Meet my juicer:
He’s awesome. And yes, he’s a “he.”
I love to make a fruit and veggie juice in the mornings. Now I know that some people criticize juicing or shy away from it since it removes all (or at least almost all) of the fiber from the produce. But I wanted to preemptively respond to that, and my reply is simple — use a juicer when you otherwise wouldn’t be eating lots of fruits and veggies.
This juice includes about three cups of spinach. Yes, I lose the fiber from it by juicing it. But I keep all the vitamins and minerals that spinach contains. And trust me, if I didn’t drink it in juice form, there’s no way that I would eat three cups of spinach a few mornings a week. That just isn’t going to happen.
So juice away! This is my go-to concoction, but you can juice whatever you like! And I promise you, this does not taste like you’re eating vegetables. It’s not as sweet as fruit juice, but it is light and refreshing, and it really gives a big energy boost in the mornings.
serves 1
3 C spinach
2 large Romaine lettuce leaves
2 stalks celery
1/2 apple
1/2 pear (a firm one like a Bosc or Asian pear – not a Bartlett or other soft pear)
1/2 C blueberries (I switch this out depending on what’s in season – I just like to add a little bit of another fruit that has lots of flavor – berries, papaya, pineapple all work well)
small piece of ginger (about 1/2 inch piece)
For the pear: if you use one of those huge Asian pears the size of a grapefruit (that’s what I use), just use a quarter of it.
Throw everything in your juicer! That’s it.
Note: if you don’t have a juicer, just use your blender! You could do two things: blend them up as well as you can with your blender and then strain the fibrous bits out for a smooth juice, or blend your produce with some ice for a smoothie version (that way you keep all the fiber too). If you’re doing the smoothie version, I recommend steaming and wringing out the spinach first though, because it blends much better into smoothies that way.
Nutrition Facts: Calories: 144.8; Calories from Fat: 10; Total Fat: 1.1g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 105mg; Total Carbohydrates: 45.7g; Dietary Fiber: 0g; Sugars: 28.6g; Protein: 4.4g
Note: these nutrition facts are my best estimate because I can’t be sure exactly what I lose during the juicing process. I calculated these with the whole produce I used, then subtracted all of the fiber and the calories from the fiber.
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