Juicy Thursday

Today, my first juice is a garbage juice.  Doesn't sound delicious does it?  However, this is why it is garbage juice.  I take a look in my fridge and see what produce needs to go ASAP and I make it in to a juice.  I just so happened to have quite a bit!

Week old tomatoes, both round and a few grape ones, and green onions as well as a head of butter lettuce.  I added a bit of fresh produce to round it out in to a nice tomato juice

Garbage Juice
1 head of butter lettuce
tomatoes (as many as you want)
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
green onions
wedge lemon
2 hands full of spinach

 I was off the diet this past week end and I certainly paid the price.  Although I did not gain any weight, the toll it took on my digestive system was great.  I suffered, up til today, with bloating and gas pain.  I imagined that there was a battle in my intestines between the good stuff moving in and the bad stuff trying to hang on, but getting moved out.  I am feeling MUCH better today.

Next juice is a citrus beet juice.  I had a piece of leftover beet as well as grapefruits and oranges that needed to leave the house one way or another.

Citrus Garbage
2 peeled grapefruits
3 peeled oranges
1/4 beet
4 carrots
wedge of lemon
nub ginger

Enjoy the juice.

My versions...

Another pound lost.  I seem to have re-started my weight loss.

My husband has seemingly stepped away from the diet.  He has lost 40 pounds, claims he wants to lose more, but is not making the effort.  This is a hard diet.  Any diet is not easy, but this one seemed to be the easiest we have done so far.

Onward I trudge toward my goal.

Ridgeback Lemonade
Head of green leaf lettuce
bunch dandelion leaves
2 lemons
4 small Granny Smith apples

Very tart and very green.

My next one is my newest version of V-8

Meera's Vegetable juice
5 tomatoes
5 carrots
3 stalks celery
inch of jalapeno
1/4 onion
2 cups spinach
dill to taste
1/4 beet

We'll see how this one tastes later.

So as I move on with out my husband on this diet, I think it has actually strengthened my resolve.  I AM going to lose another 20 pounds and I AM going to keep it off.

Enjoy the day.

Two-fer

Daily gratitude:  I have not been feeling very grateful this past week.

Today was a clearing out of the fridge.  Going away this week end and I need to get foods on the brink out of there.

Mocked V-8 juice
7 Roma tomatoes
6 stalks of celery
6 carrots
1 beet top
1/2 a lemon
1/2 head romaine
half bunch of parsley
1/4 red pepper
1/2 small white onion
All ingredients thru the juicer

I tend to add a dash of hot sauce to this drink to make it spicier.

The Nutribullet has arrived.

I took advantage of the 139.99 deal HSN.com had going for the 900 Pro series.

My first use was a disaster.  I did not follow the instructions to the T and overfilled slightly.  It squirted everywhere.  Once I followed the instructions, no problem.  It really blends up the greens and the fruits extremely smooth.  Nuts and seeds are not really ground up that well and will settle in the bottom of your drink.  I may omit this from the morning routine.    Fiber is left in this drink and will keep you fuller longer.

I would recommend this blender to those looking to add a juice to their diet and do not 3 want to get a juicer.

No cheat Saturday

Daily gratitude:  I am grateful that my father in law is going to be okay after suffering a fall and a bleed

My husband is back from one night of camping.  He did not do as well as I did and managed to consume half a bag of Doritos.  We decided we needed to juice today and save the cheat day for tomorrow.

Rise and Shine Blended Juice

2 cups of Festival Blend fruit
1.5 cups water
1 banana
2 cups spinach
Blend thoroughly and enjoy

This is our go to juice for the morning and we love using the frozen fruit.  It makes it a little thicker and a little colder.  If you use frozen fruit, make sure there is no added sugar.  I normally measure mine out and let it thaw for about an hour prior to blending.  I have an old blender and it needs a little help with the frozen and hard chunks

We made two vegetable juices for the day.  The first one is a V-8 type juice.  Here is my recipe

8 plum tomatoes

cucumber

celery

1/4 onion

parsley

red pepper

lime

Through the juicer    I will probably add a hint of hot sauce to it.

Our other juice was a green juice using kale.  This recipe will make about 60 ounces

2 bunches of kale

2 cucumbers

2 grapefruit - peeled

1 blood orange

Look at the color of that kale coming out of the juicer.  Green goodness.  

Now that the juice is made for the day, we can go about our business and not have to worry about stopping our day to make juice.  I find that this way keeps us more on track than having to stop and make the juice.  

Enjoy your day.  Happy juicing.

No cheat day today

Daily gratitude:  I am motivated by feeling better

I got an amazing recipe from another website.  Please visit her blog to get another dose of encouragement.

Vmac and Cheese

So I decided to try her savory green juice.

I had all of the ingredients in my fridge or growing out on my patio,  Plus, I wanted to be able to make today's juice in the morning and have it handily available.  It's Saturday, we want to cheat, but we are waiting for tomorrow to do so.

Anyhow.

Savory Green Juice:
This will make about 70 ounces of juice to drink throughout the day.

2 pounds of tomatoes
5 carrots
4 celery stalks
bunch of parsley
1/2 bunch of kale or spinach
small onion without skin
3 cloves of garlic - peeled
Run this through the juicer and then store in a BPA free container for  up to 24 hours.

It separates right away so be sure to stir it thoroughly before pouring and drinking.

Juicers and Clean up and the start of Day 8

Daily gratitude:  I am grateful for my ability to to sit on my hands and not post vagueness to Facebook or send out e mails until I have cooled down.

Pounds lost at this point:  8  EIGHT POUNDS!

I have also not taken my antacid pill in 6 days.  I took it every single day before I started to juice.

Juice for my breakfast is the remainder of the tomato juice made yesterday.  Remember to always drink the juice within 24 hours.  I did strain some of the pulp from it as I am not a pulp lover and it was very pulpy.

Let's talk about juicers.  I agonized over what juicer to get.  I read review after review after review and finally just decided to get the Breville JE98XL.  Am I happy with it?  It gets the job done.  I am a novice juicer.  This is perfect for me.  I do not intend to juice wheatgrass shots or anything else that needs a higher end juicer.  The Breville is just fine for me.

Yes, I have had some adventures with it - all my own fault for not making sure it was put together properly prior to juicing.  I have had accidents with my blender as well.  Sigh...

Clean up of the juicer is easy.  I read all those reviews that complained about clean up ad what a pain it was.  Seriously people.  Did you expect it to clean itself?  I mean, it is straining juice from vegetables and you expect easy clean up?

The receptacle is plastic.  The waste slides right out.  They do make bags for this OR you can use a produce bag or a plastic shopping bag if you are super lazy.  Ha ha.

I take the machine apart and immediately immerse the blade/strainer in warm soapy water.  It stays there while I clean the rest of the juicer.

Once I am done with the "other" parts, I rinse the strainer and then use the brush Breville sends you and I clean the strainer.  It may take a few times, but it comes clean.  Run it under clear water and then put it on a towel to dry.

Here is why I hand wash all of the plastic parts.  Some of them are dishwasher safe an some are not.  I don't want to try and remember which are and then make a mistake and have a melted part and a juicer that I can't use.  Handwash the parts and you are all set.

DAY 7

Our juice for the morning is this recipe

2 c green grapes
1 banana
1 knob ginger
1/2 avocado (I substituted a pear since I had no avocado at the time)
2 c water
2 c leafy greens (kale)

Afternoon and snack juice recipes

Beet & Carrot Juice
4 beets peeled
7 carrots
1/2 lemom
Thru the juicer

My advice is to pour your glass and drink it as fast as you can.  Unless you like the taste of beets.  I immediately went right in to making the tomato juice after I emptied the waste receptacle.

Tomato juice
12 tomatoes
6 celery stalks
knob ginger
nub of jalapeno pepper
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Thru the juicer

This is delicious.  DELICIOUS.  Light tomato without the thickness of what you get in cans.

I would advise making sure your utensils, juicer and all surface areas are wiped clean.  Beet juice stains.

Because I have a busy day in store, I made the juice ahead of time. The literature would like you to believe that you lose nutrients and MUST drink your juice ASAP.  while I do agree that some nutrients are lost, I also believe that this should be easy and convenient.  People do not stick to diets when they are not easy and when they are not convenient.  Please make sure that your juice is consumed within 24 hours of processing it.