Anatomy of A Great Juice

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know I love to mix up the fruits and veggies and the more the merrier can really bring you bright burst of flavor. My niece has been coming over a couple days a week and she likes to make up juice the minute she walks in the door each morning. We talked about how to make up juices so that they are healthy for us and still taste good. Then I noticed that Olivia always grabs a handful of my kale as her first ingredient in her morning juice and works from there. So that is what we are going to do too. Start with the kale and build our juice from there. You need to work with 80 to 20 ratio veggie to fruits but in the mornings when I have my morning medicines I like to have more fruits than the rest of the day. So, when picking your recipes see what makes you happy. Juice those things together and taste often of the mix.

Add more or additional produce to the mix and make sure you take notes because when you hit on that perfect glass of juice you want to be able to make it again.

This is Olivia's Breakfast Juice
2 cup fresh bing cherries (pitted)
2 cup green grapes ( you can use red or black)
8 leaves of kale
2 granny smith apples
1 pear
2 large peaches
5 clementine oranges (peeled)
1 large naval orange (Peeled)
2 lemons (peeled)
1 lime (peeled)
4 carrots
2 Large Cucumbers

Juice everything in the order listed. The reason being the softer fruit leave residue behind in the juicer and the harder fruit like the apples, carrots and cucumbers will wash all the yummy sludge or residue out and none will be wasted. This recipe makes a HUGE pitcher full of juice. I love this ice cold and also pour some of this into freezer molds and make Popsicle for the hot summer day. Perfect for after my daily walk around the block in our 107 degree heat!

The most important thing to remember when making your juice up is to pick one piece of produce and start from there. I try to start all my juices from kale now. I then build my juice around whether I want it to taste green and fresh or nice and fruity. Second thing to remember is to take notes... snap a picture or two (those iphones and instagrams are good for something now right). Third thing is the most important thing...DON'T BE AFRAID TO PLAY WITH YOUR JUICE!! YEP YOU HAVE THIS MOM'S PERMISSION TO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!

Til Tomorrow

Juice ON!
Sandi

Olivia's Blender Sorbet

My niece has been coming over and spending a few days a week with me.  While we enjoy making and drinking fresh juice at my place, I know she doesn't have a juicer at her house, so I want to teach her she can create healthy and tasty food with her blender. This is what she came up on her first try. Let me warn you this post is very PICTURE HEAVY!

Olivia's Blender Sorbet
1/2 Musk Melon (What we call a Cantaloupe in the USA)
2 Cups Strawberries
1 pint Blueberries
1 Lime
1 Orange
1/2 Cup bottled water

Step By Step Directions:
Make sure to have all your produce washed and cut before you start blending. We used a Hamilton Beach Personal Blender. It is safe and easy to use. Let's begin to make our base to Olivia's Sorbet.

Place a handful of musk melon and 2 inches of bottled water into your blender and pulse until it is a liquid. Add more musk melon (cantaloupe) and pulse. As it reaches the fill line remove some into a large bowl, keeping some of the liquid in the blender and continue to process the musk melon.

Follow the Musk Melon with your Strawberries. Process them in the same method as you have your musk melon. Add a small amount of strawberries to your liquid and pulse until it is a liquid. MAKE SURE THE BLADES ARE OFF AND YOU DO NOT PLACE YOUR FINGERS TO FAR DOWN INTO THE BOWL!

Next Olivia said to use the hand held juicer to juice the lime.

Instead of juicing it in half's cut off  a little bit off of one end and place it in the juicer.

Squeeze the juicer and tip it to the side allowing the juice to flow into the bowl of the blender. Flip the the lime over and squeeze this again. Now fold the lime in half place it in the press and squeeze it one more time. NOW you have all the juice out of the lime. WOW Olivia! It really works!

Now on to more fruit for this Sorbet. Now that you have your lime juice in your strawberry liquid add some of your blueberries and blend.

Now you can blend all your blueberries in the same method as you have all your other fruit. Remember to remove it to your bowl as it gets to be to much.

The last thing you need to do is to add the orange juice to your mixture. 

One of the easiest ways to do this is to cut your orange into 8 pieces, insert it into your lemon squeezer and go to town. Simple, easy and super fast.

Now Stir your mix together and pour it into a glass to drink ( yes it makes a great Smoothie)

Or Place in a Freezable Container and place in your freezer for about 4-6 hours.

 Once it is nice an frozen remove from your freezer. Allow to stand out for 15-25 minutes until you can scrap it with a fork.Then do just that. Scrap the surface of the sorbet with a fork and mix it up. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop loosely scoop your sorbet into a glass or bowl. Enjoy.

(You can do this with fresh juice as well. )

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Fruit...And Veggies 2

When I started this juice journey I never realized how much fun one could have with a bowl of fruit and veggies. After my first week of making the standard juices I set out to make up my own juices, making sure I kept to the 80% vegetable to 20% fruit ratio that is advised for a nice health glass of juice. Most of the time when creating my juices, I tried to make the fruit part less than 20% and  quite often pure  veggie juices are the best ones created. Remember when making your own juices to jot down your recipes, good or bad that way you have a record. Snap pictures of the before and after too. It is a whole lot of fun once you get started and sometimes it is really hard to stop.

Now, HOW do you know what to put into your juicer? WELL, that depends on several things.
1. Taste. Of course you want the veggies and fruit combination to taste good together.
2. What are you juicing for? To loose weight? To fight pain? Cancer Prevention?

                                                                             
Do your research. "The Juicing Bible" by Pat Crocker is an easy read a great way to know which veggies, fruits and herbs to use. This book even has a large number of tried and true recipes all ready for you. I received this for my birthday this year and have already read it front to back. LOVE IT.
Use your computer. Google, Join support groups.... There is a great Rebooters Group on facebook.. ASK For help! Folks are so willing to help out.

Wanted to share one of my favorite juices I came up with... I like to call it my
  3 Cs and A G Juice
1/2 Cantaloupe
3 medium canning cucumbers
1 large carrot
1 celery stalk
1 1/2 cups grapes




This juice is wonderful ICE COLD at the pool and even works well to freeze in small paper cups, add a wood stick when partially frozen so that the stick will stand in the center. YUMMY.
Stay Tune for more Recipes and fun ideas!
HAVE A Juicy DAY!
~Sandi