Happy Monday!
It's the first Monday of the New Year…have you stuck with your resolutions so far? I hope so! I have been wanting to pull out our juicer for a while now, so I figured it would be a great time to share some of my favorite juice recipes!
My husband Aaron and I have done juice cleanses before and while they worked for us in the short run, they don't really give you healthy or lasting results. But we still make juice every now and then because it's a great and easy way for us to get some fresh fruits and veggies in our diet, and our little ones like the taste so they will drink it too. We tend to stick with juices that use fresh produce that's in season and on sale at the store. This helps make the cost of making our own fresh juice a lot cheaper than buying the individual juices at the store, and saves me money so that I can spend that money elsewhere, like on a new swimsuit for spring!
We have a few favorite juice combinations that we tend to stick to. All of them are really tasty (and even toddler approved!). The juice I made that's featured in these photos is the "Mean Green" juice.
For the Mean Green juice, we use six kale leaves, four granny smith apples, one stalk of celery, and one cucumber. You can also add some fresh ginger to it as well if you prefer (we don't so we omit it). You can add more or less of an ingredient to your liking, but I may add that the celery adds a lot of salt to your juice, so we only prefer one stalk while others may prefer more, and you can also add half a lemon to it if you'd like as well. We haven't added it and we haven't missed it.
Some other juicing tips:
1. There is a lot of froth that can be created by the juice, so if you don't have a juicer that comes with a juice pitcher that keeps the froth out when you pour, drinking your juice with a straw will help you avoid most of the froth that ends up on top.
2. You need to drink the juice shortly after making it. If you let the juice sit, it will separate. You can always shake it to mix it back together, but it's still probably best to drink it fresh.
My toughest food critic :) and if he is smiling while drinking it (and will ask for a second cupful), you know it's good.
This picture above describes most of my days haha! Taking care of these two littles is my most important job and my greatest joy. This little man, green juice stache and all, makes my heart soar (no matter how many of his spills I have to clean up every day).
Below are some other juices that we've made that have been big hits. These amounts are for about two servings of juice max, so if you're making juice for more than that (like us) you may have to double the amounts:
Orange Machine
one grapefruit
one orange
two carrots
one orange pepper
Red Velvet
three carrots
two granny smith apples
one orange
1/4 beet
Oh Kale No
1-2 handfuls of kale
2 carrots
1/2 cucumber
2 apples
1/2 lemon
2-3 sprigs parsley (optional)
If you try these juices, tell me what you think of them in the comments! If you have any other juice recipes that you highly recommend I would love to hear them!
xo, Sara
Labels: food, recipes
