Yeah, yeah, yeah jumped on the bandwagon.  The oh-so-of-the-new-year-moment juicing one. Oh say it isn’t so. It is, and have to admit that sometimes I am just lazy, and just don’t feel like cooking (there I said it), or even eating what’s good for me. But after too many rounds of antibiotics and maybe (just maybe) too many holiday cookies, and a Grupon in my ‘in-box’ for a juicer, and I caved to juicing. Hey it’s working for Martha, Dr. Oz, his daughter and we won’t even talk about Jack LaLane (Hey, he had his own branded juicer so it must have worked for him right? I mean look how long he lived.).

A visit to the produce market, which prompted the gentleman behind me to comment on the fresh contents of my cart (whose being fresh here?), back home to wash, scrub, cut-up, and into the juicer shoot. Voila my first juice combo. Then second. Then a citrus only (for the husband who insists that this is the only juice he wants. Yeah, until I snuck him some pineapple, lemon, ginger, mint, spinach, kale, cucumber. Hah, take that and like it!) and I am so on a roll. And after my first glass of fresh juice? Pretty sure I am way healthier already. And now feeling more able to justify the not so healthy choices, note the crock pot mac ‘n’ cheese I just had to make the other night (hey, I did sub some of the pasta with cauliflower so not all bad), but it’s all about balance right?

Now the part I don’t like about juicing is all the unused fruit and veg ‘mulch’. On the plus side my composting is going to go oh so much faster (making for a happy healthy garden). But if this excess mulch continues to bug me I suppose I will have to upgrade to a spendy VitaMix (that whirls and uses the whole fruit/veg) but being I “gruponed” (is that a verb yet?)for $40 bucks, composting it is. But can I use some of this scrap/mulch to make stock? Seriously, I am putting it out there and looking for some feedback.

Personally, I am digging ginger and lemon, or lime, in all my juice combos thus far. A little tip about the citrus — unlike most of the other fruit and veg where you can throw the whole thing into the juicer, I would suggest removing the peel off the citrus. Citrus rind (and it’s oils) maybe great for some dishes, and does wonders for a perfect martini, but for juice? Not so much. The peel, and it’s oil, will just make your juice too bitter, and not in a good way.

A quick web search, or a visit to Dr. Oz’s website, are a good start to great juice combos, but don’t feel obligated to following a ‘recipe’, just start experimenting with some favorite, and maybe not so favorite but feel you need to consume, fruit and veg.  Here is a juice combo that has turned into go-to for me.

3 extra large Carrots
1 small Pineapple
6 stalks of Celery
1 inch knob of Ginger
1/2 Lemon
1 Apple

So this is what virtue tastes like…