Hello Random Tuesday!!

Yes, there are tons of recipes out there for how to juice but I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes I make fairly often in my juicing.

How I Got Started On Juicing

Last year for my birthday I visited my best friend (since 1989) in South Carolina, spending the weekend with her and her two little girls. My best friend for as long as I have known has been vegan. Unfortunately over the years we haven’t had the chance to spend more than a few hours at a time with each other so we’ve never really talked about being vegan or anything. After seeing the things she still got to eat no matter I realized I could easily be vegan or at least pescatarian.

Pescatarian, in case you don’t know, is according to Livingstrong.com (Downey, Lillian; August 25, 2015) “a person who eats seafood but not other types of meat. [They] are similar to vegetarians, but the difference is that pescatarians eat fish and shellfish in addition to an otherwise vegetarian diet. However, there is no consensus on whether a pescatarian diet includes eggs and dairy since many vegetarians consume those types of land animal products.” You’re probably asking why I decided I could easily be pescatarian by now. Well, I was born and raised in Louisiana, therefore; I was raised on seafood and I just can’t seem to give it up 🙂

My best friend took me to a few little restaurant, of which of course we don’t have here at home or any other city I’ve been to, but she also introduced me to juicing. She made one with a bell pepper, an orange, and carrots and it was SOO good!  I was amazed! So naturally when I try something new and love, I got on Amazon.com and purchased the same exact juicer she had and got to juicing.

When I started juicing I had never felt better! I would make it first thing in the morning after a short walk with my dog and I would feel full until lunch without having to snack constantly. Now, truthfully, I started out juicing every single day when I got my juicier but with it have being summer and me not working at the time other than taking care of my parents one way or another, I was always on the go — Dominican Republic with some friends from high school for a week and then visited my sister in Turkey for the whole entire month of August (though I’m pretty sure she would have never let me come home if she had it her way, lol).

Luckily, once I finally made it back from Turkey and back on USA time, I was able to get back on track of using my juicier everyday. Now, don’t get me wrong, juicing does take some time especially if your like me and want to put more than just three things in for taste. Back in October the small zoo I worked at back in 2013 called me to see if I wanted to come back to work for them so having to get up in time to make my juice and be at the zoo by 7am started to be exhausting so I started making it at night making it a grab and go for the next morning. Eventually, I saw some things on making smoothies and also using both to get more out of the drinks but that’s another post. Ü

So there is some so-called background on how I started juicing.

Below are my steps for a semi-simple juicing drink.

Juicing

Things you’ll need:

• Hamilton Beach Juicer (you can get yours here — no affiliation)
• 3 carrot sticks
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 orange
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 or 2 apples
• couple hand full of kale

Step #1:

Gather all fruits and vegetables you want to use — wash and chop.  Just for the heck of it, I chop the carrots and celery in half. I cut the orange in fourths, the bell pepper I cut the top and bottom off and then go around cutting the ‘openings’ off the middle so I don’t have any seeds.  I basically do the something for the apples, just go around the outside making four pieces.

Side note – I only ever using three out of the four pieces basically because we have an African Grey Bird, Alex, who is in the window where I prepare my juices and stares at me while I’m chopping.  He loves apples so he’s always waiting for his piece of apple whether it’s in the morning or at night before bed.

Step #2:

I like to put the kale in first but with it in the middle of things so it goes through better.  So here I put 2 pieces of celery and 2 pieces of carrots on bottom with a piece of bell pepper on top.

Step #3:

Next I like to add in the rest of the carrots and celery, the orange pieces, and a little more kale (just make sure you cover the top of your cup where the juice pours out into so pieces don’t get in it), and other piece of bell pepper.

Step #4:

Lastly, I add the last piece of bell pepper and my pieces of apple.  Depending on how much room I have left I add a second apple.

Step #5:

Pour over ice and ENJOY!

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References:

Downey, Lillian.  Livingstrong.com. http://www.livestrong.com/article/31526-list-foods-pescatarian-can-eat/. August 25, 2015.

Hamilton Beach. Amazon.com. https://amzn.com/B00JQ485JO. June 29, 2015