Juice - "St. Patrick's Day Lucky Juice"

7 large leaves swiss chard

7 Bartlett pears

7 curly parsley sprigs (full length, including stems)

1 lime (not peeled)

Made just under 4 cups

I'm not a huge St. Patrick's Day person since I don't drink or stay out late (very often) but I thought this would be fun. My green beer alternative. A juice with only green produce was a new one for me (at least intentionally). I even picked only the white-stemmed chard from my garden. And I used the green dots glass straw from GlassDharma! 

Of course, you don't need to follow the 7-7-7 ingredients but this combination turned out amazing. If you like parsley a lot, I'd add more parsley. I think I will the next time I make this. The pear added the right amount of sweetness, the lime had great flavor, I could detect a hint of parsley, and the chard gave that signature "green" taste. 

I imagine that this juice would be great to drink to curb the effects of a hangover. Be careful, everyone! Don't drink and drive! (Alcohol of course...nothing wrong with drinking this juice and driving!)

Here's the "Healthy Shamrock Shake" recipe I promised!

Juice - "Red Pear"

5 leaves red kale

2 packham pears

made ~2 cups

I just love the way red kale looks. Purple veins in dark green leaves and a stem that's purple on the outside and light green on the inside. Red kale is less bitter than other kales making it a great choice for juicing.  You don't have to use as much fruit with this. If you aren't used to green juice though, I'd recommend adding an extra pear.

That's Dax--she didn't atually drink any--I knew she wouldn't though. Our cats were fed kibble (AKA crapple) for the first year of their lives (before we had them) so they don't know what real food is. It's very hard to get them to try food that's not in kibble form.(Thankfully we've got them to eat canned, pouch, and rehydrated raw food.)

Juice - "Violet Brock"

1/4 head red cabbage

2 heads broccoli

1 tray wheatgrass

7 pears

Made 4 cups

Whenever I juice broccoli I get a lot of foam. Juice foam doesn't bother me nearly as much as smoothie foam because it's lighter and mixes in relatively easy.

It's kind of surprising that the little bit of red cabbage made the juice a purplish color. This was a thick juice but very tasty.

Juicing Fail - Watermelon Radish

It was one watermelon radish but I don't remember how many apples and pears I used now. It doesn't matter because I won't be remaking this. I got really excited about the watermelon radishes I saw at the store so decided to get some. I read online that they are sweet enough to eat raw. So I thought it'd be OK to use a whole one in a juice.

And I was wrong.

This turned out so spicy it made my chest hurt. I could only drink a few sips. Oh well, at least it was pretty.  If I used watermelon radish again, I'd probably only use a 1/4 or even less. I didn't follow my own advice and taste the produce before I juice/blend it.

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 - "Pink Fruit"

1/2 small head red cabbage

2 pears

2 braeburn apples

3 mint leaves (from my garden)

Made 2.5 cups

I wasn't expecting this to taste very good--not because I thought it was a bad combination but because the apples weren't very good (mealy), the pears and cabbage were a little old (but not bad), and my mint was a bit crispy (massive heat wave!). This must have been a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts! It was very refreshing on a sweltering day.

Yes, that's my cat, Worf, thinking about taking a sip. No, I do not let him up on the counter where I prepare my food.

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!