Happy 2013! My Resolution...

A new year comes with new resolutions (or trying out old ones again).  After watching Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead about a month ago, I want to get more raw fruits and vegetables in my diet.  Since I wanted to start it as soon as possible (and also see if I could replace a meal or two with juice), I bought half gallon containers of Naked and Odwella juices.  Well... those are expensive!  And, while they are better than 'juice cocktails', I could only assume juice I made myself would be better.  After all, I have squeezed my own fresh tangerine juice with my grandma's glass citrus juicer and that was the best juice I have ever had!  So... I asked for a juicer for Christmas...

Fruit juice is easy to drink, which is why it is so much more prevalent in our grocery stores than vegetable juice.  I think having 50/50 fruit to veggie ratio helped ease me into the first juice recipe.  I will slowly add more and more veggies as I progress.  But until then, here is what I used for my first juice recipe...

1 mini pineapple (about 2 cups)

2 medium apples

1 large handful of spinach

3 carrots

The spinach yielded very little juice for as much as I stuffed through the juicer.  Although it did make the juice overwhelmingly green until the carrots kicked in.  The pineapple was pretty much all juice.  And then it takes about four medium apples to make a glass of apple juice.  I am sure that buying apple juice in the juice aisle is less expensive than making it yourself and it certainly is easier with no mess to clean up.  But I think it is going to be fun concocting juice recipes!  Also, I am not sure where you can buy spinach juice... and if it does exist out there, what could potentially be in the juice to give it a shelf life. If I do end up using the juice to replace a meal or two, it should actually net out to some savings!  Fruit and vegetables in bulk cost less than a processed lunch.

Here's to a healthy, fruitful new year!  {clink}