Monday, September 28, 2015

Adventures in Juicing - Log 2: Peaches are not your friends...

I didn't want to believe it at first, and then I went into absolute denial about it. How could peaches of all things, not be super good for you? They're sweet, delicious and packed full of mother natures juiciest flavor. How could it be possible that they are also one of the worst fruits to add to your juicing recipes?

Sadly, after many many juices with peaches as the primary fruit, I've just had to give in. They have so much fructose naturally, that when they are consumed in juice form, they send so much sugar ricocheting through your blood stream that it's enough to leave anyone dizzy and frazzled. Even just one peach can do this. Trust me, I've tried every possible combination. While peaches make for a fantastic flavor, they don't make for a fantastic and healthy juice.

That being said, while I've had to allow my favorite fruit to rest in peace, that doesn't mean I've given up on creating ultra yummy juices. Like most, I've found that apples are a great base for sweet flavor in your juices, though there are others that have worked out fairly well so far. Fruits like grapes, kiwi's and banana's also make healthy bases.

What fruits have you found to be just right for your juices?

Monday, September 21, 2015

Adventures in Juicing: Log 1 -That's not yummy in my mouth!

I've always wanted to write a blog that chronicles some new adventure I embark on in my life, but I usually get so far past the beginning of said adventures, that I don't want to have to go back and write up  blogs explaining the back story, so that it'll make sense. Yes, I know I could just start in the middle and not care about the back story, but the writer in me just won't allow that to happen.

So! Being that I have newly acquired a juicer as a gift to help be recreate better health in my life, now seemed like the perfect time to start a new series of blog posts featuring this latest adventure.

So... just last week I managed to get enough ingredients to attempt to make some delicious and healthy juices. Apples, grapes, kiwis, pineapple, peaches, butternut squash, carrots, bok choy, celery, romaine hearts, spinach, tomatoes and bananas.

I admit, even though I totally want the health benefits of all those veggies, I was still afraid of what they might taste like. My inner adult knew they probably wouldn't be that bad, but my inner child was scared they would taste super gross!

So I started with mostly fruity drinks. Apple-grape-carrot, peach-pineapple-butternut squash and apple-pineapple-banana-carrot. Everyone tried some and the group consensus was that all of these were yummy, even though the carrot fibers made things a little thicker than preferred.

After a week of those, some sugar rushes, lots of water and some more research, I got brave enough to try adding more green veggies.

My youngest son decided to join me. He's gotten excited about juicing with me since the first set of super yummy juices. He even helped decide that we would use carrots and grapes in this recipe. My contribution was celery, apples, lettuce and spinach. Heavy on the apples and grapes.

So we juiced up our produce and I poured a small glass to taste. It wasn't bad at all, but there was a clear celery and spinach taste that I knew no one else but be would consume, so I put in more apples to sweeten it up and over power the veggie taste. After that, it was much better, so I poured out some small glasses for everyone else to try.

My partner tried it, paused for a moment and said, "There's almost enough apple in there..."

My oldest son (who is 10) said, "It's not bad, tastes a bit like celery. Can't we make more apple-grape?"

My youngest (who is 4) tired it and immediately said, "Yuck! That is not yummy in my mouth!!" and then refused to try any further versions of it.

I'm hoping our next adventure might yield a juice that is both extremely healthy and tasty enough for the four year old taste test. Only time and experimentation will tell.

Leave a comment below and tell me about your juicing adventures and any positive recommendations you might have =)