Sunday, May 20, 2012

Juicing for Beginners: Green Lemonade


A couple of months ago I watched the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", which changed my whole outlook on what I eat. The guy in the film drank only juice for 60 days and completely cured himself of of his auto-immune disease! Now, I'm not advocating that everyone drink only juice and water for the next 2 months; I simply want to be a bit more conscious daily with what I eat. The best way I've found to do that is to drink green juice every morning for breakfast. 

Now, this juice is actually not my usual morning green juice (I will post that later), but my first "beginner" green juice. This juice is extremely refreshing and a great way to get yourself psyched up to try the more "green tasting" juices. First, you'll need to buy a juicer. I bought mine (a Breville) off of Craigslist for under $50, which is a great way to try out juicing. 

Next, the produce:
  • 1/2 head of romaine lettuce (approximately 10 leaves)
  • 1/2 large cucumber (or one small/medium one)
  • 1/2 lemon, with most of the peel cut off and the pith (white part) remaining
  • 2 medium apples
This is what I use, but the thing about juicing is that it's all about taste! If you like a bigger lemon taste, juice the whole lemon; if you want it sweeter, add another apple; cucumber bulks the juice up and refreshes the body. I use granny smith apples since they are also green, which makes the juice a bright green color and not brown, which happens when you add in red apples.

To make the juice simply use your juicer to juice all of these ingredients, and enjoy! I actually like to add a little filtered water and ice to this juice so that it is more refreshing and not a strong lemonade.  Still, like I said before, it is completely up to your taste-buds so experiment!