Juicers and Juices

OK, you've probably guessed it I've bought a juice. We've made our first juice!

We got some strawberrys - a big box and some apples, pears, lemons, lime and bananas (Its got a blender with it!)

Apple and Strawberry:
We cut the green bits off the strawberrys, washed them, cut them up so they'd fit in, chopped a small piece of lemon and then washed and cored an apple, thinly sliced it and put it all in the juice.
We got a lovely jug of juice which was very yummy, perhaps a little too much lemon,
Then I took the juicer apart and scoffed all the pulp! It was quite liquid like a smoothy and there were only one of twe tiny bits of apple peel remaining.
This juice was quite yummy and very refreshing!

Apple and Pear - added half a slice of lemon to stop browning of fruit. Very yummy. Today there was very little fluff left behind so no extra smoothie. I assume yesterdays extra mush was cos of the strawberrys.
Apple and Pear juice - total heaven. Royal Gala apples and conference pears. You should leave the pears til they're going softer - they're always quite firm in the supermarket. They juice really well when they're soft! This is a great juice to get people started on. One apple and one pear makes a small glass of juice. Increase numbers acordingly.

I'll write about other recipes we do as and when

We've done melon today, then did some more grapes.

You can juice oranges either by peeling (Some people like the skin left on... ) and cho[pping or throwing into your jucing machine.Some juicers have a juciing attachment for critus fruit - this works well and leaves orange halves well squeezed.

The best oranges are sweet valentia oranges - they're divine. Other oranges may be tarter than you'd expect - but believe it or not carton orange juice can contain sugar!

One of my favourite veggie juices is carrot, celery and cucumber - loads of carrots a huge chunk of cucumber and a stick of celery. It comes out a funny colour - usually with an orange froth. Its very nice.

An apple changes the taste of this and makes it loads sweeter.

Don't be put off by the funny colour or the fact its got celery in - try it with celery and see if you like it.

I've not tried juiced tomatoes yet.

Ideas for Juices that I'm going to try

Apple and grapes.

Apple and pear with lemon, then lime and then ginger.

We're also going to make some banana smoothies but they'll be less than healthy as we're planning to put icecream in them!

I've read about peaches and strawberry juices and smoothies. And you can read about smoothies on this page

If you have some good recipes then let me know!

During the summer months we've concentrated on eating smoothies - this keeps the fruit whole and is better for you than drinking just fruit juices - you get the fibre and everything the fruit has to offer you.

As fruit starts to creep up in price again we'll move back to veggie juices and plainer fruit juices of seasonal - and therefore cheaper - fruit and vegetables.

Fruit in season naturally ripened always tastes better.

Why not see what your greengrocer has on offer and what is cheapest each time you go in. Or find out about box deliverys.

Basic smoothie recipe

1/2 to 1 cup fruit
1 cup plain or fruit yogurt - use low fat of course
1/2 cup fruit juice
about 4 ice cubes
Combine all ingredients in a blender and process on medium high speed until smooth - check your blender can do icecubes - you can always add them after to melt and cool your smoothie.