Drink Your Greens!

Drink Your Greens!

This is what I'm telling my kids.  They're picky.  One day they'll like a certain fruit or veggie and the next day...not so much.  I was pretty surprised when they asked my husband to make them edamame today.  Go girls!!

As they were eating their edamame, thoroughly enjoying popping the little beans out of the shells, I was in the kitchen prepping for and making green juices for today and tomorrow.  (Yes, I am fully aware that the best nutritional benefit comes when juice is consumed within hours, if not immediately after making it.  However, I figure it's still a better option tomorrow than some other things I could pull out of the fridge or pantry!)  When I was finished juicing, two of my three girls asked for their own glass of juice.  How could I not oblige?  Heck yeah girls, you can have some green juice!!!

I gave them some of the Kale, Apple, Orange.  Nearly as soon as I sat it down in front of them, I heard that super annoying noise that occurs when you sip through a straw into the bottom of an empty glass.  Yeah.  They inhaled that juice.  They asked me if they could start bringing juice to school to have with their lunch.  Again, HECK YES!!  If I can get them to have a green juice-a-day, I'm ALL FOR IT.  I'll happily make juices all the time if they will reap the nutritional benefits of that green goodness.

It took me an hour, but I got 4 x 24 ounce jars plus 3/4 jar (not pictured) for my husband plus the glass I gave to the girls.  Not bad!!  I used two small bags of baby spinach, one large bunch of kale, 5 oranges, 4 apples, 4 lemons, a small pre-cut container of pineapple, 6 mini cucumbers and a package of carrots.

The longest part of the process is washing and prepping the veggies.  Because I have an Omega juicer, I have to chop everything smaller to fit it through the hole on the juicer.  No worries...I know it's worth it.  

The juice combinations I made today were:

• Kale, Apple, Orange
• Kale, Carrot, Cucumber, Lemon
• Spinach, Pineapple, Carrot

Prepped fruits & veggies (washed & cut)

Washed kale, I juice the stems too.

Washed and cut apples - 2 Gala, 2 Granny Smith

R to L
*Spinach, Pineapple, Carrot
*Carrot, Kale, Lemon, Cucumber
*Kale, Apple, Orange (x2)

My first juice...and I used the pulp - no waste here!

Yeah Yeah!!!  ::Happy Dance::

I made my first juice today in my new juicer (thank you again to Josh for letting me keep it!)  I have to say, all things considered, it was not at all bad.  I took a cue from my good friend Dana, and I added a couple of ice cubes, which definitely added a smoothness to the juice.  I had no idea what to expect, but I think I might get the hang of this fairly quickly.  I'm looking forward to making all sorts of juicy recipes!

Today I felt like veggies.  Straight veggies.  I had already had an apple for breakfast, so I didn't want to add that for sweetness.  I opted instead for beets & carrots which have their own sugars & sweetness.  So, what could I add to beets & carrots?  Celery and Romaine looked good!

• One medium organic beet, peeled
• 3 organic carrots, greens and tops removed
• 2 large organic stalks celery with leafy greens
• large handful red Romaine lettuce (not shown)
• 4 ice cubes

This is after adding the romaine to the celery

This is after adding the beet

The final product - my beet, celery, romaine, carrot juice!!

I missed getting a picture of the pulp!!  ARGH!  For anyone who is new to juicing, like me, the pulp was all ground up and extremely dry (makes sense, right, we juiced it!)  When I took the top off of the juicer, there was this beautiful pulp leftover.  There are lots of things I could do with this pulp, rather than toss it in the garbage disposal or into the trash can.  If I was into composting, I could add it to the compost pile.  But, since I don't compost, I wanted to find another use for it.  I read that I can stir it into batters for muffins (good way to sneak fiber into my kids!) or add it to casseroles.

For dinner tonight, I wanted a grain, so I made quinoa.  While the quinoa was simmering, I took a carnival squash (it's small, like an acorn squash), sliced it in half from top to bottom and scooped out the seeds & strings.  I sprinkled the halves with dried herbs and roasted at 425 for about 25 minutes.  When the quinoa was done, I fluffed it with a fork and added the pulp from the juice, bean sprouts and Bragg's Liquid Aminos (like a healthy soy sauce).  I added this mixture to the squash halves to stuff them, topped with a sprinkle of Daiya non-dairy cheese and baked for about 10 minutes longer.  I served this with roasted Brussels sprouts that I topped with a little Wayfare cheddar "cheese" sauce.  I got my protein (quinoa), fiber (pulp), veggies - plus some extra yumminess from the Daiya & Wayfare without using dairy products.

Stuffed squash with  Brussels sprouts

Isn't it pretty?  So colorful due to the beet pulp!

Mouth watering bite - squash, quinoa, pulp and a little bit of Daiya

Another bite of fabulousness!