Fresh Juice!

For the first 10 weeks, I started every morning with juice. I have a Breville juice fountain, which has been going strong for about 5 years and was not terribly expensive...one of these days I may invest in the stainless steel model, but for now, this one is great.

The thing that bothers me about juicing is that there is alot of waste...all of the solids from whatever is being juiced end up in the compost pile. My solution has been to make it into stock. I either use this in other recipes or I share it with neighbors. (It freezes well!)

Here is a typical morning juice recipe:

4 to 6 large carrots                                                   4 stalks of celery

1/4 bunch of parsley                                                a few kale leaves 

1 granny smith or gala apple                                   1 1/2 inch piece of ginger

a small beet

When strawberries are in season I like to add a few for flavor, some folks add a whole lemon, peel and all.

Sip juice slowly. Somewhere I read that if you hold a sip of raw juice in your mouth for a few seconds it activates digestive enzymes.

About 2 weeks ago I started alternating smoothies with juice.

A smoothie recipe:

1/2 ripe avocado                                                        1/2 gala apple (chopped)

1 small orange or clementine (seeded)                       1/2 c frozen blueberries (or more)

1/2 c frosen raspberries                                              4 fresh or frozen strawberries

1/2 cup of water

Swap something out and add mango, grated ginger is divine, a little meyers lemon juice for zing and a little stevia or honey if needed...

I try to stick to organically grown produce as much as possible...more expensive, yes, but in the long run?