Green Mojito Recipe

Have you just bought a new juicer? Or are have you been into juicing for a while and are looking for new ways to create exciting and delicious recipes? In this article will cover the basics of creating a healthy, satisfying and tasty juicer recipe. The key to a great tasting juice recipe is a right combination of fruits and vegetables to balance the variety of neutral subtle and strong flavors. After reading this article you will find it much easier to explore the world of juicing and be able to create more recipes beyond what you may already have tried.            

Neutral flavored produce give your juice recipe body and balance
Neutral ingredients such as carrots, apples and lettuce (ice berg) yield a lot more “juice” for the money. These tend to be very high in water content and are some of the most affordable ingredients to serve as your juice base. I recommend using a whole or half head of lettuce, or a combination of carrots and red or green apples together. The carrots and apple flavors tend to cancel each other out nicely. Once you have your base juice it’s time to add in some of the more overwhelming flavors.

Overwhelming flavors should the accent to your juicing recipe.
There are plenty of ingredients that can have a very overwhelming flavor as a juice. It’s best to use these in small amount to give your juice accent. A good rule to follow is if it has a strong taste as raw food it will most likely over power your drink. Some examples: celery, basil, cucumber, cabbage, lemon, orange, grapefruit. There are too many to list here. You should only add in enough of the strongest tasting ingredients to accent. This varies in the exact amount but generally  it should not account for more then 1/8 of the recipe. This is where you may want to experiment 1 glass at a time. It can be helpful to write down what you put in for each glass you try so when you get it right, you won’t forget what you did.

Flavors – Go wild
You can go wild with any fruit or vegetable that you truly enjoy as a solid raw food, feel free to finish out the recipe with these. If you hate vegetables then try to stick with fruits as much as possible. If you insist on having vegetables added go with carrots, bell peppers or baby spinach as your vegetable component. Otherwise, it can be very challenging to find vegetables that mix well with fruits.

Vegetable Rules
After you have made a list of vegetables that you really like ordinarily, and you want to make sure you are getting the most nutritional value possible, you may want to prioritize which vegetables you want as your primary ingredient. Here is the easiest       rule to follow with vegetables; the greener a vegetable is in its natural raw leafy state the richer it is in nutrients; basically, the greener the better. That’s why baby spinach is so great to add to any recipes for juicers.

Fruits – Watch out for the sugar
A common misconception about fruit that may people have, is that it contains less sugar then the store bought variety. This is only partially true. All fruit is naturally high in sugar content. Is it less then what is contained in concentrate? Yes, but sometimes not by much. So if sugar is a main concern you may want to limit the amount of fruit juice you intake. Fruit and vegetable flavors tend to clash with the few exceptions I already mentioned (mainly carrots, baby spinach and lettuce. Adding a few drops of lemon juice to any recipe will help the juice last a few extra days. However, it’s best to drink any and all juice you make within 24 hours. 

If you follow these simple rules, you will be well on your way to juicing like a pro. Remember, the key to a delicious juice is the right combination of fruits and vegetables to balance the variety of neutral subtle and strong flavors. Now, you should be able to explore and end up creating your very own awesome juice recipes, and reap the nutritional benefits for your body. So, get juicing and have fun.

Jack Lalane Juicer

Have you been sitting up late at night watching TV flipping channels and came across that juicer commercial too? I had wanted to get into juicing for some time. I’ve come across the “as seen on T.V.” Jack Lalane juicers a lot and every time am tempted to pick up the phone  and order it. And I don’t do ordering off of the TV. Never have and don’t expect to start now. However, they do a hell of a job selling the Jack lalanne power juicer. It is very tempting.         

I knew I wanted to get into juicing for sure and decided to research it. What I discovered, is that you do not have to buy the jack lalanne  power juicer pro on TV; I explored the quality of this machine, and if there is any truth to what they say in that ridiculous infomercial. Read on in order to find out the answer to these questions and more.

Where to buy: TV, Online or your local Department Store
First off, buying a Jack Lalaine Juicer direct from your TV would be a huge mistake for a couple reasons. They will try every trick in the book to up sell the crap out of you for add ons and upgrades, such as getting you to buy the Jack Lalanne power juicer elite, their stainless steel version.  I don’t know about you but I hate high pressure sales pitches. And besides, the prices they charge are way more then what you could pay online.

If you got to have one, then buying it online is your best bet. You can get this juicer for a lot less money than you would through buying it off the T.V. This is especially true if you are interested in the elite version. It will end up costing up to 30% more. Most department stores will charge you close to what you will pay buying it online. Though, sometimes they have sales.

Does this machine deliver?
First of if you are a basic beginner at juicing then this is not a bad machine to start with. It delivers fresh juice with minimal effort. However, it has some draw backs. First of the shredding basket is very difficult to remove for cleaning, requires a special tool to remove the screws (You should have to use a screw driver to clean your machine). What a pain in the ass. The size and shape of the machine is fairly large. This is not a super compact machine for a juicer. It’s middle of the road in that regard. The jack lalanne power juicer 250 watts, at least I am pretty sure that’s the wattage doesn’t make it a great machine for wheat grass or really soft produce. You will want to stick with harder solid veggies and fruits like, carrots and apples.

What the Infomercial Claims
The infomercial like any other makes a lot of questionable claims. One of which is that the jack lalaine juicer produces 30% more juice. This is a stretch. There is little to no evidence to back up this claim. This is true with any brand of juicer. Jack Lalane makes some significant claims that are not justified. There is no documentation that the juicer was tested in identical situation in comparison to other juicers. However, it does in the end do a fairly good job juicing. The claims about clean up are somewhat misleading. You could expect to spend 20 minutes or more cleaning this machine up after juicing.  This is mostly because the shredder/cutter basket is bolted to the machine. You’re not able to lift it out for easy cleaning. This is for their base model, I am not sure if this is the case for the elite version.

So, to sum it up, don’t spend a fortune buying this juicer from the T.V. or the department store. Save some money, and get it online. It’s a decent starting mostly hassle free juicer for the online price even with some of its draw backs, but not worth the price elsewhere.  One bonus you get is that the Jack Lalanne manual comes with an awesome book filled with Jack Lalanne recipes that are actually pretty good. This is really useful if you are new to juicing. I personally opted out in favor of another brand of juicer. I went with a Breville juicer.