Yuck! But I did it!

[straysweeper]

For my birthday, a close friend gave me a Jack Lalanne juicer. It has taken me a week to get the store and buy somethings, and I just bought to experiment. I ended up putting Kale, Cilantro, Pear, Green Apple, Carrot, Celery, Lemon, and Cucumber. It didn't taste very good, but I'm googling recipes and I'll keep trying!

[Savage]

Carrot, apple, lime, and ginger is a good base for good-tasting juices (about 6 large carrots, one apple, 1/2 lime, and about 1 tsp fresh ginger).

From there you can add various greens and veggies like romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, cucumber, celery, dandelion greens, beets, etc.

[straysweeper]

Thank you Steve!

I must say this is a trip for me. Most of my life, I've deleted the produce section of the grocery store. I didn't even hear of Kale till a few years ago. Some, I'm still hearing about. Learning how to tell whats good vs what to cut off, and ripeness is going to be a challenge!

Thanks again!

[Daffy Duck]

Does the body have an easier time digesting liquids? I guess, in essence, the blender does all the "chewing" for you. I'm curious if the digestive system is ever like, "Hey, you're making this too easy for me!"

I actually like the idea of blending green smoothies and the like. I naturally enjoying drinking (in general, not alcohol) and like having something to sip on, but I often find eating to be tedious.

[Dimond]

Yes, the body has an easier time digesting liquids. This is the reason why many do juice fasts. You can heal all kinds of illnesses with it and just improve your health overall. Smoothies are great too, but a bit different since they have fiber. Just depends on your health goals.

Juice should always taste good when you have the right combination of ingredients. Carrots, apples, ginger and/or beets are the main foods that help make a tasty juice. So then you can have any variety of veggies without tasting them. Cilantro and very bitter greens such as kale, need extra sweet foods to balance them out.

[Inthon]

Juicing is awesome, GREAT move :-)

[Benny21]

I remember my girlfriend would get carrot and orange juice from a fresh juice bar in the mall. I thought it would be disgusting but when I tried it, turned out to be good!

[straysweeper]

Today, I decided to finish off some of the stuff I bought, as I"m not used to spoilage times. It was same as yesterday but significantly more carrots, while less kale has helped it tremendously. Thanks again Steve!

[ginkgo]

Organic produce is better since the juice concentrates the nutrients and the pesticides. Also fruit tastes best but carrots are pretty good and cheap.

[bluedragon]

I never thought of juicing in terms of taste. I don't think any fruit or vegetable juice tastes really that bad that you can't drink it. Well, except black radish juice, plain... That's like, the devil's drink But in general, I drink juices plain - apple juice, grape juice (which is really great), carrot juice, beetroot juice (sometimes combined with apple), etc. I never thought of combining them just to make them taste better. I think most people greatly underestimate their ability to enjoy simple tastes, simply because they are not used to them.

For example when I'm out at a bar, some of my friends are baffled by the fact that I drink lemonade unsweetened. They're like "what!? you drink it straight!? You're crazy..." I could say the same for them drinking it with white sugar.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I used to juice regularly, but that Jack Lalane juicer was just too difficult to clean. It was a major pain, especially the strainer. I bought a VItamix and it is so much easier to deal with, although it's not really juicing, but blending. I feel it is in some ways superior because you get all the fiber and calories that are weeded out in the pulp of juicing. I also find juicing to be wasteful because you're only drinking the liquid part of the fruit/veggie. But, to each their own...

[stanmrak]

Watch the amount of carrot juice - it's high in sugar and can spike your blood levels.

[straysweeper]

Originally Posted by stanmrak

Watch the amount of carrot juice - it's high in sugar and can spike your blood levels.

I used two the day before, and this time I used 5.