Juicing 101

I've had several people ask me questions about juicing, so I thought making a short video would be the best way to explain everything quickly and give a visual of how it works. The rest of the post is information that is either in the video, or that I wanted to elaborate on a little more, but didn't have time. (I wanted to keep it as short and sweet as possible!)

I'm fairly new to juicing, and I tend to get on kicks and then have droughts of it, but I really do love it! It's a way that I feel like I can get a wide variety of nutrients in my diet, without actually having to go make a huge salad or fruit and veggie filled meal. It gets me started off feeling energetic and healthy. I was VERY intimidated by juicing at first but it really is SO easy! My kids LOVE juice too and I feel MUCH better giving them REAL juice we've made here, that I know doesn't have extra additives and preservatives. Plus, there's no added sugar in it and you can make your own concoction that doesn't have to stay within the "cran-apple" realm.

What to Juice:
It really seems like you can juice almost anything (I just haven't been quite brave enough to try a lot of options)! I have seen most vegetables juiced including carrots, beets, broccoli, asparagus, kale, chard, tomato, celery, squash, zucchini, lettuce, ginger and potatoes. Fruits I've seen are pineapple, apples, pears, all types of berries, kiwi, citrus (remove peels!), mangoes (remove pit), peaches (remove pit) and melons.

The great thing about juicing is that it requires very little preparation. You can juice most fruits and vegetables whole, without having to remove their skin or stems. In fact, sometimes the stems are the best part to juice! Make sure you wash them really well and I've been advised to buy organic foods, since it does use the whole fruit or veggie. You don't ever want to put citrus in the juicer without being peeled however, and soft foods like avocado and banana don't juice very well.

Favorite Varieties:
Again, I don't really use recipes for juicing. I just put in quite a bit of the things I know I like and then, like with the smoothies, add sparingly what I'm skeptical of but would like to try. A few favorites are:
Pineapple, orange, strawberry, kale and broccoli
Apple, carrot and orange
Grape, carrot, orange and beet

You can use the juice as a base for your green smoothies fresh, or you can freeze it and use it for "flavored ice" for your smoothies. You do want to drink it as soon as possible and only refrigerate it for up to 24 hours. I've also heard that you can use the leftover pulp in baking.

Types of Juicers:
There are a WIDE range of juicers (and a wide price range) for juicers out there! I have the Jack Lelane Power Juicing Machine.

I've used three different types of juicers and so far, I've liked my Jack Lelane the best. It just feels sturdy and gets the job done quickly (although it doesn't have the best reviews on Amazon, apparently it's very "entry level").  It also produced the driest pulp of all the ones I used. But that's not to say there aren't other great options out there. The other two juicers I used, definitely got the job done! As I said in the video, they all follow the same basic design and basically do the same thing. It's just up to you how much you want to spend, and to look into customer reviews (what I usually do when I buy ANYTHING), to find out what will be the best bet for you. Here is a link to Amazon's juicers with the highest customer reviews.