Juicing!

Like I mentioned earlier, we are juicing a lot lately.  For Christmas, we got a big juicer - it's an Omega J8004 (in case anyone's interested).  I was hesitant about it at first because I thought...do we REALLY need another big kitchen appliance we will never use?  So, I thought long and hard about it.

But, I have to say...I am a convert! 

See, I normally don't eat veggies.  Like ever.  My mom never made veggies when I was growing up (she hates them, really) - so I was raised on a diet of Swanson's TV dinners, Hardee's, and Fruity Pebbles.  Even when I became a vegetarian in highschool, I lived on granola bars and Diet Coke.  I know, I know...

Anyway, I am obviously growing up and becoming a real adult because I realize I can't eat that way (much) anymore and still feel good.

The thing is, I am still not good about eating my veggies.  I buy them and they die a terrible death in my fridge.  I mean to eat them, but they just get passed over by other things...like anything else remotely edible.

 So, anyway - while I am really good about eating fruit, veggies are another thing.  But, since I got the juicer, I've found that I actually really love the taste of veggie juice.  Really. 

I'm not sure if it would be better for me to actually eat the veggies as opposed to juicing them - but to that, I say that baby steps are better than no steps.  ;-)  Maybe I should be making arugula salads for lunch, but well...that's probably not going to happen.  I'd rather not have great be the enemy of good and I am certain that even small changes can reap big results over time.

I know a lot of people like to juice fast, and I am not doing that because I'm nursing Violet.  Basically, I can't do anything drastic with my diet because of nursing and supply issues.  I have also found that Violet has some food intolerances.  A year ago, I cut dairy out of my diet because of her intolerance (which she still has).  And recently, I discovered that she cannot have apples.  Apples!  So, I am not juicing apples for me (but Mr. M has them in his juice).

So far, my "recipe" for my juice has been to take a bunch of baby kale, a handful of carrots, some celery, peeled cucumber, and oranges/tangerines...and just juice them together.  It's surprisingly delicious.

Now, it does not fill me up and I really do have to eat real food afterwards.  But even though it's not filling, it makes me feel so energized.  I have been making juice in the afternoon for us all as a little pick-me-up, instead of having tea or sweets. 

The best part is that I have my little worker bee, Ginger, who is happy to help out. Now if I could just teach her to clean out the juicer afterwards!  Haha.  Baby steps.  :-)