On the juice: My favorite flavor combos for juicing

Well, it’s official: I neglect my poor little blog. I went on and on about how energized and motivated I was after that juice cleanse, and I have yet to post some of my favorite combos. To my credit, I’ve been bonkers busy — a great thing for someone working in this god forsaken crumbling media circus. But what the heck? Who isn’t busy? I have plenty of blogger buddies who work into the wee hours of the morning just to make sure their writing gets up post haste. I rationalize my lackadaisical approach because I spend most of my days writing, and the last thing I want to do when I’m done is write more. That said, there’s a certain pleasure in writing for my own darn reasons, sans deadline. Then again, look what happens when I don’t have a deadline! Nothing ever gets done.

Anyway, to get to the point, some of you asked about my favorite combos for juicing.  Firstly, I have to admit I found out that I technically mislabeled my post. If you want to get fussy about it, what I was doing was making smoothies. Juicing would require all the plant matter to be removed. I am happy I kept all those goodies in, as I mentioned in the post, because they’ve got heaps of nutrients and fiber. But because of that fact, it’s called blending or making a smoothie. Whatever. I drank a boatload of fruit and veg for three days, and no matter how you label it, it felt good. End of story.

Or so I thought. Since then, I’ve integrated “real” juicing into my daily life.  My parents were kind enough to lend me their old juicer, which is a total war horse. We’ve had it since the 90s, and it works a treat. Energy levels are still high, and hopefully they’ll get even higher so I can actually blog more here.

In the meantime, here are some of my favorite juice and smoothie combos I’ve created over the past month. Use them as a guide, but go ahead and freestyle with what you find at your local farmers market. I’ll bet those heirloom carrots I’ve been seeing would make a fabulous mid-day juice snack!

Juices:

3 carrots, 1 granny smith apple, 1 bulb ginger (spicy!)

1 red beet, 1 carrot, 2 cups de-stemmed kale, 1/2 cucumber

1 cucumber, 1 stalk celery, 1/2 bulb ginger, 2 cups de-stemmed kale

1 bunch of dandelion or bak choi, 1 cucumber, 1 lemon, 1/2 bulb ginger

1 golden beet, 1 granny smith apple, 2 carrots

1 granny smith apple, 2 carrots, 1 beet, 1/2 bulb ginger

Smoothies, aka a juicer-free cleanse:

For this method you have to add some liquid to the mix, so I used organic carrot juice, almond milk, or coconut water. I don’t have the exact amounts of liquid, but the general rule is that you fill the blender up til half of the solid produce is covered. It’s really not rocket science. If it doesn’t blend, add more liquid. Another thing I like to do sometimes is to juice some veg, then put it in the blender with spinach or kale. I always feel like I lose so much when I juice those two greens, so it’s a nice way to have get the best of both worlds.

1 cup spinach, 1 cup kale, 1 banana, almond milk

1 lightly steamed beet (to make it blend-able), 1 cup spinach, coconut water

1 cup kale, 1 cup spinach, juice of 1 lemon, coconut water, 1/2 tablespoon cayenne

1 frozen banana, two tablespoons hemp powder, almond milk (This one is great for after a workout when your body needs protein, provided by the hemp, or whatever other protein powder you like to use.)