Juice It!

When I go to my classes at Whole Foods a favorite treat is to stop by the juice bar.  I enjoy a green juice with kale, spinach, carrots, apple, ginger, and a few other things I can’t remember just now. 

 

 

 

Dad and Mom picked up on that and for my birthday gave me a Bella Nutripro juicer.  My point with wanting to juice is to get the proper amount of veggies and fruit in my diet.  So I use only the amount of each that is a serving… 4 veggies and 3 fruit servings.  That comes out to about 18 ounces of juice. 

 

  

  

This run has carrots, tomato, an apple, watermelon, and a stick of celery (celery isn’t my favorite and one is all I like in my juice). 

 

 

That little bit made this much juice – thanks to the watermelon!!  That is about 36 ounces!  And as you can see, there’s not all that much pulp. 

 

 

The Bella is easy to use and very quiet (which surprised me).  The hardest thing is cleaning it when you are done.  But even that is not too bad.  I do it immediately before it starts drying on and it only takes about 3 minutes. 

 

 

Veggies that are good for juicing include:  beets (including the stems and greens), kohlrabi greens, collard greens, Swiss chard , leaf lettuce, celery, cucumber, fennel, radishes (including leaves), carrots, cabbage, broccoli, sweet potato, herbs (ginger, mint, parsley, cilantro, etc.), wheatgrass, tomatoes, dandelion greens.

 

Good juicing fruits are:  apples, pears, oranges, grapefruits, limes, lemons, pineapple (with rind), and watermelon (with rind).

 

However, you’re not supposed to juice these because either too starchy or not juicy enough:  bananas, mangoes, papaya, berries (just not high enough juice yield in my opinion for their nutritional density), and avocado.

 

If you want those, you’ll have to run them thru the blender then add in your juice and blend again.  This isn’t a bad option… just more dishes to wash.

 

One other thing you can do when juicing.  Be careful about what you thru the machine (no seeds, stems, course peels) and you can use the pulp to make delicious quick breads.  You use the pulp the same as you would zucchini or carrots.