Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Green Juice

2 years ago my husband took me to the most incredible resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico.



Rosewood Mayakoba is fantastic and if you're looking for somewhere to go for a weekend together OR somewhere to take the family, this is the place.  Really, I can't say enough about the resort or its employees.

One of my favorite parts of our visit was breakfast.  I ordered their Green Juice every day we were there and felt so fancy.

It was a wonderful green color--not sickly looking at all-- and tasted light, fresh and fancy.

Ever since then I've tried other green juices and have been disappointed.

They have tasted like grass, looked like stagnant pond water with algae floating or had no taste at all.

By the way, trust me on the algae one.  I actually ordered a juice cleanse that was delivered daily in its own little cooler.  All I had to do was drink the juices provided every 3 hours or so.  The green one had wheat grass in it.  No biggie.  I'd had my share of gross drinks in my life.  I could just chug it.

Wrong.

One sip and that gag reflex was working overtime and I poured the whole thing out.  What a waste of money.

Back to the yummy green juice.

I finally went out and bought myself a juicer...


Meet my Breville juicer.  I bought the mid-priced one since I didn't think I'd be juicing 24 hours a day.  It has worked wonderfully well so far!  This picture is after juicing apples this morning for my girls.  Fresh apple juice rocks.

I've been experimenting with different green juice recipes lately.  Some have had promise, some have brought back that gag reflex...don't do those.

The recipe I've found that works for me is this:


Grab the stuff...in my case, spinach, green apples, pears, a few grapes (because I had them and wanted to use them, but they are NOT necessary), and lemons.  You can also add celery or cucumber, but I didn't have those handy.

First, cut the lemon and take out the pulp part.  My juicer won't juice the rind.  Some might, but I'm not sure on that.  I used a whole lemon, but you can just use half if you like.  The lemon gives it a fresher taste.


I also cut up my apple into quarters because it was pretty large.  Usually, though, I can just pop apples in the shoot and juice away.  The pear goes in next.  No need to cut it, just wash it and put it in whole.


This is an awkward photo, but I wanted to try to show you my handful of spinach.  It is about 1 1/2 cups...otherwise known as a good handful.  My hand looked gnarly today, so here it is spread out on my counter.  Plop it all in and watch the juice turn a pretty green color!!


This is what is left after you are done juicing.  This actually was after two recipes.  The bag is a gallon food storage bag--not a ziploc.  Looks gross, but it doesn't smell and is pretty dry.  If you compost, this would be awesome.  Since I do not compost, I just dump it in the woods in my backyard and pop the bag back in the machine.  The bag also saves me having to wash the pulp catcher.


Final result!!  Isn't it pretty? My recipe makes enough for one good sized drink or two regular sized drinks.  Yummy!!!

Let's get ready for spring and all that it involves....shorts, sleeveless shirts and (ugh) bathing suits.

Happy Mardi Gras!

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