Green Juice

Each Friday for the month of March I will be posting on some aspect of juicing. Get excited! If you are just joining us welcome! You can read about the benefits of juicing and the essential products you need to get started. Today I am super excited to share my family’s go to green juice!

This juice is the perfect first thing in the morning (or actually anytime during the day). It is full of leafy greens! Kale, spinach, cucumber, celery, apple, lemon, and ginger create a hydrating and refreshing combination to get you ready for anything that comes your way during the day.

On a side note, I got a camera!!!! Could you tell? Probably not, but that is ok. I am still figuring out all the settings but I am beyond happy with my brand new Canon Rebel. Happy dance over. Now back to talking about the green juice.

I gave a brief overview below on the nutritional benefits of this drink and in the ingredient list noted which items should be purchased organic based off the EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. This is an awesome resource that I recommend everyone bookmark. I also recommend drinking your juice out of a mason jar. Everything tastes better in a mason jar.

Benefits:

• Kale is packed with lutein (read why this is important in the next paragraph), vitamin K (associated with providing your blood the ability to clot), vitamin A (essential for vision and healthy skin), vitamin C, and calcium.
• Spinach is a well-known “leafy green”. But did you know that it is packed with calcium, containing 30mg of calcium per 1-cup serving. It also contains lutein, which helps prevent muscular degeneration and cataracts, and is a rich source of folate, which helps prevent birth defects
• Cucumbers contain mostly water they are and excellent food to help cleanse and wash away toxins. Toxins are often stored in fat cells and cause inflammation. But beyond just water content cucumbers also supply electrolytes to restore hydration of the body cells and balance the fluid levels in the body.
• Celery juice is highly nutritious and one of the most hydrating foods we can put in our bodies. Because it is incredibly alkalizing, it equalizes the body’s PH, which is vital for peak health.
• Apples contain antioxidants that help protect the good cholesterol levels in the blood. 
• Lemons are rich in vitamin C (which is essential for maintaining a fully functional immune system), aid digestion, and have been proven to assist fighting cancer.
• Ginger helps to reduce nausea, inflammation, and provides relief from heart burn.

Ingredients:

• 6 leaves of Kale (organic)
• 2 cups Spinach (organic)
• 1/2-1 Cucumber (organic)
• 4 Celery stalks (organic)
• 2 Apples (organic)
• 1 Lemon
• 1″ Ginger root

Directions:

Clean and prep your veggies. If the skin on the lemon is on the thicker side you will want to remove the peel before juicing as it may make the juice taste slightly bitter. Start by alternating spinach and celery through the juicer. Wrap the ginger up into a kale leaf and juice kale and cucumber. Finish up with lemon and apples. Drink. This will make enough juice for 2 large glasses. Perfect for you and a friend!

Even Caden loves it! We watered his down quite a bit but he had been eye balling our glasses for weeks. After talking with his pediatrician we received the green light to add this in to his diet. Yay! Josh was really excited to give him his first juice and was thrilled that Caden loved it!

Let me know if you try this and what you think. If you have never juiced before give your taste buds some time to adapt, but I don’t think you will need it, our bodies crave this stuff! Next week I will share a sweeter and fruity juice recipe that will be sure to please the entire family! Also I am putting together my final post for this series that will hopefully answer anymore questions you still have. Leave your questions thoughts, and comments below. Happy juicing!