I used to buy juice all the time. In-fact when I was a first time mom I thought I needed to give my kids a lot of juice (Thank you WIC…for nothing) Store bought juice is mostly full of sugar and is not very healthy at all. This Christmas our In-laws were given a brand new juicer and they didn’t want it so they gave it to us!! (Thank you again, we are going to love it!) One of the cutest things is seeing my kids get so excited about helping. I had ALL this produce left over from Christmas time and needed to get rid of it before it got bad.
I pulled out the juicer and got started. The kids were so excited, and when my husband walked in the door, he basically took over while I peeled oranges (which is THE worst job ever), but they were so cute, so I just peeled away. Seriously is that not the cutest picture you have ever seen!!
Little Mister (our 19 month old) was all about helping. He seriously took over with dad, and the two of them juiced and juiced and juiced!!! When dad turned the juicer off he would scream and yell “JUUUICE” with his lips all puckered up!!
This is the juicer, a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer
. It works great, and is under $100, but I am sure you can look on amazon for a juicer that work just as good!
. It works great, and is under $100, but I am sure you can look on amazon for a juicer that work just as good!
Here is all of our juice. From left to right….Apple, Lime, Orange, Pear, Pineapple, Kiwi, Lemon, and Grapefruit. (Our favorite was Orange, Pineapple and Apple!) For dinner we had a big pasta salad and drank juice. Next time we will do more veggies, but we had so much fruit we had to get rid of. The kids had fun mixing and trying out different concoctions. Next time I will not juice this much. I will mostly likely just juice right before breakfast or lunch and make sure it is gone by the end of the day. but I will also make sure if there is extra that we freeze it for fruit shakes!!
I learned a lot from this site, but you can google it and see that juicing fresh is the best way to go.
- Juicing is not necessarily healthier than eating the whole fruit or veggie, but if you don’t like to eat whole fruits and veggies then juicing is a great option. Plus it is fun for the whole family.
- Drink the juice fast fresh because it can build up harmful bacteria over 24 hours.
- I didn’t read that before I started juicing all this, so we are going to Freeze our juice in ice cube trays and use it in fruit shakes.
- Try to keep some of the pulp, not only for healthy fiber, but to also fill you up.
- Store in glass containers
- Remove the air using the attachment on your FoodSaver Jar Sealer
Those are just some ideas of how to juice, but I am no expert. I just wouldn’t keep it after 24 hours. Happy Juicing!
I have that juicer and love love love it! It really all tastes so much better fresh! Lateky we have been doing a green apple, kale, spinach, beet, carrot drink for part of lunch. Even my youngest will drink it! Awesome post! Enjoy!
Mmm, I love juice too. It is rather sickening to read how much sugar is in store bought juice. I hardly ever give it to my kids. Thanks for the great post!
The only thing I miss about living in the West is the fresh citrus! YUM!