Juice!

I am in love. I have been looking for a juicer for quite a while now and yesterday I scored. I found a great Champion Juicer in an awesome retro green color on Craigslist for a steal. I called the people, ran right over an picked it up. They were a lovely couple in their 70s with a real passion for juicing, especially carrots.

I have wanted a juice for two reasons. The first being that my kids love juice and they love to drink the crappy processed stuff which we limit but can’t totally avoid. I’m hoping that the juicer will allow me to make fresh juice for them that they will like. The other reason is that because of our garden and CSA we can’t keep up with all the veggies we have and some of them spoil. Juicing is a great way to consume lots of veggies.

Recently though I found another reason to really want a juicer. I saw Fat Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix. It’s a movie about how Joe Cross turned his health around by going on a 60 day juice fast. He lost weight, gained health and was able to rid himself of the symptoms of a chronic auto immune disorder. He also helped a truck driver do the same. Now I don’t realistically think that this could happen to me but I am quite certain that I should be eating more and more fresh fruits and veggies and less and less processed foods.

Since I have this juicer I am planning to do a juice fast for at least 10 days. Partly to reboot my system and partly to just challenge myself. My relationship with food is not too healthy. I eat lots of organic fruits and veggies but I eat quite a bit of junk too. I’m not quite sure exactly when I’ll start my fast but you can be sure that I’ll document it here. For now I have started out by juicing sporadically and for breakfast, a meal I frequently skip.

Last night I made a juice out of carrots, kale, apple, beets and cucumber and served it to myself in a wine glass. It was sweet and delicious. This morning I decided to go the more savory route and juiced up some tomato, kale, arugula, cucumber, scallions and carrots. It was great, kind of like gazpacho.

Do you juice? What are some of your favorite recipes? (I’m going to need them.)