Showing posts with label Juice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juice. Show all posts

Monday, April 22, 2013

Where You Been Girl?

My follower (don't laugh, I have ONE!), is requesting an update on the happenings in Juice Land and Pitty Patty's Pumpkin Patch.  Well, there just ain't much to report.  I just figure, since Barbie's world is all made up, surely Reality Barbie can make something up to pacify her.

RJ is a picky eater.  Why would I think juicing would be any different?  But what he doesn't know....well, it is gonna help him.  Asparagus, Beets, Carrots, Kale and such are big no-no's for him.  I don't care if you added two sticks of butter or battered those suckers up and deep fired them, he will smell them out and refuse to eat them like a two year old being fed peas.  However, if you are a sneaky thing like my kids have taught me to be, you can disguise asparagus, beet, carrot and kale juice to taste like apples and oranges.  The trick...yep, I'm gonna share my secret or confess my sin, whichever you prefer...is to add seven, count them, SEVEN drops of Stevia to 32oz of juice.  That boy drinks that juice, smacks his lips and asks for more.  MORE!!!  More Asparagus.  I never thought I'd hear that outta his mouth.  Actually, he doesn't know he's asking for Asparagus...that's what makes it so fun.

Our typical shake (though it varies with what groceries are in the house) consists of apples, beets, asparagus, carrots, sweet potato, grapes, spinach and if it needs it, oranges or grapefruits for disguising all of the above.  Oh, and stevia.  My sister-in-law said "You have to use greens of some kind in every shake.  Greens are important.  I mean, greens are what you need to juice.  You have to have greens.  I mean, greens are what you need to juice.  You have to add GREENS to your juice."  I think I got what she was trying to say.  Spinach anyone?  I sometimes use one or two leaves of kale (bc that's all I can stand), or swiss chard.  Is that the same thing as the greens growing out of the top of the beets?  Looks the same.  If not, I use that too...whatever it is.  Now you understand why the Stevia is such an important ingredient.  I hope RJ doesn't decide to see what I've been blogging about. :-0

Now, the garden on the other hand...it is a work not in progress.  I planted a slew of cooler weather seeds: kale, turnip greens, collards, turnips, lettuces, etc... Nothing germinated. NOTHING!  I'm guessing we didn't do something right.   It has been too wet to till it, but RJ finally got out there the other day to remove all of our rocks marking what we had planted and till.  So, I walked out there a few minutes ago and guess what I saw.  Yep, collard greens decided to come up.  Not where we planted them and only two plants.  But there they were, all perked up like they were reaching for the Heavens.  I'm guessing we will have them throughout the garden now.

Hopefully, this coming weekend will be a good one for us to finally get everything planted.  I have a plan.  Don't tell anybody.  Well, only one person follows this, so I'm pretty sure my blogged secret will be safe here.  My BFF is coming over to go to the Farmer's Market with me.  She is innocently unsuspecting of my devious plan.  But, a girl could always use some help in the garden.  So, I will cunningly rope her into helping us.  She probably won't mind because she enjoys the veggies we share with her.  But I am going to spring it on her so she doesn't have the opportunity to have "other plans."  Hey, what are BFF's for?

In closing, to my ONE follower, I use juicing to trick my husband like you trick your almost 2 year old to eat.  The garden is just a huge patch of dirt clods at the moment.  My cool weather green thumb must not have been fertilized.  AND, I am a sneaky little booger...get it from my dad, Elmer Fudd.

ba deep, ba deep, ba deep....That's All Folks!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Barbie's Juice Party with RJ

Since we took our juicer for a test run, we have had lots of discussion.  The WHOLE bunch of kale was too much.  It made us have nasty burps and well...  Let's just say RJ almost got kicked out of bed.  Shoo!  We all felt full and had energy all afternoon, but just felt like there is a way to make the juice taste and digest better.  RJ has told me serveral times that he thinks he is more of a fruit drinker.  This man doesn't eat fruit.  Then again, he doesn't eat kale or tomatoes either.  So, I started reading recipes to figure out how I was going to get him to drink the veggies as well as the fruit. 
I decided I was going to have to make 2 juices, mine and his. 

His:
1/2 C Spinach
3/4 Medium Grapefruit
2 Carrots
7 Strawberries
7 Blackberries
Paused for taste test:
Well, it was very tart from the grapefruit.  I shouldn't have used so much.  I will adjust that next time.  Plus, this made a huge amount of juice, enough for both of us.  I had to make this sweeter for him.
Added:
3 Yellow Apples

After tasting it again, I decided it was pretty good and poured his serving over ice.  He tasted it, really liked it and drank the whole cup!

Hers: (Not what I had planned, but considering all of the juice left from his, I had to adjust)
I took 8oz of His and added
2 Celery Stalks w/ Leaves
1/2 Cup Spinach
1 Carrot
7 Blackberries
7 Strawberries
1 Apple

Again, I had a massive amount of juice.

 

   
It was delicious too!  I drank a full glass and was so full.  I stored the rest in a glass for LML's snack.  We will let her be the final taste test judge.
This is the juice in front compared to the pulp on the left.  This thing extracts all the moisture!
 
 
This particular juicer works great and is very quite.  It does take a bit of clean-up though.  I think it takes about 10 minutes to break it all down, get the extra pulp out and clean all the pieces.  It is worth it though.
 
We officially start the juice fast tomorrow.  So, I gotta go...there's a donut in the kitchen calling my name. 
 
Enjoy the Juice!
LYMI!

 
 

 


Monday, March 11, 2013

Reality Barbie is on the Juice

Watch the movie "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and you'll be on a Juice too.  We watched, we researched juicers, we ordered ours, made a trip to the grocery store and here we are, planning our 7 day juice fast...

But wait, shouldn't we take this thing for a test spin to make sure...well, you know...that we can stand to drink it.  Better yet, that we know how to use this contraption.  Why, yes, we should.

Read the directions first...skipped this step.

Use a recipe...skipped this step too.

We learned a lot from just one juicing.

Bella Juicer Pro
 
In my excitement, I grabbed what I thought we needed for the juice.  KP and I assembled the juicer, turned that sucker on and became juice pros (not so much).  We decided we should juice for all three of us at once.  When doing so, you must make sure you have sufficient tools to catch all of that juice.   We learn quick.
 
Pulp
 
 
We have heard that Kale is a great base for a really healthy juice, so I put in a bunch of it...a WHOLE bunch.  I thought it was a small bunch at the grocery store.  I almost bought two just in case.  Then we added 4 tomatoes.  We stopped briefly to unstop the pulp output.  Then we continued with apples, juicing a little bit on the counter because we had moved our juice catcher...ok, it was a lot.  Next was the oranges.  We poured all of this into a huge bowl as we went because the juice  catcher wasn't big enough for all of the stuff we put through it.  Then we stirred it up, added a small amount of kosher salt and divided it into three  cups.
 
Ok, I'm gonna be honest.  It wasn't delicious.  But it wasn't terrible either.  Having read some of the recipes on www.juicingwithjoe.com, I realize that I went just a smidge overboard with the kale.  That small bunch we bought is now looking like a lot of kale. 
 
Big Green Bowl
 
My empty cup...forgot to take a pic of the juice
 
RJ "enjoying" his juice
 
KP and RJ both drank all of theirs and said it tasted like a salad turned into juice.  I guess that's not too bad.  I think he may have added a few grays to that beard just trying it.  I was proud of him.
 
This is the list of items the newbies used for the first juice...we will be more efficient from now on:
 
Kale
4 Tomatoes
2 Oranges
4 Apples
Sea Salt
Water
2 Qt jars
Colander
Big Green Bowl
Funnel
Scraper
3 Cups
Juicer and all of it's parts
 
Whew!
 
So, there is a learning curve to juicing.  I think we made most of our mistakes in the first try.  Despite that, we have decided we are starting a 7 day juice fast tomorrow.  I am looking forward to it.  I hope we do so well on it that we continue well past the 7 days.
 
Here's to the Juice!
 
LYMI!