I often hear is that there is SO much waste when juicing - the truth is, it is up to you how much waste you have - you have already gotten a majority of the nutrients from the vegetables or fruit anyways, and that is really the goal in my opinion,  but, you can use the pulp for a variety of things. from baking (talk about some moist and delicious carrot cake!) to dog food additives! (Toss a cup into your dog food! make sure you do research about the ingredients you use though, if you are juicing grapes for example, your dog cannot have that!)

The last step to the process (before enjoying the yummy juice of course) is clean up. The most important thing about the clean up is that you do it immediately. If you do, it will literally take two minutes. I throw the pulp in the garbage or save it in a baggie if I plan to use it. Then, all I do is rinse the pulp out of the components. The hardest part is cleaning the screen, but, if you get a bristle brush cleaner (like one you'd buy to clean potatoes) it is much easier.
Once I finished all of the juicing and clean up, I poured the juices together into one glass :) I have found that a pint glass fits under our juicer the best, so I get a larger glass to pour the juices in as I go (that way I don't get overflow!) When I am making juice for JT and I both, I use a pitcher.

 


This may have seemed like a lot of work, but it took me about 10 minutes all together (and that was with me snapping pictures after every step.) I feel great about starting my day with a nutritional and delicious juice and my energy will be up all day. Fresh juice like this is also a great way to detox your body of all of the junk you accumulate from eating processed crap.

If you are interested in learning more about juicing, here are a couple of educational links -

http://www.foodmatters.tv/_webapp/health_resources

http://www.veganstreet.com/veganliving/juicing.html

I already linked this one, but here it is again - http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

I hope you found this educational and helpful. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have and I'll do my best to answer them myself or find the answer. :)

3 comments:

  1. I LOVE YOU HEATHER!!! You're amazing, and such an inspiration! I wish we lived closer, we could do this journey together!!! My dogs LOVE the carrot and apple pulp. They literally come RUNNING when they hear the quite whirr of the juicer. And watch out if I'm crunching on carrot sticks - I'm practically attacked until I share!! :)

    I ordered my amazing Champion Commercial and the Welles Press, as well as an Excalibur 5 tray dehydrator and a citrus juicer from www.discountjuicers.com - they seem to have the best deal around. put in TENSPOT to save $10 or SAVEFIVE to save $5 if your order is less. I plan on making raw crackers and wraps in the dehydrator from the leftover pulp from my juicer. I hope it tastes gooooood!! :) Can't wait to start my blog and start sharing TMI!! hahaha :) XOXO

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  2. Love the post! I use my blendtec to just make whole juice smoothies (juice doesn't get separated from the rest, its just all blended together). But sometimes it would be nice to have just a juice that I could drink quicker! Does the wheat grass juicer ONLY juice wheat grass, or does it juice the spinach and kale that you use too?

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  3. I watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and I loved it! Do you still juice on a daily basis? A while ago I got on a huge green smoothie kick. Delicious. It isn't juicing...more like blending the whole fruit or vegetable. Sometimes I'd add a little yogurt too and make it even creamier. Sooo good!

    Speaking of social documentaries, have you seen Forks Over Knives? YOU would love it. Seriously. Stream it on Netflix and watch it tonight! It's such a good docmentary.

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