I've been juicing off and on since I had Noah. We have never owned a juicer, but I would take a daily walk to Whole Foods and have one made for me there. I think the juice and the walking (and probably mostly the baby wearing) really helped me get my body back after having two babies within 15 months of each other.
I have often begged Jonathan for a juicer since it's something that I obviously enjoy quite a bit, but he keeps reminding me that we have no space for such a clunky piece of machinery.
After scouring the interwebs for many hours, I came across the grand idea that you DON'T need a juicer to juice... use your blender and paint strainer bag(or cheese cloth/nut-milk bag)!
Now we just have a regular compact blender. We have limited kitchen space and have not cashed in on the awesome yet expensive Vitamix or Blendec blenders. We have a Cuisinart blender that Jonathan's mom bought us a few years ago and it seems to blend pretty well for what we need it for.
You can get a paint strainer bag from almost any hardware supply store for about a $1.50. Cheese cloth you can get from most grocery stores, but I have used it before and it is MUCH MESSIER. Nut milk bags are at a lot of health food stores. I had originally looked for a nut-milk bag, but a lot of my local stores were out of stock and I was told that I could use the paint strainer bag for the same thing.
Anyways, here is how you juice-blend my favorite juice called the Veggie Juice Blend...
I have often begged Jonathan for a juicer since it's something that I obviously enjoy quite a bit, but he keeps reminding me that we have no space for such a clunky piece of machinery.
After scouring the interwebs for many hours, I came across the grand idea that you DON'T need a juicer to juice... use your blender and paint strainer bag(or cheese cloth/nut-milk bag)!
Now we just have a regular compact blender. We have limited kitchen space and have not cashed in on the awesome yet expensive Vitamix or Blendec blenders. We have a Cuisinart blender that Jonathan's mom bought us a few years ago and it seems to blend pretty well for what we need it for.
You can get a paint strainer bag from almost any hardware supply store for about a $1.50. Cheese cloth you can get from most grocery stores, but I have used it before and it is MUCH MESSIER. Nut milk bags are at a lot of health food stores. I had originally looked for a nut-milk bag, but a lot of my local stores were out of stock and I was told that I could use the paint strainer bag for the same thing.
Anyways, here is how you juice-blend my favorite juice called the Veggie Juice Blend...
You will need the following to yield 2.5 cups of juice:
1/2 cucumber, 2 medium sized carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 navel orange, 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 a pear or green apple, hand full of parsley and a hand full of spinach or other leafy green.
1/2 cucumber, 2 medium sized carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 navel orange, 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 a pear or green apple, hand full of parsley and a hand full of spinach or other leafy green.
- Wash, clean and peel any of the fruits and veggies you are going to be using.
- If you are putting lemons, limes or oranges in your juice, you need to take the peel off or your drink will be bitter and there could possibly be remnants of pesticides left.
- take the seeds out of the lemons, limes, oranges, apples and pears (you don't have to... I just do that myself)
- Cut up bulky vegetables like cucumbers into chunky strips for easy blending
- Throw as much as you can fit into the blender
- Try and put heavier fruits and veggies on top of the parsley and spinach just so they get mixed in really well.
- Add 1/2 cup of water (no picture of that... sorry)
- Pulse for a few seconds and get everything going
- Add whatever is left of your veggies
- Once everything is nice and blended after a minute or so, turn off the blender and strain into a paint strainer bag that you have placed over bowl, jug or in my case a pyrex measuring pitcher.
- Once everything has strained as much as it can on it's own, lift the bag up over your juice container and squeeze the excess juice out of the strainer. It may be a little messy, but it shouldn't take more than a minute or two to get mostly everything out.
- Set leftover pulp aside and pour yourself a nice heaping glass of juice!
There are several awesome DIY uses for the pulp. You can make a face mask or use it in cooking, just to name a few that I have done myself. Some people don't strain the pulp at all and leave it to make a fibrous smoothy. I have tried that before but if you have stomach trouble like I do, it can be a little bit harder to digest since it is so dense.
The clean-up is actually really easy. Just wash out the blender, the strainer, the cutting board, the knife and the glass. If you are smart, you can go ahead and cut up all the veggies you will need for your next juice and so you will have even less to clean up, but even if you don't it's no big deal.
The clean-up is actually really easy. Just wash out the blender, the strainer, the cutting board, the knife and the glass. If you are smart, you can go ahead and cut up all the veggies you will need for your next juice and so you will have even less to clean up, but even if you don't it's no big deal.
We seriously LOVE this particular juice recipe in our household! Noah sees me get out the veggies from the fridge and comes running towards me yelling "juice...JUICE". I love the idea of giving him something that I have made myself and that I know all of the ingredients that are going into it. I also LOVE the health benefits that I am getting from adding fresh juice into my diet.
If you don't have a juicer and have been curious about trying it out, here is a way to go about it without investing a lot of money first. Let me know if you try it out and like it!
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