Paging Jack Lalanne

I have tried to take an appetizing picture of the juice I've been making with my new juicer. 


It's not possible. 


I'll show you a picture of apples instead. 

They're in the juice. 


So I'm juicing. 


The impetus was a cleanse that I'm doing for the next three weeks. It's the most moderate one out there, and I could technically do the "liquid meal" portion with smoothies, like I normally make in the mornings. But I decided that I needed something to keep me excited about it while I'm doing without the things I crave (mainly sugar and cheesy things). And a fun new kitchen appliance does the trick. 


I bought a countertop version - the Waring Pro Juice Extractor - because many of them are huge and would've taken up all the available counter space in our kitchen. 


This one's not tiny, but it's manageable.


And it makes juice!


I know other folks have been doing it for years, but I'm still fascinated by the idea that you can shove a piece of kale down there, and JUICE comes out. From KALE. 


It's pretty awesome, and I've started out with the most basic green juice - a mix of kale, green apples, lemon, cucumber, and sometimes celery. Oh, and I've thrown some ginger in too. 


The flavor takes a little getting used to - it's not sweet but the green apples and the lemon help to make it not to bitter either. It's growing on me - it's refreshing, and I think once I start playing around with some other fruits and veggies in there - beets, carrots, parsley - I'll really start to enjoy it. Of course, yesterday I slipped up and accidentally called it grass juice instead of green juice. So maybe that's saying something?


Either way, the idea is to pump myself full of healthy fruits and veggies, and it certainly does that.


I may break the bank, though. The one glass of juice I made last night had 6 leaves of kale, 4 stalks of celery, 2 green apples, 1 cucumber, 1 lemon, and a bit of ginger! That's a lot of produce. 


Once I'm off the cleanse, I think juicing will become something I do occasionally - maybe once or twice a week - or else I'd have to get a second job just to keep paying for the vegetables. 


Of course, I'm eating a lot less of the other stuff - cheese and bread and donuts (I've developed an unfortunate Dunkin Donuts problem up here). So the cost might not be as much as I think it is in relation to what I would've been spending otherwise. 


Either way, I'm hoping to share a few juicing recipes here over the next three weeks, along with some new smoothie recipes, and maybe even a couple new healthy meals. 


Do you juice?

Katie