Posts tagged with juice recipes

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Juice Recipes for Energy

There are two types of drinks that I want to introduce as being great energy juices. One is a fruit juice recipe while the other is a vegetable juice recipe. Both have their advantages. In actual fact, there is nothing to stop you having more than one fresh fruit and vegetable juice each day. So why not try both?

It is important to realize that it is not just carbohydrates that we need for energy. The minerals contained in fruit and vegetables also have a big part to play. The juice recipes for energy below are some of my personal favorites.

Banana Fruit Smoothie

This first drink has lots of options. I’ll present a few of them and you can decide for yourself how you want to make your fruit smoothie.

Base:

  • Apples (1-2 depending upon size)
  • Oranges (2-3)

Pick a base for your smoothie, either apples or oranges. Then once you have used your juicer to extract the juice, it is time to get your blender ready for action.

Ingredients:

  • Banana (1)
  • Strawberries (a few)

The banana is the main event. It is packed with carbohydrates but is still a fairly low glycemic load food. It has abundant potassium which plays an important role in energy metabolism. Oranges also have a high potassium content so choosing to use them as your base turns this into a mega-potassium booster. If you want to add another flavor to your smoothie, strawberries area  great choice.

Vegetable Alkaline Boost

I wrote about the V4 juice on the page, Juice Recipes for Health. This is a good drink that provides a rich supply of Potassium, Magnesium, Manganese and Calcium. These minerals result in the alkaline effect of this juice. This promotes pH balance in our body. The better our pH balance, the more energetic we feel. This is something you will notice for yourself once you have been juicing constantly for  a few weeks. Not only do you feel more alive, you’ll have more get up and go along with a brighter disposition.

The alkaline boost comes primarily from greens, e.g. kale and spinach. Give this a go

  • Carrot (2)
  • Celery (1/2 stalk)
  • Kale (5 leaves + stalks)
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Juice Recipes

There are loads of delicious juice recipes that you can make quite easily for yourself at home provided you have your own juicer. This site will focus exclusively on juice recipes for people who already have a juicing appliance. If you are interested in starting a healthier lifestyle but do not yet have one of these units then this is an area that you are going to have to research. There are plenty of online resources that can help you choose a juicer that is right for you.

The thing I like most about drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices is that they taste great (usually) and make me feel great (always). You can literally juice up any fruit and/or vegetable that you want. Once you have your own juicing machine, you become the master of your own juicing domain.

You will quickly learn that some fruits do not really lend themselves to being juiced successfully. Specifically, this includes bananas and berries. They contain so much fiber that it is almost wasteful to feed them into a juicer. But don’t worry, if you like bananas and strawberries, these can easily be incorporated into great tasting juice smoothies.

So let’s get started with a discussion of some of the best juice recipes.

Straight Up Orange Juice

I know, I know. Not exactly original, is it? That said, a juice doesn’t have to be original to be good. It just has to be…good. With so many different types of oranges on sale, you can enjoy a range of flavors. A citrus juicer or unit that comes with a citrus juicing attachment is the easiest way to juice oranges. In this case you just have to cut each orange in half. But with a centrifugal, masticating or twin gear juicer, it is harder since you have to chop all the outer skin off then put it through the juicer. If ever there was an arguement for getting a dedicated citrus juicer. This is it.

Alkaline Green Juice

Now this might not sound too appetizing but don’t worry. It is not all greens. Just adding some green vegetables to your juice really does give the nutritional content a boost. It is real easy to make up your own recipes. One that I often have is based around apples and spinach. The sweetness in the apples and earthy taste of the spinach go well together. For a bit more taste you can add any or all of the following: ginger, celery, parsley, cucumber or carrots. This list is not exhaustive so you can easily have fun for weeks adding and subtracting various ingredients until you find the taste that is right for you. Fruits and vegetables that are high in potassium, magnesium and calcium help us alkalize. This is good as it helps us to feel more energetic and better able to concentrate.

The two fresh juice recipes above should be enough to get you started. Below are links to some other types of drinks, including:

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Juice Recipes for Health

Fruit and vegetable drinks that you create with your own juicing appliance are going to be great for your health. I want to present a few of my favorite recipes which you might want to try out. The type of juicer that you use is a factor in the quality of the juice that you can make. For instance, some juicers are able to extract more liquid than others. While centrifugal juicers are the fastest, you might be able to get a better quality juice by using a masticating juicer such as the Omega J8006 or Omega VRT350HD. Although, to be frank, the best thing that you can do for your health, as far as juicing is concerned, is to make a juice every day regardless of the type of unit that you use.

By varying the drinks that you create and using a range of juice recipes for health, you give your body the most varied nutrient profile possible. You should aim to juice a wide variety of fruits and vegetables over the course of a week. As well as juice extracting,  you might want to try blending as well. The premium blending product on sale today is the Vitamix CIA Professional blender but you can get by with much cheaper brands. It really just depends how far along the juicing for health road you want to go. The attraction of using a blender is that we do not remove the fiber from the juice, it becomes a part of it. So “juices” made in a blender have a thicker, richer quality to them. As you will see below, there are some great recipes that employ both a juicer and a blender. The only down side to this is that it means you have more washing up to do.

V4 Juice

Everyone knows the popular V8 Juice that is sold in supermarkets. At home, I like to keep my juice recipes simple so that I can make them quickly. So instead of an eight vegetable juice, I find it easier to make V4. Can you guess how many vegetables I use?

  • Tomato (1-3)
  • Carrot (1-2)
  • Celery (1/2 stalk)
  • Spinach (1 handful)

I would recommend trying out your own ratios of tomatoes and carrots. Some days I go with a tomato base in which case I use 2 tomatoes and 1 carrot. Other days, I use 1 tomato and 2 carrots. It just depends upon my mood and what I have in the fridge!

For added flavor, you can squeeze in some lemon juice or run some lemon through your juicer. A dash of Worcestershire sauce is another tasty addition.

Orange and Banana Smoothie

This is a recipe that uses both a juicer and a blender. If you have a citrus juicer, this is the perfect time to get it out.

  • Orange (2-3)
  • Banana (1)

The first thing to do is juice your oranges, for a thicker smoothie, just use two oranges. Then add half the freshly squeezed orange juice and banana to your blender and blend until smooth. Finally stir in the remaining orange juice and serve. The reason that I don’t add all my orange juice to the blender is because it froths up too much. I think the final drink is better when you follow the recipe above.

Berry Juice

For me, this is a seasonal juice and great to have when the berries are in season. I use store bought cranberry juice in this recipe. You could use water or make your own apple juice. For me, water makes it too watery and apple juice makes it too sweet. Your experience may vary.

  • Strawberries
  • Raspberries
  • Blueberries
  • Blackberries
  • Cranberry juice (Ocean Spray, etc.)

Depending on what is in season just add some berries and cranberry juice to your blender, blend and serve. You can substitute fresh ingredients for frozen berries. I did not include quantities of each berry as I want to encourage you to experiment.

Creating your own recipes is fun and there are no particular rules that we have to follow. If you come up with a great recipe, I’d love to hear about it!

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