Juicing and Blending Tips

Hey y'all!
A rainy Sunday brought on a serious juicing session here in the Cunningham house! Here are the recipes for each juice from left to right!

Red Juice:

• 1 Beet (thoroughly cleaned and peeled)
• 2 Red Apples
• 1 Lemon
• 2 Strawberries (I only used 2 because it was all I had and they were enormous)

Orange Juice:

• 8 Clementines (oranges will work too)
• 3 Carrots
• 1 Lemon
• 1" Ginger (peeled)

Red-Orange Juice:

• Tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes)
• 2 Celery stalks
• 2 Carrots

Yellow-Green Juice:

• 1 Cucumber (clean thoroughly)
• 1 Lemon
• Fresh Pineapple chunks
• Aloe Vera Juice (just a splash)
• Coconut Water (fill the rest of the jar)

Green Juice:

• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Celery Stalk
• 1-2 Green Apples
• 1 Lemon
• Baby Spinach leaves (a handful or 2)

It is very important to use fresh, organic ingredients when making fresh pressed juices. This allows you to have the best tasting juice as well as obtain all of the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables. If you are unable to use organic ingredients be sure to really give the produce a good washing first.

A quick tip about beets. These can be a lil tricky in my opinion. I made a juice with beets a few days before this batch of juices and it was almost unbearable! I literally had to chug it. But to eliminate the"dirt" taste that beets have, scrub it with a brush or use a rag to clean it. Also to help with peeling, let it soak in warm to hot water for a few minutes then peel it. Oh and be sure to cut the ends off before juicing.

Juicing vs. Blending

So this might be an obvious statement. But just to make sure I want to explain the difference between juicing and blending. A juicer is VERY different from a blender! This is really important to know. Using a blender and adding water to the blend is NOT a juice, it is simply a watered down smoothie. The proper equipment is necessary to enjoy the true benefits of juicing.

 Juicing

Juicing extracts the water and nutrients from fruits and vegetables while discarding the fiber. Some benefits of juicing are:

• without all of the fiber the digestive system doesn't have to work hard
• makes the nutrients more readily available in much larger quantities
• freshly squeezed vegetable juices are most healing and detoxifying because they nourish & restore the body on a cellular level
• the juice is absorbed into the blood stream quickly
• a single juice contains more fruit and vegetable servings than a smoothie does

To make a fresh pressed juice you will need a Juicer. Here is an example of what a juicer will look like.

 A good quality juicer will cost an average of about $150. BUT we found a decent one at for about $40, it was mainly to get us started with juicing. It has lasted about a year and a half now, but it is definitely time to upgrade.
Here are a few tips to follow when purchasing a juicer:

1. Avoid centrifugal juicers because they bring in heat and oxygen which destroys the nutrients
2. Look for a premium cold press or masticating juicer because it extracts more juice and the juicer lasts longer.
3. Make sure the juicer has multiple speeds because some fruits (grapes for example) may need a lower speed than others (like apples).

Blending

Blending consist of the entire fruit or vegetable and contains all of the fiber. Blending does break the fiber apart to make the produce easier to digest. Some benefits of blending are:

• blending creates a slow, even release of nutrients into the blood stream
• smoothies tend to be more filling because of the fiber
• a smoothie can sometimes be faster to make than a juice

When making smoothies you will need to use a blender. It is important to make sure the equipment is good quality and is gentle on the produce, this ensures that the nutrients remain intact. Here is an example of a blender:

Here are some useful links regarding juicing, blending and clean eating:
Go Fully Raw
Reboot With Joe
Food Matters
Food Babe

So, I hope that this was helpful if you are considering juicing and or blending. Leave a comment below if you have any questions, I will be happy to help. Also leave a comment below if you have suggestions, tips or recipes to share!

Happy Juicing!
~Rissa