Morning Juice

So we have been sick! I mean really sick, with laryngitis, acute sinusitis, and possibly the start of some bronchitis. I'm happy to say that though we had one "eat what ever we want that is fast and easy because we are sick day", the rest of the past  7 days we have stuck with either all juice, or what I call "juice, juice, dinner".  Because we are sick, we haven't tried any new recipes. So this morning, I decided to do our staple orange carrot (grapefruit) juice with a few extra things. 

We had some tangelos! So my juice this morning was

1 orange

1 tangelo

1 pear

1 carrot. 

Yummy.

Chris had almost the same. Instead of an orange he had a grapefruit. I decided to add the pear because the tangelo had a lot of the "white stuff" (aka pith) which can be bitter, so I added the pear to counter that bitterness with some sweetness. It was good. Chris said his was "really good".

We decided to have dinner.

After 21 days, Chris decided to have dinner. So he looked up a really healthy Indian recipe.  

It is called 

Vegan Aloo Gobi

Only 509 calories per serving! 

21 grams of fat, 13 grams of protein (it's all vegan!), and 10 grams of fiber.

That is a big portion for only 509 calories. All veggies, rice and spices.

It made enough for us to each have it for dinner and I also finished mine up at lunch the next day. 

What's in it? 

1/2 head of cauliflower

1 lb of yukon potatoes. For us this was 1 potato. 

(That's right. look at my plate, that is only 1/2 a potato.)

1 14oz can diced tomatoes

1 cup frozen green peas

Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

2 tbsp raw ginger root

5 cloves raw ginger

dash of salt

1 cup prepared Basmati rice

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp garam masala  We had to go Publix to get it. Kroger didn't carry it. 

It was very very good. We got another cauliflower today, so that he could make it again soon. A very yummy, healthy first meal after almost a month of juicing. 

We haven't stopped juicing either. We are still doing 3 juices a day, plus a meal (and snacks for me if I want them) or just all juice all day. 

Day 21!

Chris has created a favorite breakfast juice. He loves it, I hate it! But, the breakfast juice I like is similar, so I can make them both at the same time. His juice is 2 oranges, 2 grapefruit and 2 carrot. Mine is 3 oranges and 2 carrots. I make mine first, and then his so I don't get any grapefruit taste in mine.

We are on day 21! Chris has had a significant weight loss. His wedding ring is loose and he can now fit back into his Ox Blood Doc Martens that he has had since 1990! He is super excited about that, and he wore them on our 3 mile walk we had today with Pig at Horton Lake. 

"These boots are older than the people who shop at Hot Topic" -Chris Pendleton

My sister told me of a juice that tastes like Key Lime Pie. 

So, we decided to try it out today for lunch. 

Key Lime Pie Juice

1 Pineapple

1 Lime

a whole bunch of Kale. I think we used 6 or 8 big leaves. 

We used our nifty pineapple corer 

Put it on the pineapple and twist.

and twist

and twist

then when you hit the bottom, you pull the fruit right out leaving the core inside the skin.

tada! I think the pineapple skin would make a fun adult beverage holder at a pool party. I'm going to remember that this coming summer. 

We put all the fruit and kale in the juicer and got two small glasses of juice. Pineapple doesn't yield much juice. It would probably be enough for just one person.

Did it taste like key lime pie? Nope. But, it did taste very good, we think we are going to try it again and also add in a pear. The pear will help add more volume, and Chris didn't like the pineapple kick aftertaste, so the pear should help with that too. Yummy.

Day 18 Blah!!!!!

We had a terrible, horrible juice. Minty Pineapple Juice! Don't do it!!

1 pineapple

a hunk of ginger

1 cucumber

1 bunch of mint

It doesn't make much. It smells delicious! The taste is very bad. I thought it was going to be good. After all, it got 4 out of 5 stars on rebootwithjoe. The author/juice chef said "The combination of pineapple and mint brought me right to the beach." She lied! Blah.................

Trip to Aldi's

We haven't tried any new juices in the last few days. We have just stuck with our regular tried and true recipes. For breakfast we have some combination with carrots, apples, and lemons or ginger. For lunch and dinner we have a combination with kale, celery, cucumber, apples and such.
A few weeks ago we tried a new place to shop. The Super H Mart. It had a good selection, but the prices weren't that great of a discount than just going to Kroger, which is closer. Chris did some research and we decided to go to Aldi. It was a good idea. We had to go to Kroger to get kale and carrots because Aldi was out. But look at this haul! All this for under $40.00! Whoo Hoo! I think this is the place to go. 

And congratulations to Chris who is on day 16 and of just juice!

Maybe I should have called the blog "Oh Lordy Jesus Not Grapefruit!"

I didn't like the last grapefruit concoction that we made, but there was one more in the refrigerator, so I had to find another recipe. I found one with a beet in it. I said to myself "well, the grapefruit should cover the beet taste and the beet should tone down the grapefruit taste. Surely it will taste okay." So we had a Grapefruit Clementine Beet Juice. Chris thought it was fantastic! I took one sip and gave mine to him. Yak!

Grapefruit Clementine Beet Juice

1 beet

1 grapefruit

some clementines ( I had 3 so that it what I used)

1 carrot (optional)

After I looked at the ingredients, I had reservations about the mix, so I added a carrot to help mellow it out.

It still tasted horrible! Unless you like unsweetened grapefruit juice. Then you might like it.  

Tonight for dinner, I decided to try a juice that I found on Pinterest. Here is the picture from that site.

I don't know if all the claims are true. But all the ingredients are healthy and good for you, so you can't go wrong here. This didn't tell me how much of each thing to use, so I guessed. 

Miracle Cure Juice

1 beet ( I used the beet greens too)

2 apples

1 lime

1 piece ginger

3 carrots

2 celery 

I liked this one, and Chris didn't. He was able to get it down though. It is sour with a little kick from the ginger. You can smell the beet, but not taste it. Yum ...? Good enough. 

Sweeeeeeeet Potatoes!

Along with our usual Green Juices, we have tried out a few sweet potato drinks the last few days. We decided that sweet potatoes do not have a taste, but they do "dull" the taste of other juices. They do have some good health benefits though. Here are 6 benefits highlighted in this photo. We only got 5 though. The juicing took out the fiber.

Our first new juice was the Sweet Potato Apple Juice. Which had the following ingredients: Yep! 

Sweet Potatoes and Apples. 

We added cinnamon to the top. 

This was a good breakfast drink It was like dull apple cider. It would have probably been really good warm. It will go in the "okay" list. 

Later we had a "Creamsicle Juice" 

3 Oranges

2 Pears

1 Sweet Potato

(disregard the grapefruit - that wasn't supposed to go in the juice, and we did not put it in)

Chris said to put this in the "Fuck Yeah" list. It tasted really good, and very similar to a creamsicle. Something to note though is that sweet potatoes have sort of a gritty texture. When it sits for several minutes, or if it takes you more than about 5 minutes to drink it, you will find a milky white substance has settled on the bottom of your glass. It is weird.

For breakfast this morning we had "Not Your Mama's Ruby Red" Juice. 

1 grapefruit

3 carrots

1 lemon

1/2 piece ginger

I couldn't drink it. It was too sour or bitter or grapefruity. Yak!

Chris on the other hand, loves grapefruit juice, but he still had to do a Will Smith "Woo!" or sing the 

Trolololo Song after every sip in order to balance out the sour flavor. 

This is what I heard Chris singing all morning, while I was getting ready for work. 

The Devil's Cheese Cake

Today is day 9 of Chris's Juice Fast and my Mostly Juice Fast. I've noticed several things. Along with the weight loss, I am finding that other food doesn't taste too good. I may smell some fast food restaurant as I drive by, and I may think that some fries would be good. But, if I end up getting them, they aren't that great. I got my dad some Hardee's last night for dinner. I had a few of his fries on the way to drop it off. They weren't as good as I wanted them to be. The coke I had wasn't that great either. I don't know if the juice is having an effect on my taste buds, or if it is just the fact that I haven't been eating much of that kind of food so, when I do eat it, it doesn't seem worth it.

We had two new juices today. At lunch we had the Sporty Spice juice I found on the rebootwithjoe website. The Sporty Spice tasted okay, and it did have a slightly spicy taste, I guess from the celery and lemon.

Sporty Spice Juice

1 big beet (or 2)

2 carrots

1 celery

2 oranges

1 lemon

It has such a pretty color. It kept me full all day from lunch until dinner time. 

But then we decided to try juicing broccoli. Yes, broccoli. It was THE. WORST. EVER.

I have to say it again. THE. WORST. EVER.

The broccoli juice was so so so awful that when I took a sip I had to say a lot of cuss words, do some weird push ups, run around the house screaming "Oh Lordy Jesus!"  and pour myself some traditional orange juice. I had to convince Chris not to drink it. He wanted to try to get it down the hatch, because he didn't want to waste the vegetables.  

This is The Devil's Cheese Cake

1 broccoli

1 cucumber

2 carrots

2 oranges

This is what it looks like. Pure evil. Pure aspirin flavored evil.  We poured this down the drain and made us some good Green Juice. 

Yum! This is our tried and true Joe's Mean Green Juice. This is one we have most often. 

Thank you Thank you for taking the aspirin taste out of my mouth. 

Worried....Bok Choy Juice...Can't be good

We went grocery shopping for supplies last night. Look at this picture. So much healthy food in here! We are on day 7 Chris's plan to go 30 days with just juice. I went 3 days, and now am on 99.9% juice. But, I do add in healthy (most of the time) snacks when I get hungry. Last night, along with my juice, I had an avocado and a tomato with salt and pepper. Yum! I have to say how proud I am that Chris is able to stick with this 30 day fast. He has great will power, and he is already feeling the benefits of the vegetables. 

During our shopping trip, we decided to get bok choy. We've not had bok choy except when we go out for Chinese food. But, we had seen some recipes with it, so we bought two bunches and had Bok Choy juice for dinner. I was scared.

Bok Choy Juice. (aka: Rainbow Sherbet)

2 baby bok choy

2 green apples

1 lemon

2 carrot (or one ginormous one like we used)

1 cucumber

2 celery stalks

This is why we call it Rainbow Sherbet. It looks real pretty here, but....

 

eww! once you stir it, the juice looks terrible. I thought there would be no way that something that looks like it came from a baby's diaper could taste pleasant. But, it surprised us both. This is a very mild tasting vegetable juice. Not too bad. We decided that it would be a little bit better with a hunk of ginger added in to give it a peppery taste. This one will go on the good list for sure. It was very good.

Oh yeah! We found a good one!

We had two new recipes today, and they were both great! 

The first one is called the Migraine Reliever. We didn't have migraines, but we did have a pineapple, so I wanted to try it. I really liked it. The pineapple foamed up in the juicer, and created a candy like substance. Like foam candy! Yum. The juice was good too. It's a pretty neon green color.

Pig is itchy again, so she has on a t-shirt and the cone of shame.

Migraine Reliever

1/2 pineapple (we used a whole one to make enough for 2)

4 kale leaves (6)

1 celery stalks (2)

1/2 cucumber (1)

1/4 lemon (I decided on a whole lemon)

1/2 inch ginger. 

Then we had the ultimate dessert drink. Called Harvest Cinnamon Spice Drink. The actual recipe is here: http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/a-fall-favorite-harvest-cinnamon-spice-juice/

I changed it up a little bit because we didn't have coconut sugar. 

Angela's Harvest Cinnamon Spice Drink

1 peeled neck of a butternut squash

2 apples

1 inch ginger

sprinkle some cinnamon on top

I added about 1/2 teaspoon of local honey to mine. Tastes similar to a pumpkin pie. Reviews on the website said it is good warm too. You wouldn't believe how healthy this is for you. I put the ingredients into the juice recipe builder from juicerecipe.com. Here are some stats

Totals are for 2 people (2000 calorie diet)

Calories: 235

Vitamin A: 174%

Vitamin C: 82%

Iron: 32%

and so many more good benefits. 

ouch!

Ouch! Yesterday I cut my hand while slicing fruit! Don't fret, most of what you see is beet juice! 

Today is day 4 of our juice fast. Chris is going strong, but I added a small fry and a small coke to my day. We are both feeling really good and refreshed! 

We made a delightful "dessert" this evening. From rebootwithjoe.com, it is called Purple Passion. 

Purple Passion

60 grapes

a basket of blueberries

a sprig of mint

I was scared of the mint, but it was really good and refreshing. 

The Technicolor Yawn

Yesterday, our 2nd day of just juice, we tried 2 new juices. We had the Sunrise Juice for breakfast. Chris liked it better this go around. I used red apples instead of green apples. For lunch we tried a new one called Un-Beet-able Juice. Oh Lordy Jesus Not Beets! Yes, beets, again. God, I can't stand the dirt flavor. But, adding a whole lemon seems to change the taste to one I can handle. It still smells like dirt, but tastes...okay.

Un-Beet-able Juice

1 apple (I used two)

1 beet (Yak!)

3 carrots

some kale

about an inch piece of ginger root

(then add a whole peeled lemon to keep it out of the fight your instincts category)

I took my glass in the car to drink on the way back to work. So I didn't notice, until I came back home, that the juicer had blew beet onto my walls. Fortunately, it wiped off easily. 

Here is the beet juice on the walls and windowsill.

For dinner, we did the Joe's Mean Green, since we both liked that one and for dessert we tried the 

Red, White, Blue (and Green!) 

1/4 watermelon (I used 1/2 for 2 of us)

a basket of blueberries

kale

As you can see, it did not turn out red, blue or green. It is a mud color. You can see that Pig thinks it looks nasty. I didn't use the rind of the watermelon this time, since Chris thought it tasted like someone's barf. So, I assumed this one would be sweeter. But no. Chris thought it was so bad that his eyes started watering. I didn't like it, but made it through with out almost doing "the technicolor yawn". We both agreed not to drink any more watermelon concoctions. 

Now it is New Years day, and we had a good one for Breakfast. Well, I thought it was good. Chris HATED it. It is Morning Tang, a recipe I got from Pinterest, but turns out it is from reboot with Joe website. It has bell peppers in it, which made Chris contemplate tossing his cookies. 

Morning Tang

1 orange bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 carrot ( I used 2)

1/2 green apple ( I used 2 so there would be enough for two of us)

1/2 lemon ( I used a whole lemon to try and hide the bell pepper taste. 

I'm looking into doing a Harvest Cinnamon Spice Juice for dessert tonight. It looks like pumpkin pie, sort of.