Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Art of Juicing



Wash and prepare your juicer, fruits and veggies. Cut off the hard roots, ends and apple cores. These cups are awesome for drinking juice, I encourage you to use these...the straw helps to get all that juice down.
Breakfast of apples, carrots and ginger. Good stuff.
Lunch meal. I always add a leafy green like spinach or kale
Juicing really is a process (like preparing a meal) 
The leftover pulp can be used in making other foods...like muffins, pasta sauce, salsa, soups. Plenty of recipes you can find online.






Juice Recipes


Here are some recipes we are trying out. There are plenty online and on jointhereboot.com which is where I got these. I tended to make fruit ones for the AM and more veggie ones for the PM meals.

Apple Carrot Beet
2 Apples
4 Carrots
2 Beets
6 leaves swiss chard – 1.5 cup
1” ginger root (1 tablespoon)
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Watermelon Lime Juice
3 cups diced watermelon (seedless)
1 lime (peel removed)
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Watermelon-Pineappple-Ginger
1/3 pineapple, cored and skin removed
2 large watermelon slices
1 inch ginger root
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Rainbow Salad Juice
2 medium zucchini
2 medium tomato
2 medium carrots
1/4 red onion (go less, it's overpowering!)
2 cups swiss chard
1 tsp olive oil (optional)
pinch sea salt (optional)
pinch black pepper (optional)
squeeze of lemon (optional)
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Red Au
¾ cup coconut water
¾ cup red grapes
1 banana
1 cup of spinach or any other leafy greens
1 small cucumber
½ cup of ice (optional)
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Minty Fresh Berry
2 cups Blueberries
2 Kiwi Fruit
16 Strawberries
2 cups Mint leaves, packed into the measuring cup
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Green Grape and Pear
1 cup of green grapes
1 pear
1 lime
2 cucumbers
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Green Juice
2 cups Kale
2 cups Spinach
1/2 Cucumber
4 stalks Celery
2 Green Apples
1” Ginger root
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Green Lemonade
1 Green Apple
2 cups Spinach (~3 handfulls)
2 cups Kale leaves (~6-8 leaves)
1/2 Cucumber
4 Celery Stalks
1/2 Lemon
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BBQ Blowout
1-2 wedges purple/red cabbage
1 beet
2 carrots
1-2 apples (try organic fuji for a sweet flavor)
squeeze of lemon
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Bountiful Brassica
2 broccoli stalks
1/2 head or 2 wedges green cabbage
2 cups or 6-8 leaves of kale
1 organic granny smith apple
1/4 lemon (peeled)
1 inch ginger root
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Bruschetta Juice
2 medium sized tomatoes
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled
20 fresh basil leaves
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Carrot Apple Ginger
3 organic carrots
2 organic apples
1 small piece of ginger (about 1 inch)
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Carrot Kale
1 Green Apple
3 handfuls Spinach
6-8 Kale leaves
4 large Carrots
1 piece Ginger (thumb size)
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Cinnamon Apple Squash
4 cups butternut squash
1 large organic honeycrisp apple
dash cinnamon
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Cranberry Citrus
1 cup cranberries
1 orange, peel removed
1 organic apple
1 cup butternut squash , cubed
4-6 leaves collard greens  about 1 cup, packed
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Dracula’s Dream
2 beets
2 organic carrots
1 cup organic strawberries
6-8 kale leaves/2 cups
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Gazpacho
4 Plum Tomatoes
1 large Cucumber
2 stalks Celery
1 Red Bell Pepper
1/4 small Red Onion (I would go less than this, the onion is strong)
2 cups Parsley, leaves and stems, roughly chopped and packed into the measuring cup
1 Lime
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Lemon Lime
1 Lemon
1 Lime
2 Asian Pears
2 Green Apples
2 Carrots
1 Piece Ginger (thumb sized)
2 cups Purple Cabbage
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Mango Salsa
1 mango
1/2 cucumber
1/4 yellow pepper
1/2 Jalapeno pepper
2 green onions or scallions
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 lime
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Mean Green
1 cucumber
4 celery stalks
2 apples
6-8 leaves kale
1/2 lemon
1 tbsp ginger
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Minty Citrus
2 oranges
½ pink grapefruit
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1/3 bunch of mint

Prepare to Juice!

Preparation:
Buy a good juicer. There are several types...
Centrifugal (Jack Lalanne) which we are using and it does well with carrots and apples but not as well with leafy greens. It also doesn't seem to squeeze the juice as thoroughly and is louder than the other types.



Masticating or triturating horizontal juicers (Green Star-1000) are quiet but the feeder is smaller. Videos show that it more thoroughly takes out the juice. It can also make baby food, nut butter and banana sorbet with frozen bananas. I think I plan to buy one of these.


There are plenty of blogs comparing juicers so I encourage you to take a look before buying.  Juicer Comparison


Shopping:
There are loads of juice recipes so do some research to plan for shopping. I will post recipes separately. Depending on how long you juice, buying for a few meals will help you get some ideas for what you and your family like. We tried to purchase organic when we could and bought from local farmer markets.


Remember to start the week before weening from processed foods, caffeine, meats and dairy.


The amount of days or how often you juice is up to you. Some people do 3 days, 1 month or even 90 days. But you can also just substitute a meal or two each day with juice.


If you do a juice fast, try to plan to make enough juice for 3-4 times a day. I would make it in the morning for breakfast and another one to bring to work for lunch. Then made a third one for dinner.



Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Why are we Juicing?

During the Reboot, we plan to commit to eating or really drinking only fresh fruit and vegetables. This is not a diet to lose weight, although that is likely. It is a time for the body to reset, cleanse and take in, in abundance, all those vital nutrients Mother Nature intended for us. (http://www.jointhereboot.com)

Since this is a major change in our intake, we had to begin weening off of processed foods, caffeine, meats a week before. Not easy!

Why juice?
It's healthier and brings us back to the ways of our great great grandparents...when they didn't have all the processed foods available to them but just what was grown in their own gardens or by local farmers. We all know obesity is an issue in the US where two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese (http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/obesity-in-the-us/).

Micronutrients include all the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients we need to be healthy and feel great. Micronutrients are found in abundance in all plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, etc.) For example, there are 170 phytonutrients in just one orange. (http://www.jointhereboot.com)


The Plan

What began as a project to build a greenhouse grew into a mission to change our views on food and nutrition.

THE PLAN: 
Start a juice fast 
After watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a documentary by Joe Cross, we decided to give it a go. By using locally grown produce and the Reboot plan, we will be juicing for 2 weeks.

Build a greenhouse
Carter, Renee, Brandon and I will be building a greenhouse during this time. While it will be challenging given the change in food intake, why not push ourselves a little more?

Document our project
We'll be documenting through video, photos and this blog about our 2 week project. See how the greenhouse is coming along and watch our testimonials about the ups and downs of the juice fast.