Saturday, February 7, 2009

Green Juice!

For the past couple weeks I have ventured into the RAW-foodie lovin' world of JUICING! - Green Juice specifically. I always feels so good after I down a Naked Juice while I'm out and about, but at almost $4 a pop, it's about time I learn to blend my own veggies! While I love smoothies and blend berries with vanilla yogurt on occasion, those calories still add up. I have had my eye on that shiny Breville Juice extractor for some time now but after a little Googling, I realized I could get virtually the same results with my little ol' $30 blender! Well, I got a discount on it...so I guess it's really about a $75-$99 blender...but still! It's no Vita Mix, that's for sure. I started by just throwing some organic spinach, organic carrots, and bottled H20 in the blender and then drinking it - BAD MOVE. I almost threw up on myself and was nauseous all night. It tasted like GRASS. After some more Googling, I found out that if I added an apple it would sweeten it up a bit and if I strained it through some sort of mesh it would save me from those gag inducing chunks. I saw a video of a guy on YouTube straining his Green Juice with a paint strainer he got from Home Depot. After a trip to my local Lowes, I was the proud owner of a .75 mesh paint strainer and ready to go. I put a handful of organic spinach, two cut up organic carrots, one organic apple, and filled my blender about 1/3 - 1/2 full of bottled water...blended away...strained it (sqeezing every last drop through the mesh), and it was PERFECT! Filling, healthy, low-cal and refreshing! I've been adding some Acai nectar to the final product for an antioxidant punch and I love it! There are all sorts of fruit veggie combos you can do but, being a creature of habit, I like this somewhat basic mix, so I'm stickin' to it.
Here ya go! My GREEN JUICE routine:

I've got my ingrediants ready...Here we go!!
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Blend...Blend...Blend...
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It looks a bit like babyfood, I know...but just wait.
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Place the mesh strainy thingy over the top of your blender before you pour into a bowl.
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Veggie juice seeping out...YUM!
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In goes the Acai...
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Voila! GREEN JUICE! Perfect, post workout!
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Now to clean up... :/
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