Our family LOVES to juice. How about you?!

Every single morning in our home starts off the same: The boys jump into my bed, we cuddle for about 10 minutes and then they begin to ask me repeatedly over and over again…

“Can we juice, mommy? Pllleeeassseee????”

Then we all sing our juicing song: “Juice! Juice! Cha-cha-cha” and make our way to the kitchen. Every night I set the juicer up for the next morning and add whatever produce we want to juice into our bamboo bowl. We all peel/chop as needed (the boys have become professional carrot peelers!) and then they boys take turns adding the produce to the juicer.

Once the juicer is done doing its work, we mix it up, pour into 3 or 4 cups (depending if Martin is home or not) and that is how we start our day! It’s about 5 minutes of pure silence and then the “Chocolate oats, mommy??’ or “Ice Cream, mommy??” begins hahaha!

Juicing has truly helped us stay on our zero FOOD waste journey. Our compost bin is not as full as it usually is because I have been taking all of the half eaten fruit/veggies and I just juice them! I even like to take the pulp from the juice and concoct pulp crackers, pulp “tuna fish” salads, and more!

I have also been having a lot more fun with creating different juices. When we first started juicing, we were pretty boring and stuck to a traditional juice . But the more you do it, the more you trust your self! I find this true in nearly every aspect of life and it has been SO much fun playing around with our juicer. We even like to juice and then blend with frozen goodies to make a super nutritious smoothie!

To Juice or Not to Juice?

Juicing has gotten a lot of attention in the past 10-20 years and not all of it good. As always, we humans like to take things way too far and take something beautiful and turn it into a huge fad (which essentially destroys the essence of the beauty). Let’s stop that right now, shall we?

Juicing is a beautiful way to incorporate easily digestible nutrients into your body. Should you live off of just juice? I would never recommend that. Should you completely say no to juicing because this one lady lived off of it for a solid month and got sick? Well…I think you should use your noggin and realise that there is a better way. A more balanced way of life.

A juice a day, in my opinion, is enough to reap the amazing benefits and keep your body full of the OTHER essential things in life like fiber (from whole foods) and chewing (get those mouth muscles working). We start off our day with a juice and, if I am truly in need of a juice pick me up later in the day, I will have another small “booster drink” with something like ginger/celery/parsley. In the mix of day, I will also have whole fruits and veggies, grains, nuts, seeds, and all the other beautiful plant based foods that make up my lifestyle.

Why did I start Juicing?

I started juicing to help my stomach overcome some serious sensitivities. I have always loved adding whole fruits throughout my day, but my stomach was NOT happy about it. It was just too much to mix the grains with the fruits and the fats. If you find yourself having stomach aches from pairing fruits with or around your meal times, then you may want to try this too. First, you can schedule eating fruits a solid hour before or after a meal – this helped a lot. Another thing you can do is juice. I find that having a juice with my breakfast does not hurt my belly because it is MUCH easier to digest. Thank goodness. Because…ouch.

Liquids are absorbed by the body more quickly and completely because the absorption of the many vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients starts right away as soon as they enter your mouth. Solid food takes a slower path of absorption through the stomach and intestines, and unless you chew your food thoroughly, you don’t get as much nutrition from raw as you do from its liquid form.

Many folks start to juice once their body has shown signs of disease or failure, such as me (slight bow) but I hope more and more people use juicing to KEEP their body as healthy as possible. Take in those vitamins, nutrients and minerals and have yourself a merry little life.

 

New to Juicing?

Here are 5 helpful tips to get started:

1. Wash the produce very well. I like to use a vinegar wash or baking soda wash. I typically soak for about 5-10 minutes and then do a quick rub down with my hands or a scrubber (depending on what the produce is). Quick rinse with water and then you are all set. This is also when I remove the excess leaves/stems of produce that I do not want juiced (such as the tops of carrots or beets).
2. Citrus must absolutely be peeled or the bitter taste of the peel will ruin your juice. Peel or simply squeeze the citrus fruit into your juicing bowl.
   1. Other produce that should be peeled: Anything with inedible skins like mango, guava, pineapple, and melons. I also like to peel my carrots and parsnips.
3. Be sure to remove the pits/cores of any produce that needs it like apples, peaches, mangoes, etc.
4. To strain or not to strain? Personally, I never strain my juice. I just mix with my stainless steel straw and down the beauty with a big ol’ smile on my face. If you absolutely loathe pulp, then you can use a simple mesh strainer, nut/milk bag, or something of the like.
5. Know your sweeteners/bitters/and the likes: The more you juice, the more you will know how much of this or that to use.
   1. Apples, Beets, Pears and Pineapples are great additions to any juice for sweetness. Another huge favourite of ours is pomegranate seeds, but they do require some work to get out (completely worth it in my opinion!).
   2. The refreshing elements: Celery and cucumber! I always like to add one of these (or both) to my green juices.
   3. The tangy additions: any and all citrus! Oranges, limes and grapefruits are phenomenal in juices.
   4. And last but not least, the spices! Ginger, cayenne pepper, cilantro and basil are wonderful!

Juicer Recommendations

 

Our Current Juicer (3 years and counting): The Panasonic Slow Masticating Juicer

I love this juicer, I truly do. I purchased this as soon as we moved into our first apartment and the boys were barely a few weeks old. I was so tired, stressed, and in great need of nutrients. I could FEEL my body begging for juice. And so, I bought this as a gift to myself and juiced every single morning. It was wonderful. She still works just like new!

The KOIOS Juicer

You will notice that I am only recommending slow, masticating juicers. This is because we do not want our juicer to heat our fruit while juicing to preserve all of the vitamins and minerals. Another benefit is the amount of oxidation at the lowest level. This juicer is one of the best to keep minimal Oxidation, low heat build-up, less foaming and no clogging. The motor has a 10 year warranty as well. If my juicer were to break beyond repair, I would choose this one as the upgrade.

The Mueller Juicer

This juicer is made in Austria and has rave reviews. The chute is 3 inches wide which makes this super easy for juicing; little to no prep must be done! I love that this juicer has different speeds for quicker juicing: 1″ low speed runs from 12000 to 15000 RPM for softer fruits like oranges, tomatoes and others; “2” fast speed runs from 15000 to 18000 RPM for harder fruits like carrots, celery, beets, kale and many others. While the nutrient levels will not be at the KOIOS level, this is a fantastic juicer for a great price and great quality.

 

The typical produce of juicing

Kale

Spinach

Cucumber

Lemon

Carrots

Celery

Lettuce/Greens

Beets

Apples

Oranges

Turmeric

Ginger

A few “not so typical” produce/herbs to play around with:

Fennel

Peppers

Jalapeno peppers

Sweet potatoes

Tomatoes

Berries

Jicama

Pomegranate seeds

Prickly Pears

Horseradish Root

Star fruit

Cinnamon

Mint

Basil

Cilantro

Parsley

 

5 Amazing Juice Recipes to Cleanse and Reboot!

 

Liked our 5 Amazing Juice Recipes to Cleanse and Reboot? Try these other drinks out!

Vegan Cinnamon Roll Smoothie

Must have energizing juices for a productive morning

Vegan Raspberry Morning Smoothie

Nourishing Pear Smoothie