Let the juicing begin!

Well, it’s here. The long awaited day of the beginning of my foray into juicing. It took awhile to decide if I was going in this direction. After all, I have a Blendtec blender and I can add greens to my smoothies, and some health gurus say juicing isn’t as good as smoothies because you loose the pulp.

So, I actually tried shredding carrots and beets and making a shake out of it and ick. Pulpy veggies aren’t all they are cracked up to be – better to eat them whole. It’s actually always better to eat them whole.

But I’m thinking of this as a vitamin shot. Not to be overdone, but to add to the way I’m already eating. And it will be especially good for a nutrient boost when I get off track. And the occasional juice cleanse, I’m thinking.

So, the juicer – actually, it’s marketed as a nutrition center because it also will make nut butters, grind wheat, make frozen sorbet, homemade pasta, and more, probably, but that’s what I remember – is sitting on the counter next to my Blendtec. My two favorite kitchen appliances, side by side.

I went online to look for juicing recipes. A lot of them call for an apple to sweeten things up. But I don’t have any apples right now. So I decided to just do my own thing and see if what came out was even remotely palatable. I did have carrots and snap peas on hand, and I hoped they’d add the right amount of sweet. The things I added were carrots, snap peas, beets, celery and kale.

This is what came out….

I think that looks good! Don’t you think that looks good? The juice will be strained once and the pulp put into my compost.

Here’s the juice, after straining. You still get a little pulp after the straining. I have a finer strainer I could use in the future, but it wasn’t too bad. Nothing remotely like that icky shake I made.

Oh my, how colorful!

So, I took a deep breath and took a sip. I was afraid that I might have to hold my nose to get it all down, but it was GOOD! Just the right amount of sweet for a vegetable juice. How about that for a newbie juicer?!

I was going to save up for this juicer, I really was. But then Andy spent some money on an air conditioner (we had talked about laying off the big purchases for awhile) and I said “hey!” and he said “I knew you were going to say that, go get your juicer.” Two first-borns. It makes for an interesting marriage. And the juicer was expensive. I did a lot of research (which involved reading reviews and watching videos of juicer comparisons) and this was the one I wanted. I learned from getting the more expensive blender that it’s worth it to get a good machine. And this one has a 15-year warranty. The bottom line, really, is that I bought this to improve my health and boost my immune system, which is money well spent.

Andy, who loves carrot juice, is gonna love this!