Day 3 post juice fast smoothie deliciousness & Juicers

Day 3 and I’m still feeling fabulous! Today hubby and I went for a hike with the pups. We had a blast! My day started with a delicious juice and continued with a pint and a half of one of the best smoothies I’ve ever had!

First the juice:

Smooth Pear Detox Juice
1 bulb of fennel
3 pears
1 cucumber
10 leaves kale
Makes 1 quart

Next, a modification of a smoothie called Healthy Girl’s Chai Green Smoothie. This is something else I completely expect to be drinking in heaven when I get there! I was feeling like I wasn’t ready for almond milk and I was making enough for both hubby and myself so here is what I did:
Green Chai Goodness:
2-3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of chai spice blend (from Healthy Girl’s website)
2T hemp hearts (blend these 3 ingredients together first)
A hand full or 2 of ice cubes
2 frozen bananas
3 medjool dates (pits removed)
3 handfuls of spinach
3 leaves of lacinato (dinosaur) kale stems removed
Makes 3 pints

I’m getting a number of questions about juicers. I am no expert but am happy to pass along some of the info that I have benefited from. Below is some info from Young and Raw‘s Facebook page

How To Select A Juicer

Many of you have asked us about which juicers we recommend, and why. There are a few things to consider when looking at juicers, and we are here to clear up any confusion!

There are two basic types of juicers: the masticating juicer and the
centrifugal juicer.

The centrifugal juicer uses a spinning blade of some sort, which spins at a very high speed. This will basically grate whatever produce you are feeding through it into tiny pieces. The machine will then strain the finely grated pieces through a strainer, which will be separating the pulp from the juice. Juicers of this type do better with heartier fruits and veggies. Some can do greens moderately well, and some not well at all. The juice that comes from these machines will start to break down and oxidize within 15-60 minutes, so they are best consumed in a timely fashion.

Our favourite Centrifugal juicers are:

The champion or the Green Star – these juicers use “gears” to grate the produce,
and can do a pretty good job with leafy greens. You can also use these
juicers to create frozen fruit ice creams! You can look at the Champion Juicer and the Green Star Juicer

The Breville Juice Fountain – This juicer uses a spinning grater, and does well
with heartier veggies. If you want to use this juicer to juice greens,
the best technique is to bunch your greens up into tight balls before you pass
them through. This juicer is one of the best if you are new to juicing
and are not ready to spend a large amount of money. You can look at the Breville Juice Fountain

The Masticating juicer presses the produce, rather than grating it finely with a spinning blade. This means that the process is generally called ”cold juicing” or “slow juicing” because it is much slower! This way of juicing introduces far less oxygen into your juice than a centrifugal juicer, thus allowing much less heat and oxidative damage. The juice made using these juicers will last much longer before it starts to degrade. These are also the juicers you need if you want to get the most juice out of your leafy green veggies.

Our Favorite Masticating Juicers:

We really like the Hurom Slow Juicer, and the Omega Slow Juicer. Both are excellent
quality. – You can look up the Hurom And the Omega Juicer
——————-

The only juicer they don’t mention is the “Rolls Royce ” of juicers which is the Norwalk juicer. This juicer grinds the produce and then uses a hydraulic press to press out the juice. This is by far the best method that keeps the nutrients in your juice alive the longest. However it is $2,500. I guess when talking about a Porsche, BMW or a Toyota, Rolls Royce doesn’t necessarily make it into the conversation. Hopefully this info helps!

Day 59

Day 59…almost at the finish line! And I’m glad to report that the farmers market did, indeed have yellow carrots so Friday I will be braking my fast with one of those…and a smoothie that has mango in it! I’m also really looking forward to being able to eat a cherry tomato right off my plant (without having to spit the fiber out). I’m seriously looking forward to that palm heart ceviche this weekend…I still have to get a jicama but worst case scenario, I use a kohlrabi I have in the fridge.

A friend asked me today if I’m excited to eat. I am! But the things I’m excited to eat are not the things I would have thought. I have no interest in the sweets I once adored…I can only hope that my interests stay that way. I am excited to try a bunch of the vegan and raw recipes I have been seeing-dishes I never would have thought of making before! I’ll still be juicing regularly too. I’m sooo interested in the raw sushi rolls I’ve been pinning…Tomorrow I will be near a place I can get my hands on some nori…and a sushi rolling mat (I think). I won’t be trying that as one of my first meals but I am looking forward to it:)

Today’s juice isn’t pretty but it is tasty!

Sweet Summer Vitamin Juice
1 quart strawberries
1/4 papaya (large red)
8 leaves kale
1 handful spinach
1/2 head of broccoli
1/2 a lemon (with peel)
Makes about 1 quart

I will have to have someone take a picture of me tomorrow and I will have to find a before picture. I do regret not taking an official “before” picture but I didn’t know this is where I was headed when my journey started back on April 1st. I planned on doing the 21 day raw reset cleanse and never knew I would be using that fantastic program to springboard into a 60 day juice fast!

Day 58 preparing to eat again

Day 58-I’m 3 days away from eating food! Plus today I felt fantastic after yesterday’s yuck from the liver flush….so it was totally worth it. Plus it looks like I lost 4 pounds of toxins! So I’ve now shed 44lbs since April 1st!

As excited as I am to eat, part of me feels like it would be easier to just keep juicing….I mean its way easier to avoid the bad stuff if the only thing I can have is juice. However, I have pinned a whole bunch of raw and other vegan recipes that I’m really excited to try…plus my friend Eatafania that brought the Heart of Palm Ceviche to last week’s get together gave me the recipe. I fully intend to make it on Sunday or Monday (without the ketchup & mustard) and eat it on thinly sliced jicama. I’ll post the recipe for you below:
These are the ingredients.

A jar of Palm Heart
1 quarter of red onion (you can use more if you want 😉 )
4 Roma tomatoes
1 peeled cucumber
Cilantro and parsley ( You can add the amount of your choice )
6 Limes
1 Orange
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
This is optional, but I like to add : 1 Tablespoon of Mustard and 2 TS of Ketchup
Salt and pepper
I like to add 1 Jalapeño because I like it spicy, so if you do like spicy go ahead add a jalapeño.
Directions:
Chop the onion very fine and set aside in a little bowl and squeeze 4 limes and some salt. Let it set so the onion gets soft and concentrate with the lime juice.
Meanwhile slice the palm hearts, chop the the tomatoes and cucumber in little squares. Finely chop the cilantro and parsley. Put everything in a bowl. The add the onion with the lime juice. Squeeze the juice of the orange. Then, add the olive oil. Add the mustard and ketchup. Also the salt and pepper. Squeeze another lime or two. Mixed everything together. Let it set in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes and that’s it. Ready to serve. 🙂

While I was pinning recipes today, I decided to look for a recipe for veggie broth….I’ve been making chicken soup for forever…and I make a darn good “Jewish Mother”, knock that cold right out of you, chicken soup out of the bones. But it had never occurred to me to make a veggie broth before….so I found this recipe that I liked and then modified it (cause I’m lousy at following recipes exactly). Mine is called String Soup (cause in order to make it u need some string or twine)

String Soup
Ingredients:
2 zucchini (I used 1 green & 1 yellow) (chopped in large chunks)
2 spring onions quartered (and I threw in the green stems too)
4 cloves garlic (peeled & cut in half)
2 turnips (chopped in large chunks)
1 pound of carrots (chopped in large chunks)
5 stalks of celery (chopped in half or thirds)
1 head broccoli (cut up)
1/2 head cauliflower (cut up)
2T cumin
Carrot top greens
I large branch fresh rosemary
1 handful fresh thyme
2 T dried Nettles, 1 T burdock root, 1 T Pau D’arco, 10 whole peppercorns
1-2 T Coconut oil
8 quarts water

Tools:
Cheesecloth
Fillable tea bag or herb infuser
Large stock pot

Directions:
In a large stock pot on medium/high heat, drop in your coconut oil. Once melted, toss in the onions (w/o the stems) and 1T cumin and sauté for a couple of minutes. Then add in the garlic, zucchini, turnips, carrots & rest of the cumin. While all that is going, prepare your cheesecloth
Take all the carrot top greens I had (3 bunches), a branch of rosemary and a bunch of thyme from my garden and tied them up in the piece of cheesecloth.
Stir contents in pot
Put nettles, burdock root, Pau d’arco & peppercorns in herb diffuser or tea bag
Once cumin looks well distributed and veggies look coated, pour in your water.
Add spring onion stems, broccoli, cauliflower & celery
Then add your cheese cloth package
Add herb infuser and tie it to the pot’s handle
Bring to a boil for 5 minutes and then reduce to a simmer for a couple of hours

For broth:
Put a strainer in a large bowl and pour soup in…lift out strainer with veggies and you have broth…you could also strain it through a nut milk bag once it cools down if you prefer.
For soup:
In batches, put veggies with some broth in a blender (preferably a high powered one) and purée. Make sure to mix all batches together before storing in separate containers.

I made both soup & broth…my house smelled wonderful and the broth was delicious! Since the clear broth would be like drinking herbal tea, I decided it was fine to drink some while on my juice fast. Not bad for someone who never made vegetable soup before…maybe being vegan for a while wont be as scary as I thought. Hubby enjoyed the soup with large chunks of veggies.

Well, that’s enough talk about food. I made a new juice today I’m open to names…I have no idea what to call it:

10 carrots
1 kohlrabi
1 green apple
2 small red (Fuji) apples
1 cucumber
2 stalks celery
1/2 small green cabbage
1 lime

.

I hope that all made sense…it’s late and I had a full day…tomorrow I will be bottling my kombucha. Let me know what names you come up with for today’s juice!

Day 55, 56 & 57

The last 3 days have been pretty busy. However, i reached another milestone-I weighed myself first thing Saturday morning (day 55) and I have shed 40lbs! Wool-hoo!!! I’m now right about the weight I was when I got married 7 years ago which was before the horrors of weight gain from going on insulin, fertility drugs and comfort eating through the process of loosing my dad & after the 10lbs I gained from when I first met my husband the year before. Recently I have been so aware that my engagement ring and wedding band fit like they are supposed to which has been nice. They had been really tight for a long time.

Saturday we went to synagogue and then stayed with a friend up in Cary to help her move on Sunday. I brought my juicer and made Krazy Cantaloupe along with another juice I forgot to take pictures that consisted of
3 pears
1 small Fuji apple
10 leaves Kale
3 handfuls baby spinach
1 bulb fennel
1/2 a lemon

They were both delicious but the cantaloupe is really a favorite…and hubby and my friend Jaime both enjoyed it. Plus this time I used a Tuscan cantaloupe which was even tastier.

The fruit looks the same but the melon with the ridges is just a bit sweeter.

***Warning-will be talking about bodily function related stuff…quit reading now if u get super grossed out…there will be a second warning if u can handle the info but not the gross stuff***

So I have yet to do my coffee enema even though I’m convinced that I should have been doing them once a week through this entire fast. It will happen soon….however, I decided to do a liver flush after a fellow juice fasting friend recommended it. Toxins are stored in our fat cells. 40lbs is now gone and now all of the toxins that fat was protecting me from are now floating around my body and presumably are hanging out in my liver. I want the toxins out so my organs will work properly (not just my liver but my pancreas too) so I can get off of insulin entirely. Enter, liver flush. You can google the term and there are a couple of different recipes but the methods are pretty much the same. Here is what I did:

First I cleared my calendar for Sunday evening and all day Monday
Nothing to eat or drink after 2:00 p.m. or you could get sick. (little sips of water are fine, just not 20 minutes on either side of the salt water drinks) (I drank 1 1/2 quarts of juice before 2pm that day)
Mix 4 Tablespoons of epsom salt into 3 cups of water, until salt is dissolved. (I used warm, filtered water)
6:00 p.m. drink 3/4 cup (6oz) of the salt water mixture
8:00 p.m. drink 3/4 cup of the salt water mixture
9:45 p.m. mix 1/2 cup of olive oil with 3/4 cup of freshly squeezed (or juiced with a juicer) grapefruit juice and drink within 5 minutes (I only needed 1 grapefruit-I wish I had put the mixture in the blender to emulsify the oil a bit-I think it would have gone down easier…I also wish I had used a lighter tasting oil-I used EVOO)
Lay down IMMEDIATELY (do not clean the kitchen, do not pass go and collect $200-go straight to bed) on your back and be still for at least 20 minutes. You need to keep your head elevated above your stomach while you are laying down.
6-6:30 a.m. Upon awakening, but not before 6:00 a.m. drink 3/4 cup of the salt mixture.
8-8:30 a.m. Drink the remainder of the salt mixture.
10-10:30 you can have juice now.

I added lemon to the salt mixture in hopes of making it go down a little easier. I also kept my concoction in the fridge. The salt water was gross, period. However I found that while I’ve never been able to chug beer, I was able to chug all 3 drinks last night.

About 10 minutes before the second saltwater drink, I was in the bathroom….it was certainly flushing my system. I chugged the second one and spent the better part of the evening in and out of the bathroom. So much so that I was late in getting my grapefruit/olive oil concoction into my system. I was back in the bathroom once after I drank the concoction and then in bed for the night with my head elevated. I didn’t want to sleep like that cause I knew my neck would hurt in the morning and I couldn’t be on my iPad because the instructions say to be still. So I used the time to pray. And I must say, it was a sweet time of prayer and communing with G-d.

***second and final warning…I will be talking about results and yucky bodily functions below***

Then today I woke up around 7ish and had my first salt water drink (which was much more difficult to chug today then it was yesterday) and waited…and nothing really happened for a while….and then again, right before I had to drink the second drink I was in he bathroom…and it was kind of gross. I started to eliminate gallstones which kind of look like rabbit droppings that float to the top of the toilet bowl while the bile sinks to the bottom. After the second drink, I found myself in the bathroom for most of the day.

I don’t feel like I eliminated a ton of gallstones but I know I was getting rid of other mucusy looking yuck. I’m sure I got rid of a bunch of toxins. I felt ok the first part of the day but felt like junk as the day wore on. About an hour after the second saltwater drink i had a pint of water. Later on I had about 8oz of coconut water-I was feeling really dehydrated. I was soooo not in the mood for a juice. I just didn’t feel very well in the afternoon and had spent sooooo much time in the bathroom. I finally had a pint of juice around 4pm. I plan to have another this evening. However, I have not felt hungry at all through out this entire process. I’m drinking plenty of water to rehydrate and as the evening continues, I have been able to stay out of the bathroom for the last couple of hours. I would recommend keeping some baby wipes in your bathroom if u choose to do this…I really wished I had some earlier today and was just not up to a DIY to make my own.

Well, that was my liver flush experience…anyone have any toxin eliminating experiences to share?

Day 54

Day 54 brought a handful of wonderful women to my house for a send off for a friend who is moving to her husband’s next duty station. I requested everyone bring something gluten and dairy free so our guest of honor and her nearly year old son could indulge without being worried. It was a success. And what is even better is that everyone brought something healthy and pretty much everything was plant-based. This is the first gathering I was really sorry I couldn’t eat at. However, I did take a piece of “chocolate chip pie” and stuck it in the freezer so I can eat it in a week or so. It has interesting ingredients like beans, oats and dates. How interesting that the day I’m longing for food the most is the day the healthiest foods are in front of me…as opposed to a couple of days ago when I was at an event with papa john’s pizza and a slew of home-made, sugar-filled desserts.

Which reminds me that a week from today (next Friday) I will be breaking my fast. I’m really looking forward to it but I am planning on really taking it easy to coax my digestive system back into working. My friend Alisa asked me what I plan to break my fast with….my plan, as long as I can get them from the farmers market next week, is to break my fast with a yellow carrot. Then, I may add some cucumber from my garden. And I plan on having a smoothie either with pineapple or mango or both as ingredients. I also expect to be drinking at least a quart of juice. However, I did just pin a whole bunch of vegan and raw food recipes. I’m looking forward to trying some of them out…I think I see Nori in my basket on an upcoming shopping trip.

Today was crazy with having company at 11am. Thankfully I have a super, wonderful husband who helped me get the house ready for company. However it wasn’t until the guests were arriving that I was finally getting around to juicing…because things were so frantic, I went with a big batch of an old standard- Joe’s Mean Green. This is the juice I go to when I need to make a juice but just can’t think. One of my guests remarked that what I was drinking looked so refreshing and asked what was in it. I gave her some and she really liked it.

Because its Friday night, I’ve juiced for tomorrow. I still have some mean green left so I made a bit more of a quart of a juice I’m going to call Sunny Roots

1 large beet (& greens)
1 Kohlrabi (& greens)
5 carrots
2 oranges
1 small apple (not pictured)
1 romaine heart
1 cucumber
1 romaine heart
Makes about 40oz

Day 52 & 53 progress & observations

Day 52 and finally 5 days later, I have lost a pound…I have now shed 39 pounds. My size 18 pants were starting to get tight on me when I started this journey and yesterday I was able to put on a pair of Old Navy capris that are a size 14…I tried on another brand in the same size that didn’t fit, but I guess different manufacturers produce different cuts for the same size. It’s definitely progress.

So I’m entertaining again tomorrow morning. One of the realities about army life is that you make friends, and then someone moves. Tomorrow’s get together is to honor someone who I am really sad to see move. She is someone I will greatly miss. We have a lot in common when it comes to desiring a toxic-free lifestyle and we keep each other in the loop about different home made products we make. She has 3 kids and is still breast feeding the youngest who seems to have an allergy to dairy and to gluten. Whenever she goes to a gathering she knows there will be “something” she can eat…however I’ve requested that for this event, everyone bring a gluten and dairy free dish so she can indulge in everything without worrying.

This brings me to an observation about myself….I really use food as a way to honor guests in my home. I’m not making a judgement about it, just noticing. A couple of weeks ago when we had dinner guests, I really wanted to honor them by serving them a meal they would enjoy. However for tomorrow’s event I’m not making any of the cool new raw dishes I have pinned to my Pinterest boards…I think partly since I’m not eating, I can’t taste those along the way and I’m not ready to serve something I’ve never made without tasting it. I did, however, make some goodies I know will taste good including a vanilla pound cake & egg cupcakes which are like mini quiches without a crust. I still need to figure out what juices I will be drinking.

Speaking of juice, my juicing creativity seems to have returned. Today’s juices were both original recipes the first was inspired by the cherry tomatoes I was able to pick from my garden coupled with an awesome root vegetable I found at the farmer’s market yesterday. It is called Summer Garden Soup

1 stem from a spring onion
3 handfuls cherry tomatoes (I’m guesstimating – I didn’t count them)
5 carrots
2 zucchini (I used yellow ones)
1 clove garlic
1 handful basil
1 handful parsley
1/2 red pepper
1/2 poblano pepper
1 chili pepper
2 stalks celery
1/2 lemon
1 purple root vegetable with leaves (for the life of my, I can’t remember what it’s called but its in the turnip family)
Makes 1 Quart

The second juice was delightful and allowed me to use my 2 lonely peaches and part of the red papaya I bought on a whim. Green Summer Fruit is what I’m calling it for now.

8-10 leaves of kale
1/2 a small head of romaine lettuce
3 summer squash
2 peaches
1/4 red papaya (I de-seeded it but left the skin on)
1/2 a lemon (with peel)
Makes 1 Quart

Even my friend’s 18 month old daughter liked it…she knows the sign for more and kept asking for more of my juice. It was sooo cute! Plus I love seeing little ones request healthy things to put in their bodies.

Day 47

Day 47 brings another social food-related event. Although the food smelled and looked delicious, I was so aware that if I were to indulge it would make me completely sick…there was a beautiful Greek chicken salad with feta over an iceberg wedge, hot pepper jelly over cream cheese (a favorite of mine), home made coffee cake and peach pie. While it all smelled so wonderful (especially while it was cooking) I really didn’t feel like I was missing out. I wonder if some of those foods will have a such negative effect on my body that it will make me not want them anymore. I’m so curious to see how my food cravings and desires are when I’m on the other side of this. Will the unhealthy foods I loved still even taste good to me?

I can say that I’m looking forward to salads…while I’ve always liked salad, I don’t ever remember looking forward to eating one-especially one with no meat in it. I’m growing some salad ingredients including cherry tomatoes in my garden…and lately, the closest thing to a “cheat” that I’ve done is take a ripe one off my plant, chew it up (and enjoy the amazing flavor) and then spit everything out. I’ve done that a couple of times with strawberries too.

I got to “go shopping” in my closet today. I was thrilled to find some dresses that I hung on to that fit now! I was so excited that I wore one to tonight’s gathering. It’s a dress I wore in the beginning of 2010. I’ll be wearing another one to synagogue tomorrow. Progress like this is so encouraging 🙂

Today’s juices were way better then yesterday’s. Elf Juice (I did not make this one up but I love the name) which is a lovely green…even more lovely (I’m guessing) when you use the green pepper the recipe calls for instead of the red one I had in my fridge. The other one was Refreshing Jicama

It made a lovely pink color. A couple of non-juicing friends tried it and liked it too….For some reason I always feel like when someone who hasn’t been juice fasting likes a juice, it gives it more credibility.

Well, off to bed. Long day tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Day 46

Day 46 and I’m thinking more and more about eating again. I just ordered a veggie spiralizer that will turn zucchini and squash (which will hopefully be growing in my garden soon…the plants have flowers so I’m keeping my fingers crossed) into “pasta”. I’m getting excited about getting into preparing raw meals. I am hoping to continue to loose weight after my juice fast is over plus I want to get off of insulin. I’m pretty sure plant-based, mostly raw is the way for me to proceed. It seems to be what my body is responding to best.

Ever have a day where things just didn’t go as planned? Yeah…today was one of those…even my juices didn’t work out as planned…I wanted something peachy. I was originally going to try Peachy Green (I should have stuck with that recipe) but instead I did this:

8 kale leaves
4 peaches
2 cucumbers
3 collard green leaves (they needed to be used before going bad)
1/2 a bunch of dandelion greens (which were in the same boat as the collards)
1/2 lemon with peel
Makes 1 quart
(It probably could have used a Fuji apple)

It was OK…nothing to write home about and it didn’t have the strong peach flavor I was hoping for…although my friend was over when I made it and she really liked it. It didn’t cause my blood sugar to spike so that is good.

The second juice I was really excited about….until I tasted it…I even had a cool name for it-Berry, berry healthy juice. However my husband liked it…so I’m kind of starting to wonder if my taste buds are having an off day.

10 strawberries
1 pint blueberries
1/4 head of green cabbage
2 cucumbers (I think 1 would have been better)
1 handful basil

In any event, I’m not pinning them because I don’t plan on making them again. Tomorrow is a new day with new juice possibilities…I believe a juice with jicama is in my near future:)

A new thing I’m trying today is making my own kombucha. My friend Lauren supplied me with the scoby. Kombucha is a fermented tea that is high in probiotics…which I’m clear I need way more of as my staph infection seems to have decided to make a brief reappearance. It’s already going away after 2 days but I seriously want it to not come back…probiotics are part of how I intend on making that happen. If you’ve never seen a scoby, it looks like an alien…plus since I ended up making too much tea, I cut part of the scoby off (so gross) to put in a second jar…I hope that’s ok…I could not get ahold of Lauren (who is a fermented foods queen in her own right) to make sure that is ok, but I guess we will see…I have a gallon and a half out on the table to ferment. It won’t be ready till after I break my fast.

Here are my instructions:

Day 45

Day 45…wow…I can’t believe I’m here! My shedding of pounds seems to have slowed down…I’ve been down 35lbs for a handful of days now. I realize that if I was better about exercising, that would help….I seriously need to get on that…even if its just walking the dogs. My goal is to loose 50 pounds by the end of my 60 day juice fast. I’m curious to see how my body responds to insulin at that point…I’m hoping the significant weight loss will help my body become less insulin resistant and allow my body to utilize the insulin it produces on its own.

I’ve been thinking about food quite a bit. I live in a subdivision that is out in the country. This means to get anywhere I have to drive past fields and crops. (I’m from NYC…to me, this is the country) Lately I’ve been seeing lambs and calves grazing in fields (along with adult animals) and all I can think when I see them is…YUM! I LOVE pasture raised lamb and grass-fed steaks. However, I am clear that it really will have to be a while before I consider reintroducing animal products to my diet. As much as I love it and will miss it, I really want to be well. Eating a plant based diet & juicing is working better for my body then anything else I have done. I’m guessing when I break my fast on June 14th it will be with a piece of fruit or maybe one of the awesome yellow carrots I get at my local farmers market and then some kind of smoothie. I’ve still got a couple of weeks to figure it out but I am thinking about it.

I got some fabulous hand me downs today from a friend who I had not seen since the beginning of March (this journey started April 1st). She insisted that most of the clothes that she gave me which are a size smaller then most of what I have been wearing, are still too big. I found them comfortable. Having my clothes be too big is a wonderful problem to have, as far as I’m concerned 🙂

Today’s juices were Spring Green Strawberry Juice which I made a couple of weeks ago and a new juice I am calling Neon Vitamins

1/2 a small green cabbage
1 green apple
1 small red apple (I used Fuji)
2 limes
1 yellow zucchini
5 stalks celery
12 spears asparagus
Makes a bit more then 1 quart

My photo doesn’t do justice to the color of this delicious juice but here’s what I’ve got

Has anyone tried any of my original juice recipes (otherwise known as my concoctions)? If so, I’d love to know which ones and what you thought. If you haven’t tried any yet are there any you are considering adding to your own juice menu?

Day 43 & 44

Yesterday I got to go on a date with my husband. We went to see The Great Gatsby at a really great little movie theater in downtown. The movie was great but the smell of popcorn was a bit torturous. Thankfully there weren’t a lot of food scenes. Of course I had my juice with me.

Yesterday’s juice choice involved less of a recipe and more of a putting together of ingredients that seemed interesting (and that needed to get used before they spoil). I’m calling the juice below Greens Gone Wild

3 handfuls spinach
2 small Fuji apples
1 cucumber
1/2 a head of broccoli
5 spears asparagus
5 carrots (green tops are optional….they seem to kind of get stuck in my juicer)
1 head Tatsoi (some sort of Asian leafy veggie in the bok choy family…yay farmers market!)
1 grapefruit

As it turns out, more of my friends are watching the movie ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’ and are becoming interested in juicing. I’m thrilled! One of my friends started a raw diet today in order to prepare her body for a short term juice fast…it’s funny because about 2 years ago we went paleo at the same time. She is pretty healthy and very fit but has some health issues she is hoping this will address. I also spoke to another friend today who is considering trying a juice fast in the near future. I encouraged her to add at least a green smoothie to her diet each day and possibly 1 serving of juice. Then when stress factors calm down, she may consider something like the 21 day raw reset in order to really prepare her body for a juice fast. I’m excited to be a support for people making healthier choices for their lives 🙂

Today I made a fantabulous juice I will call Krazy Cantaloupe. This was super yummy & super easy!

1/2 of a cantaloupe
2 cucumbers
1 head of bok choy
Makes about 48oz

I also had Green Carrot Ginger Juice(not my own recipe) but I had to use up those beautiful & colorful farmers market carrots so I can pick up more:) I doubled the recipe and had close to a quart and a half of juice.