Jolly Green Giant Juicing Recipe With Kale And Spinach

Jolly Green Giant

Okay this is a great juicing recipe, very beneficial. You can see that by the first two ingredients, kale and spinach. Kale is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Yeah I said it, not only me but Web MD.  One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.

So how about spinach? It’s got flavonoids — a phytonutrient with anti-cancer properties abundant in spinach and  flavonoids have been shown to slow down cell division in human stomach and skin cancer cells. Furthermore, spinach has shown significant protection against the occurrence of aggressive prostate cancer.

So here it is, the Jolly Green Giant Juicing Recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 large Green Kale Leaves

2 handfuls Green Spinach

1 Green Apple

1 handful Green Mint

1 small Green Lime (peeled)

2 Green Celery Stalks

1 medium slice Ginger (*optional)

Directions

Buy Organic (why juice pesticides?)

Prep your produce: Wash, peel, cut, de-seed

Send all ingredients through your juicer

Enjoy!

Update 8/18/2014 – Kale is a hardy, cool-season green that is part of the cabbage family. It grows best in the spring and fall and can tolerate all fall frosts. Kale can be used in salads or as a garnish and is rich in minerals and vitamins A and C. – Almanac.com

Planting

You can plant kale anytime from early spring to early summer. If you plant kale late in the summer you can harvest it from fall until the ground freezes in winter.

Care

Water the plants regularly but be sure not to overwater them.

Harvest/Storage

Kale is ready to harvest when the leaves are about the size of your hand.

References

Jolly Green Giant: Juicing Recipe | Freshly GrownFreshly Grown

Web MD: The Truth About Kale

Health Diaries: 11 Health Benefits Of Spinach

Almanac.com: Planting, Growing and Harvesting Kale

Jolly Green Giant Juicing Recipe With Kale And Spinach

Simply Green Juice | Reboot With Joe Recipe

I was looking online and found this simple recipe on the Reboot with Joe website. It’s called Simply Green Juice.

This is from Stacys Juicebar in Boston and one of her most popular juices.

I made this one morning and found it delicious. The green apple really adds to this juice, making it sweet and a little tangy. To be honest I only used one granny smith apple and the recipe calls for 1 1/2 apple. I don’t core the apples either  😕

“This juice is perfect for breakfast, a quick pick me up any time of day or that afternoon lull for an energy boost. The nutrients in cucumber, kale and spinach include antioxidants for vibrant skin and a healthy immune system. The green apple adds a touch of sweetness and soluble fiber to help digestion and keep cholesterol in check. – Stacys Juicebar”

Simply Green Juice

Makes 16 ounces. Ingredients: 1 ½ green apples 1 cucumber 2 stalks kale 2 large handfuls of spinach Directions: 1.) Wash all ingredients well 2.) Core apple 3.) Add all ingredients through juicer, juice & enjoy!

Kale is quickly becoming my favorite leafy green to juice. It’s hard for me to find organic kale in Pierre, SD and I’m hoping that I can grow it this year in my garden.

UPDATE: My crop of kale has been excellent! I’ve grown Red Russian kale in my garden since early June of this year and have had some of the best green juices to date. It’s so easy to pick and few leaves, wash them and then juice. Wow! What a blast!

From the Burpee website: This delicious grey-green kale is pretty enough to plant among the flowers. Much larger than regular kale (2 to 3′ tall), the stems are purplish and the leaves are shaped like big oak leaves and colored a velvety gray green. The purple colors become richer after frost, when the flavor becomes sweeter. Surprisingly, the big leaves are very tender and delicious. Garden Hints: Kale requires good cultivation; mulch or hoe frequently to keep soil loose and weed-free. Plants may be left outdoors all winter. Frost improves flavor.

Kale is so easy to wash and juice. My Omega J8004 Masticating Juicer gets the most out of it too! ( I still love my spinach though 😉 )

Simply Green Juice uses two kale stalks. Kale is high in iron, high in vitamin K and filled with antioxidants. You can’t go wrong with this recipe!

Thanks for coming by and visiting my blog. Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to share? Please do so by commenting below. Best wishes to you and your family. Happy Juicing!

Sources for this article include:

Reboot With Joe: Simply Green Juice from Stacys Juicebar

Burpee: Red Russian Kale

Simply Green Juice | Reboot With Joe Recipe

Metabolic Cooking Smoothies

What are Metabolic Cooking Smoothies? I love smoothies, and who doesn’t. If you don’t like smoothies, you’re in the wrong place.

As you know, I’ve been reviewing the Metabolic Cooking program. I highly recommend this program to anyone who wants  to eat healthier, look better, feel better and/or lose weight. One part that you’ll receive from the Metabolic Cooking program is “53 Fat Burning Smoothies and Milkshakes.” This is the part I love.

Of course I can’t review all of the cooking recipes or smoothie recipes because that wouldn’t be fair to the authors, but I think it’s okay to share something about it. After all this is a review!

One of the main concepts of Metabolic Cooking is eating a diet higher in protein. Protein provides the building blocks for the body to build muscle. Protein also requires more energy from the body to digest, thus increasing your metabolism.

High Quality Protein= Muscle and increased metabolic rate.

Metabolic Cooking Smoothies

Metabolic Cooking smoothies are high in protein. Once you sign up for the Metabolic Cooking program you’ll be introduced to Biotrust a low carb, protein supplement. This is an excellent choice. You can use others, but be sure to read the ingredients. Look for a protein supplement with all natural ingredients and no artificial colors or sweeteners. Also check the sugar content. Low sugar is very important to me. I don’t want to add a lot of sugar to my smoothies. See the link below for other protein powder suggestions.

To make these high protein smoothies you’ll not only need a protein supplement, but you’ll also need a blender or my personal choice, a  NutriBullet Pro. It’s so easy to use and cleans up quick!

Remember, simple recipes, that’s what I like. So next week I’m going to review a simple high protein smoothie recipe from Metabolic Cooking.

For more information on the Metabolic Cooking Craze see my review here. Thanks again for reading and please comment below. Have you used a protein supplement in your smoothies?

Sources:
6 Healthiest Protein Powders For Your Smoothie

Metabolic Cooking Smoothies

Juicing Tips: Preparing Your Produce For Juicing

We will call this Rich’s Juicing Tips, because I’ve been working on more juicing tips for you. Prior to this I had posted Juicing Tips for Beginners and that article included choosing a juicer, recipes, grocery list and storing juice. I hope those juicing tips help.

In this article we’ll look at some more interesting juicing tips and specifically how to prepare your produce for juicing.

Rich’s Juicing Tips

I recommend washing everything thoroughly before juicing. You can use a commercial wash solution or something as simple as sea salt. Add one teaspoon of sea salt for every cup of water used to fill the sink. (I’ll be the first to admit that when I’m in a hurry I will just rinse my produce. That’s really sufficient with me if it comes from my garden.)

Pat dry everything and then it’s almost ready to juice. Some produce requires the pit or stems removed. Other produce requires the skin peeled.

Juicing Tips – List of Produce

Here is a general list:

• Apples – Use the entire apple peel and all. Many other juicing enthusiast recommend removing the seeds and the stems. However, I personally don’t remove the seeds. If this is a concern for you, then you can core the apple before juicing.

• Apricots – Remove the pit, juice.

• Beets- We do not skin our beets for our juice recipes. We just cut off the small tail part of the beet if there is one left and also cut some of the top part off where it is or was connected to the beet stalks, which extend to the greens. If you’re getting the beets with stems and leaves you can wash everything thoroughly and juice all of it.

• Bell peppers – Rinse and remove the stem. It’s fine to juice the seeds.

• Blackberries and Blueberries – Juice it all.

• Broccoli – Juice it all.

• Carrots – You can juice your carrots with the greens and skins still on.

• Celery – Use the entire celery stalk (even the tops).

• Cucumbers – Cut the cucumber in half and push through juicer. No need to peel unless coated with wax (See below).

• Grapefruit – Peel and keep as much of the white pith on as possible since the pith is nutritionally good for you.

• Grapes – Remove the stems and juice.

• Kale – Just wash and juice.

• Lemons – No need to peel if organic and when juicing the peel experiment with how much you use. I normally peel mine leaving as much of the white pith on as possible (See below).

• Limes – Same as lemons.

• Melons – Cut into wedges and remove outer skin (netting on cantaloupe) with a knife or peeler.

• Oranges – Peel and try to keep as much of the white pith on as possible.

• Peaches- Remove the pit and juice.

• Pears – These can be juiced whole or slice to fit into your juicer.

• Pineapples – Twist the top off. Slice lengthwise, cut out the woody core, peel the skin, and juice (See below).

• Plums – Remove the pit and juice.

• Raspberries – Wash and juice.

• Spinach – Was and juice.

• Strawberries – Wash and juice.

• Sweet potatoes – Was and cut into pieces.

• Tomatoes – Remove stem and any leaves.

• Watermelon – Cut into wedges and remove the skin and rind. You can keep the seeds in.

• Wheatgrass – Wash and juice.

These are not hard and fast rules – juicing tips.

For instance, sometimes I juice the skin of my pineapple when I’m using my masticating juicer. The skin helps push the pulp through.

I hardly ever de-seed apples. Seeds may fall out when I’m cutting them in half.  😀

I almost always peel my cucumbers, unless I grow them myself. It really can depend upon the recipe to. If I think it warrants the strong flavor of the skin I’ll leave it on. So cucumbers, peel if waxy. If organic leave it on if you think the recipe will be better with it.

Lemon and lime. I almost always peel mine. It’s hard for me to find organic ones and if I do, the skin is still very strong, so I might use the peel but less lemon than the recipe calls for.

How about you? Do you have some juicing tips when it comes to preparing produce for juicing? Please leave me a comment below. As always, thank you for reading and Juice On!

On a side note, I’ve also been guest blogging on another site. See my article, “Why You Should Avoid Processed Foods”

 

Juicing Tips: Preparing Your Produce For Juicing

Juicing Tips for Beginners

Are you ready to try juicing? It’s not hard and it doesn’t take a lot of time, especially if you have some help.

Juicing is a great way to get you daily servings of fruits and vegetables if you’re a person on the go. Use the healing properties of food and improve your health today with juicing!

Let’s get started.

Juicing Tips for Beginners #1

Selecting your juicer. Are you going to be juicing leafy greens like spinach, kale and lettuce? I recommend you do, because those ingredients are very nutritious. The best type of juicer for leafy greens is a masticating juicer like the Omega J8004. It juices fruit great too. The other type of juicer is a centrifugal juicer. That’s the type I started out with. In the beginning I juiced a lot of carrots, apples, oranges, pineapple, and grapefruit. Lets not forget watermelon! My centrifugal worked great but I outgrew it after about a year. It just didn’t do a very good job on leafy greens, so I felt I was wasting too much. Along came my Omega J8004 and I haven’t stopped juicing since.

Recommendations for juicers:

Masticating – Omega J8004 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer (Best overall in my opinion)

Masticating Vertical –Omega VRT330S 80RPM Masticating Juicer (Choose the VRT350 for a heavy duty screen, but at a higher cost)

Centrifugal – Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor (Good all around juicer, lowest price, but not good for leafy greens)

Juicing Tips for Beginners #2

Once you have a juicer, find delicious recipes. Keep them simple at first and make one’s that you know you’ll like. You can experiment with powerful ingredients like garlic and cilantro later. There are so many websites with so many recipes it’s hard to know which to choose from. That’s why I recommend getting a book on juicing and juicing recipes. When I started, I started simple. I had some free software that gave me some excellent suggestions. You can find it here.

Once I had exhausted the software I started buying books. I also found a few good simple recipes on websites, but I was cautious. Many are so complicated that I knew I didn’t want to make them and many have ingredients that are way too hard or impossible to find. Below are a few good books that will help you get started.

Before going to the grocery store, use your list of recipes and make a grocery list of what you’ll need. This will simplify things. Buy organic when possible and buy the freshest produce. If you’re able to, grow your own. That’s the best way!

Recommendations for books:

The Juicing Bible

Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life: Unleash the Healing Power of Fresh Juices and Cleansing Diets

The Healthy Juicer’s Bible: Lose Weight, Detoxify, Fight Disease, and Live Long (Excellent for beginners)

Juicing Tips for Beginners #3

Let’s get juicing! Prepare and area for juicing and preparing your produce. My juicer sits close to my sink and garbage disposal. I also sometimes use a colendar for rinsing.

To wash your produce all you need is fine-grain sea salt and water! First, wash the fruit or vegetable with water. Prepare the solution in a large bowl (or sink) by mixing one teaspoon of sea salt to each cup of water and stir it to dissolve the salt. Soak your produce for two minutes. (Scrub with a vegetable brush) Rinse the produce under fresh water, pat dry.

Cut up your produce for your juicer. Mine needs to be cut up fairly small since I have a narrow chute (Omega J8004).

When juicing, alternate between hard and soft produce. This will help keep it from clogging.

If you have leftovers, like I almost always do, store it in airtight mason jars, then refrigerate. You can keep them up to 24 hours and it’ll still be fresh. I’ve found that the juice I make in my Omega J8004 stores longer, and tastes better longer than what I make in my Breville JE98XL.

That it for juicing tips for beginners. Simple enough huh? Have fun juicing!

More Reading:

Omega J8004 Review

Breville JE98XL Review

The Juicing Bible Review

Juicing Recipes

On a side note, I’ve also been guest blogging on another site. See my article, “Why You Should Avoid Processed Foods”

Juicing Tips for Beginners

Cantaloupe and Pineapple | Simple Recipes

Cantaloupe and Pineapple??? I didn’t think cantaloupe and pineapple would go together well, but I discovered this sweet surprise one morning while juicing leftovers. Cantaloupe and pineapple do go together well! It’s delicious and refreshing especially served over ice.

We have been getting some good cantaloupe and pineapple here in South Dakota lately and I’m finding it easy to juice them. Lately I’ve just been peeling the outer skin (netting) off cantaloupe with my OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler. This seems to work very well and with some of the greenish skin still on the cantaloupe it goes through my Omega J8004 Juicer really nice. It doesn’t over power the juice either.

With the pineapple, lately I’ve just been washing them and juicing with the skin. This adds some bulk and helps it go through the juicer. If I push pineapple through the juicer too fast it clogs it up. However, with this recipe I had about 1/2 of fresh pineapple cut into pieces and I juiced it that way. No skin! Alternating between the cantaloupe and pineapple worked good. The pineapple didn’t get backed up into the juicing chamber.

Cantaloupe and Pineapple

Makes 10 ounces – Very good served over ice. 1/2 cantaloupe (outer skin peeled) 1/2 cup fresh pineapple Alternate pushing cantaloupe and pineapple slowly through the juicer to avoid clogging.

 

Benefits of Cantaloupe and Pineapple

Cantaloupes are packed with beta-carotene, vitamins A, B6, B1, B3,  and C.

Bromelain in Pineapple is a natural antioxidant and an effective anti-inflammatory. Pineapple is also full of vitamin C.

Combine these together and you have a fabulous nutritional juice.

Thanks for coming by and visiting my blog. Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to share? Please do so by commenting below. Best wishes to you and your family. Happy Juicing!

Sources for this article include:

Juice Recipe Builder

Cantaloupe and Pineapple | Simple Recipes

Integrating Juicing Into Your Diet

I have been asked many times, should I just juice or should I eat when I juice? When you only juice basically what you’re doing is a juice cleanse or juice fast. What I wanted to do when I started juicing was to intergrate juicing into my daily meals. That’s where I believe the real long term benefits of juicing are.

Integrating juicing into your diet will improve your overall health.

Studies show, only 20 percent of Americans eat five or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and a mere 5 percent consume seven servings. Integrating juicing into your diet will help you get those needed servings of fruits and vegetables.

The only thing you’ll be missing is the fiber and you can get fiber from other foods you eat. I’m not suggesting you juice all of your fruits and vegetables. Supplement your diet with juice.

For a complete diet you need the whole foods too. Raw or lightly steamed vegetables and raw fresh fruit are part of a healthy diet.

Integrating Juicing Into Your Diet

Lately I’ve been using a diet from the book, Juicing for Life: A Guide to the Benefits of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Juicing. When integrating juicing into your diet I believe it’s best to follow a plan at first. Once you get into the routine, it’s easy to continue. “Repetition is the father of all learning”, I don’t know who said it first, but it’s true.

Breakfast Juice of your choice Hot cereal Whole grain toast Tea

Lunch Juice of your choice Salad Bean or pea soup Sandwich

Dinner Juice of your choice Salad Stir-fry with vegetables and meat, poultry or seafood Baked potato Whole grain roll

 

 

 

In addition to the above I have snacks between meals which can include fresh juice, yogurt or nut butter on whole grain crackers. Celery, carrots and apples are great healthy snacks too.

I prepare my juice in the morning and store it in mason jars for later in the day. I don’t keep it for more than 24 hours, it just tastes better fresh  😎

I try to drink my juice about 20 minutes before my meal, so I have it on an empty stomach. This gives my digestive system time to absorb those fantastic and powerful nutrients.

If you’d like to see the diet plan in it’s entirety, please pick up the book, Juicing for Life: A Guide to the Benefits of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Juicing. You’ll be glad you did.

More diet plans in the book, Juicing For Life:

• The Sugar Metabolism Disorder Diet


• The Immune Support Diet


• The Elimination Diet

Also, cleansing diets and weight-loss diets!

Thanks for dropping by and happy juicing!

Integrating Juicing Into Your Diet