Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I'm pretty dang inconsistent with eating healthy foods. I feel so much better when I'm eating a lot of produce, but... yeah. So I was wondering if any of you make your own vegetable/fruit juices and has this been a good way for you to get in some more nutrition? My awesome sister just gave me a huge gift card so I have the opportunity to buy a nice masticating juicer if I want one. I'm interested in your stories if juicing has made you feel better. I know I feel better when I drink my fruit smoothies, so I thought this might be another way to get in some stuff that'll make me feel a little more energetic.

Please don't reply with any info on anything we don't talk about here at the PPK. I'm only interested in trying to eat a little better and maybe juicing would help with that. :)

i love my (masticating, super-expensive) juicer, but honestly, it is a PITA to use. I think the fiber in a smoothie is much more beneficial for me than a juice without fiber. so if i am trying to up my greens intake, for example, i am much more likely to have a green smoothie than a juice. I do occasionally make green juices but am not a huge fan, to be honest.
I do use the masticator for some things that really need it (for greens and wheatgrass, as well as tomatoes and peanut butter, and OH yes soymilk!! it doesn't get any better). However, i don't have wheatgrass on hand as often as i thought i would, and most juice aside from greens is just as good from a centrifugal juicer (the cheapie kind).

I agree with torque. I'm not into juicing because of the fiber issue. I make sure I get enough fruits and veggies by having a green smoothie for breakfast and a big salad for lunch. Then I figure no matter what I eat for dinner I'm pretty golden, but usually I do some have cooked veggies at dinner.

Thanks, guys! I think you're both right. Maybe I can start doing a daily salad along with my smoothies. I like Isa's daily salad with lots of stuff in it from AFR. Really appreciate the input! Y'all rock.

I juiced for a while, but cleaning the juicer became a deterrent and like others mentioned quite a bit of fiber is loss in the process (as you seem to know, this is wholly depended on the sort of juicer)

When i was younger I didn't much like eating salads as i didn't like lettuces and spinach much so I would make chopped or grated salads, like grated carrots and grated raw beets with red onion, avocado, poppy seeds, and tomato.

I'm currently in a nutrition slump...

I keep bags of frozen veggies in the freezer at work. Then I bring in leftover bean stew or beans and rice and just throw in veg at lunch time and microwave it.

Great comments, you guys. Thanks.

Fupapack -- me too! Today I did have a smoothie, along with a burrito, a ton of homemade pizza, a soda, etc etc etc. Ugh.

Same here, I HATE cleaning that mother hubbard.

If your goal is to eat more produce, frozen vegetables are even more convenient than using a juicer. There isn't the cleanup you have with the juicer. Washing and chopping are done for you. The vegetables are there when you are ready for them versus trying to fit them in before they spoil.

I just got a juicer, so I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I'm really liking it. I've been drinking juice about twice a day, and my energy levels have been awesome. I'm not really raw at all, so it's pretty impressive. Mine's a masticating juicer too, but it was about $100 at Walmart.

I really like the carrot, apple, and ginger combination.

The cleanup doesn't really bother me. Mine came with a cute little scrub brush to help me clean, and everything rinses off pretty well. The hardest thing to clean is the strainer, but with the brush, it takes two minutes. Then I just let it all air dry on the counter.

I've never had a juicer, but I've "juiced" my blended smoothies by straining it through a clean, old shirt. A little messy until you get a system down, but super cheap and juicy.

That said, I'd give a shout out for green smoothies to add more produce to your daily life. I'm not a fan of salads (or greens in general), so adding a few cups of spinach or kale to a smoothie is easy, can't taste it, and the color of the smoothie is a wicked cool green. I can easily get in 3+ fruits and 3+ veggies in my huge morning smoothie.

/shpeal.

Great ideas, you guys! I love to cook, so prepping the veggies isn't as much of an issue. It's more of, you know, EATING them. As opposed to eating my delicious friends, the simple carbs.

I think I need to go for the green smoothies.

Thanks so much for the replies. I feel inspired!

Eating fruit has become a lot easier for me since I started combining it with nut butters and dips:

Basically:
Cut pieces of fruit, get yourself a small bowl/box of nut butter and dip! Favourite combo: apple/tahini
Or put it on sandwiches and crackers! Favourite combo: rice wafer, mashed banana, tahini
Vegetables dipped in hummus or olive spread are also great

Before, I would just eat crackers and dips. NOW, I'm eating crackers, dips and FRUIT! (not an enormous improvement, but still...)

Cornelie, you crack me up. Yes, that's pretty much my goal -- to pile some healthy foods on top of the usual junk. I'm going to try the dip idea!

apple/tahini? I'm intrigued.

Chop up a bunch of veggies and stuff them in a pita and add hummus. Then you can have your carbs veggies, and even some protein in there. Im in a slump too though so I need to take my own advice

i blend all my greens and fruits for the week and freeze jars of green smoothies.

i don't have time to prep but i want to get a lot of greens every day...i've found freezing to be a very effective way of preserving freshness.

Update -- I know you've all been waiting! So I got a Vitamix back in March (Dear God, don't get me started on how much I love that machine) and I've been having green smoothies every day since. I read all these books and thought I'd be really into rotating my greens and I tried a lot of different greens at first. I figured out, though, that I really like parsley, baby spinach, kale, and collards the best and often use two or three together in one smoothie. Which means I'm not really rotating my greens much. It seemed to me the whole scary oxalate thing was not that big of a deal at all -- maybe even a little ridiculous -- but maybe I'm crazy! Am I going to kill myself with greens? What does the PPK think? I've read the whole internet about it and still don't know what to think.

I'm not too versed on the whole oxalate issue but in my opinion as long as you're not eating huge amounts of the same green every day you should be fine. I tried rotating my greens as well but have fallen into a similar pattern (kale and swiss chard fry up at lunch, spinach wrap for dinner). I think mixing would have the same effect as rotating. You're making sure the entire serving isn't one green.

oxalate? Wait rotating greens? I use Spinach every single day and eat Kale like...three times a week. Now I'm worried.

I think it's only a big deal if you use HUGE amounts constantly. Like, if you had a spinach smoothie, spinach juice, spinach salad, palak, and a spinach wrap every day for months.

Here's a nice primer on oxalates. They're not a big deal. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=48

I started school and forgot all about this thread! Thanks so much; I feel reassured. I'm just going to do my thing and not worry about it. I pretty much have parsley, spinach, and kale every day in my smoothie and I just... like it that way. I love routine. Thanks again!