Juice - "Magenta Haze"

~12 purple haze heirloom carrots

2 red bartlett pears

Made 2 servings

I was very excited to see colorful heirloom carrots at the store so I thought I'd try out the purple haze variety (even though they weren't organic). This juice turned out so sweet! And surprisingly thick and opaque--kind of like magenta tomato juice (from a can, not fresh tomato juice). There are ice cubes in the juice and you can't even see them!

Purple carrots get their intense color from the pigment anthocyanin, which is an antioxidant. The Possible Health Benefits of Anthocyanin Pigments and Polyphenolics is an interesting read.

Source: USDA "Carrots With Character"

Juice - "Green 'n Orange"

1 tray wheat grass

8 oz baby carrots

4 braeburn apples

Simple, nutritious, and good. You can't see it from the picture very well but the color of the juice is very complex--green and orange at the same time.

Juicing Fail - "The Breaker"

Not only did this taste awful, it broke the strainer on my Hurom Slow Juicer. The carrot tops were very bitter and if the juicer had not broken, I would have added more apples or some pears to cover up the bitterness.

The Hurom has a warrantee so the part was replaced for free--but I didn't get it for over a month. I'm not sure why it broke...maybe I should have cut up the carrots more? This is why I would buy and Omega Vert HD--the strainer is 8 times stronger and suitable for juicing every day. Unfortunately, it came out after I got my Hurom.

I'm posting my "fails" because there is always something to learn from every failure.

I included the picture of the grocery bag because it looks just like the bags you see in TV shows and movies!

Juice - "Santa's Juice"

3 granny smith apples

2 pears

1 lemon

Large handful baby carrots

2 large handfuls baby spinach

3 leaves swiss chard

There's nothing jolly about this juice in particular--I made it on Christmas day for my family. Everyone liked it and it disappeared quickly. I guess I could have made it more festive by floating raspberries in it. 

Juice - "Pale Yellow"

2 pears

1/2 lb yellow baby carrots

I was excited to find a bag of "baby" yellow carrots and wanted to pair (no pun intended) it with a fruit that isn't overpowering in taste or color. I really wanted the yellow carrots to shine in this juice. Pears are perfect for that. This juice had a very delicate flavor. Yellow carrots don't have the sharpness that regular orange ones do. 

Yellow carrots are high in bioavailable lutein, which decreases the risk for developing macular degeneration. Of course, these "baby" carrots are actually just carrots whittled down from larger carrots so you're missing out on a portion of the nutrients but these are still healthful.

Source: USDA "Carrots With Character"

Juice - "Healthy Limeade"

1 lb baby carrots
2 large leaves curly kale
1½ beurré d'anjou pears (the ½ because the other ½ was bad)
1 lime
Made two servings.

I had some produce that I really needed to use because it was about to go bad so this is how this juice came about. And I'm glad it did--it tasted like limeade--seriously! The carrot and pear sweetened it and I couldn't taste the kale. Definitely a lot healthier than a regular limeade. I can't wait to make this again!

Juice - "The Ole Standby"

This is what make when I want something I know will taste good and be very healthy: kale + apple + carrots.

3 granny smith apples

6 large leaves curly kale

Handful baby carrots

Of course, you can change the amount of each--it's really up to you.  Nothing wrong with starting out with less greens--just don't drink a lot of fruit/root vegetable juice if you are trying to limit your sugar intake.