It is important that anybody who eats food that you prepare gets all of the proper nutrients. This is crucial especially with people that do not eat a wide variety of foods. One unique way to provide for these people is through juicing and making your own homemade healthy beverages.
When preparing for a juice diet, make sure to stock a LOT of fresh fruits and vegetables! On average, it takes 4.4 pounds of raw fruits and vegetables to make just a single quart of juice, so you’ll need lots. Also make sure to get a large variety of ingredients so that you don’t get bored with the same old juice.
Put all your fruit on one shelf in your refrigerator, preferably the top shelf. This way, nutrition and juicing will be the first thing on your mind when you open your refrigerator every day. You’ll also be able to keep an eye on how fresh the fruit is, and remind yourself to use it before it decays.
Buy a juicer made of high quality. This is important if you plan to use your juicer regularly. A good juicer will make as much juice as you want, be easy to maintain and clean, and last a long time. Don’t try to skimp on price or you might end up buying more juicers than you want to; bad juicers just don’t stand the test of time.
Make sure you always have the ingredients you need for juicing. Also, make them as visible as possible in your refrigerator or on the counter. If you forget they’re there you might not use them, leading them to spoil and end up thrown out. Keep your turnover high so you’re using the freshest ingredients possible.
When starting to juice it’s better to start slow. Use flavors you already know you like and don’t try new things until you know you’re ready. Start by mixing new flavors, like wheat grass, with fruit you’ve already been drinking. Soon enough you’ll be able to move on to pro recipes!
Give yourself an area in the fridge just for your juicing ingredients. Maybe they’ll get their own produce drawer, or half a shelf, but making room is important. When you see that space become empty you will know that you’re running out of food, and you’ll also have a much easier time putting it away after shopping.
Juicing is a lifestyle you dedicate yourself to, and you will notice if you miss a day. If something comes up and you’re not able to buy some fresh produce for your juice, you should have something on hand that you can use instead. You can keep some items in the freezer just in case, or even freeze some juice to tide you over.
Leaving some seeds in your juicer is perfectly fine! Larger seeds such as cherry pits or sometimes citrus seeds might actually damage your juicer, though, so it’s best to consider the size and firmness of the seeds in the items you’re juicing before throwing them in whole with reckless abandon!
Juicing for the fridge is a great idea, however, you will want to prevent color change in the juice. People are naturally going to assume that brown juice is bad. The addition of two teaspoons of lemon juice, fresh if possible, can help prevent this change. The small amount of added lemon juice will allow the juices you make to keep their vibrant colors.
Juicing is the best-tasting way to make sure you’re getting all the daily servings of fruit and vegetables that you need. You can mix them together in a combination that will provide any nutrient you need, and it will taste good no matter what you include. The whole family can sip and enjoy!
Carrots don’t need to be peeled before you juice them, but you can’t eat their leaf greens as they’re toxic to humans. Rhubarb is also an excellent item to juice, but its greens are also bad for you. Make sure to read about what greens are okay or even healthy to eat, which could make you sick, BEFORE experimenting!
When it comes to juicing, one thing that you want to keep in mind is that you will want to make sure that you purchase all of your fruits and vegetables from local farmers markets. Local farmers markets often will have a greater selection and lower prices than normal grocery stores.
Want to know another way that juicing will save you money? You’ll be able to skip the expensive anti-wrinkle and deep moisturizing skin treatments you’ve been buying at the department store! Juicing fruits and vegetables leads to healthier, better looking skin as they are full of moisturizing compounds. The anti-oxidants found in many produce items also can slow down the aging of skin itself.
If you want to have a juice that tastes like a commercial smoothie, add some vanilla! Skip the extract and go for the real thing – scrape a vanilla pod and enjoy the smooth, creamy flavor it imparts on the final product. If you really want to fulfill the smoothie experience, add a little non-fat, unsweetened yogurt to your drink.
When you’re creating juices for healthy benefits, you should use at least half or two-thirds dark green vegetables, like kale, chard, broccoli, or parsley. Also use herbs juices including mint, rosemary, and basil. Look for dessert recipes online to see great fruit and herb combinations you might like!
In conclusion you want to make sure that you are creating healthy and good tasting meals for everybody that you care for. Sometimes it can be tricky to make both foods that they like as well as ensuring that they get the nutrients that they need. Hopefully this article will help you with your process.
