Mama Gone Green is a blog dedicated to raising happy children and reducing our impact on the Earth. My name is Taryn and I am the mother of 2 young kids and an environmental studies instructor at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Please join me as I journey through life as a mama, teacher, knitter, photographer, gardener, and environmentalist!

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I Juice, Do You? The Pros (and Cons) of Juicing

I have been on a huge juicing kick lately. I love it.
OK, lets actually back up and start at the beginning....
I got a juicer for Christmas in 2011, so about a year and a half ago. I used it some, mostly for fruit juice, but then sort of forgot about it, and that was that.
Recently, I have stumbled upon many a blog-website-article-etc. that talked about the "magical" powers of juicing. So I decided to give it another go-round. And I am in love.
A small glass of green juice in the morning gives me a huge boost. Here is a typical morning juice for me:
  • 3 carrots
  • 3 stalk celery
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 4-5 kale leaves
  • 1/2 - 1 apple
  • 2 tablespoons of parsley
OK, I'll be honest. This not-so-sweet juice took some getting used to, and it also took a while to figure out what I couldn't put too much of in (for example, lots of carrots is still good, but a whole lot of spinach, not so much). And really, this isn't the best tasting thing in the world to me (at least not yet), but it tastes good, and I know how many nutrients are in there, and that makes it all worth it. I think I want to experiment with some new recipes, especially since summer fruits and veggies are starting to emerge at the farmers market. I am sure my skills will improve with practice.

Here are my problems with juicing:

1. You have to put a TON of stuff in to get a wee amount of juice. Check this out:



That colander is full of veggies and fruit, overflowing actually. All that went into the juicer and that is how much juice came out. I know it is potent, and packed full of nutrients, but a small glass of fresh juice can be pretty spendy!

2.  The juicer is a huge pain to clean out. OK, not a huge pain, but it is time consuming, and because of that, I don't have time to juice on the days that I work.

3. My kids will have nothing to do with it. I was hoping that this would be a great healthy addition for the whole family, but so far, I am the only one who will drink it! Any tips of getting wee ones to drink their veggie juice?

But, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I am loving juicing and how it makes me feel. And, I realized that our ducks will eat the leftover juiced veggies. Cool right?



Do you juice? Do you have any favorite juice recipes to share? I can't wait to try some new ones!
Also, wondering if I make a big batch of juice one day, is it OK to leave it in the fridge to drink over the next couple of days, or does that deplete a lot of the nutrients? I would love to find a way to make this a more convenient process for the days that I work. Thanks! Pin It Now!

9 comments:

  1. We juice here and the little man loves it. His favourite is an apple carrot beet combination. And of course carrots and orange. I will do a green juice with an extra apple or pear or maybe some pineapple and he will drink that too, but a strong green juice he won't drink. Soon maybe.

    And at the end of the week we do a kitchen sink juice, whatever veggies and fruits are left go in, usually turns our pretty good :)

    Enjoy!

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  2. oh honey. I just couldn't. You are a better person than I am! :)

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    1. I'm not the one who is out running every day!! ;) I am jealous of your motivation!

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  3. We have a juicer that we played with once, but we prefer our blender to make smoothie type drinks. I'd like to at least learn to juice so we can make carrot juice b/c I have given that to the kids before, mixed with orange juice, and they liked it. Our smoothies have lots of good stuff in them though and since its a smoothie and not just juice, it can be my breakfast all in one b/c its filling. I do tea and Kale in the bottom of my blender first to really get the kale obliterated. :) Then we add greek yogurt and whatever fruit we have on hand...usually frozen berries. I add brewers yeast for good Mama milk too. ;) Do you think your kids would drink something like that? B/c you could make it with your juice. ?? Then you'd have the juicer AND the blender to clean. ;) My kids drink this which I love b/c Kian won't touch greens. But he drinks his kale. :)

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  4. I have never juiced! I do make smoothies but that's not the same is it? I would be the only one to drink/eat it in this house I'm afraid.

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  5. I am giggling... Can you imagine if either of our parents had a juicer back in the day when we made salads? That would've been amazing! Maybe you should hide your juicer once your kids reach sleepover age. :)

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    1. Hehe....I should probably hide most things in my house when my kids reach sleepover age. Actually, I should just hide it all now. In fact, I should probably just have a separate house where I keep everything. My kids can live in a padded room with nothing but unbreakable toys!

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  6. I just started juicing this past month and use a masticating juicer (Hurom) which actually yields a pretty good amount of juice. I'm loving juicing so far but my kids are still skeptical. They don't want any veggies in there at all (although the do eat a fair amount of veggies on their own) and I can't even seem to fool them with some carrots mixed in with orange juice. Some of my favourite juice combos are:
    -carrot, beet, apple, kale, celery, parsley, lemon, ginger (Looks and tastes pretty murky but still good. I tend to go heavy on the carrots and kale and everything else I just toss in what I have feel like or have left in the fridge)
    -1x grapefruit, 1x beet, 1x apple, handful parsley, small handful mint leaves (soooo yummy and I'm still trying to convince my husband this would also be amazing with a shot of vodka...)
    -1/2 cucumber, 2x apples, handful parsley, small handful mint, 2 celery stalks, 1/2 lime (this actually ended up being pretty sweet so I'm thinking that a whole cucumber and only one apple would balance it out nicely)

    If you end up trying any of these combos, let me know what you think :)

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    1. Thanks so much! I can't wait to try these... and glad to know my kids aren't the only ones who shun veggie juice!

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