Juicing

My in-laws were nice enough to let us borrow their Jack Lalanne juicer. And the most exciting thing about it is that my daughter is ASKING me for vegetables! The other day she asked me to make her a "special juice" with carrots, oranges, and "leaves". She loves to be the little helper. We have experimented with all different kinds, and the kids like it all! I have found that if I add at least one or two fruits to mostly veggies, it is still sweet enough to mask the veggie taste. 

The Jack Lalanne isn't very good at juicing leafy greens (like spinach, kale etc), so for greens I have been using baby bok choy (because I can roll it up so it juices better), cucumbers, and celery. The only fruits that you have to peel are citrus, and even then you can leave on most of the white part. Apples are optional to core, but I like to because the seeds have cyanide in them, and the juicer needs the apples at least cut in half anyways. Since most of the peels are left of, we make sure to wash everything really well. The juicer comes with a little brush that helps.

The only other downside to the Jack Lalanne juicer (totally not trying to sound ungrateful, just wanted to mention for people thinking about getting it), is that you can only fit a small cup under the spout where the juice comes out. Since I've always made more than a small cup's size, we had to change out the cup multiple times.

Our first juice: 

• 1 green apple
• 1 fuji apple
• 4 carrots
• 2 oranges, peeled
• large handful of spinach
• 2 tangerines, peeled

Taste test:

Still deciding....

Verdict: "I like it!"

The second mix we made included a lot more green. The kids still loved it just as much! I read online that you didn't have to peel the kiwi, although I did scrub off all of the fuzzy part. It was a little too tart, and left my mouth with kind of a fuzzy feeling, so the next time I peeled the kiwi.

Our Second Juice:

• 4 celery stalks
• 2 kiwi
• 1 green apple
• large handful of spinach (Jack Lalanne didn't juice the spinach well, so it was kind of waste. I will save the spinach for smoothies)
• 1 baby bok choy
• 2 carrots

"Hey, Julian took my juice!" 

My Favorite:

• 2 oranges, peeled
• 1 tangerine, peeled
• 4 stalks celery
• 5 carrots

My version on MEAN GREEN:
pictured below

• 1 baby bok choy
• 1 green apple, cored and quartered
• 4 sticks of celery
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 kiwi, peeled

It was really good! The (peeled) kiwi added a bit of tartness to it that I loved.

You can really juice whatever you like! I think it's good to keep it at least 60% vegetables. I have yet to do anything with the pulp other than throw it away, but I do have intentions to make some muffins. I think that muffins from "My Favorite" juice would be delicious!

Side note: A lot of people don't like juicing (as opposed to smoothies) because of the leftover pulp, but from what I have read, seperating the fiber from the fruits/veggies, and just drinking the juice allows for your digestive system to rest, and clean itself out. My ultimate goal is to juice every morning, but I think that it's not a realistic goal with this machine because it is so time consuming to take apart and clean. Maybe one day I will get a Hurom. The Hurom juicer is a slow juicer, so it squeezes the juice instead of using friction that can disturb the produce, cause seperation, and knock out some of the nutrients. Plus, to clean it in the moment, you can just run water through it! 

On another note, check out new little office. It's our "command center", where we keep our calendar, meal plan, bulletin board, mail, home management binder....all that good stuff. (Ignore the dirty chair...I've tried to clean that a million times, and the last time I did, it ended up looking like that. Desperately need to be re-upholstered.) I love organization!!!!