New Years has come and gone, how well have you done at holding up your resolutions? If eating healthy was one of yours, you are not alone. Improvement of health is in the top 5 resolutions that people make on January 1st. Whether you have given in to your old eating habits or are still going strong, look at being healthy as a lifestyle, not as going on a diet.
Juicing is an easy way to introduce fruits and veggies into your food regimen. I’m not one to eat an entire plate of kale on its own, but mixed up with some of my favorite juicing ingredients, not only is the bitter taste disguised, but I am feeding my body with power foods all at once. As a bonus, blended with banana, apple chia seeds and carrots it tastes great!
If you have never juiced before, don’t worry! It’s not as intimidating as those bulky blenders make it look. The important thing is to find combinations that you like, and slowly branch out to new ones. When formulating for your juice, always start with a base. Fruits and veggies produce the liquid in your drink, therefore producing the most volume. (For the beginners out there, it’s ok to start with the majority of your base being fruit.) Carrots, berries, apples, celery, cucumber, wheat grass and sweet potatoes are just a few bases to begin with along with the sweet taste of beets and cucumbers.
Next add leafy greens! It might be easy to assume that by adding your least favorite part of a salad to your juice, the taste is going to take a turn for the worst. Here’s a secret, that I’ll give to you completely free! Spinach disguises the taste of kale. Really?? Yes! Really! So load it up! The amount of vitamins and minerals that this pair offers is impeccable and you’re not going to want to miss out on it. To add more flavors and anti-oxidants to your juice, add mint leaves, ginger, parsley lemon/lime or even honey to taste.
It’s important that when juicing, that you remove any skin, rinds or peels that the fruits and veggies may have. Juicers are meant to finely grind what you mixing, the blades are not meant to break down anything other than the leaf or fruit interior.
When juicing, it is best to drink it right away, but you may store up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Make sure you 
store your juice in an airtight container…Mason jars, while trendy these days make for a great juicing vehicle.
Now all you have to do is buy a juicer. There are so many juicers on them market, that will meet the needs of all budgets. The Cuisinart Juicer and Breville both offer low and high end juicers. It seems this holiday season the Magic bullet made the top list for its compact size and east cleaning features.
Start your new juicing journey with these three recipes:
Green Juice Blend
1 C. Pineapple
1 Green apple
1 Green pear
6 Kale leaves
Orange Juice Blend
1 Mango
1 C. Pineapple
10 Carrots
2 Orange
Purple Juice Blend
½ C. Blueberries
Handful of mixed berries or Strawberries
½ head of medium red Cabbage
½ C. Cranberries