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.)

Quick Tip - Cleaning Your Juicer

Mine has grass in it b/c it's the
bowl I used to hold the ingredients

It's a good idea to run around 4 cups of water or so through your juicer after you finish juicing. This flushes out some particles and you have less work to do when you clean it. If you have a vertical single auger juicer like I do, then this water flush will allow you to juice a different kind of juice next without the flavors mixing. In that case, I'd run water through it until it's clear.

But wait--don't pour that "dirty" water down the drain! There are many ways to use that (extremely) watered down juice!

• Drink after exercising for a healthier alternative to sugary sports drinks.
• Pour on your compost pile.
• Water you outdoor plants.
• Use when cooking rice or other grains instead of plain water.
• Use when reconstituting dehydrated food/bouillon.

And if you freeze it in ice cube trays there are even more things you can do with it!

• Give to your dogs as a cool treat.
• Use as ice for iced tea or other drinks.
• Use as the ice in your smoothies.
• Lightly massage on puffy eyes.

Of course, the type of juice you make will depend on how you use it. You obviously wouldn't use the water from say a pear-apple juice for your savory rice dish but it would be great for boiling oats for a pleasantly sweet breakfast. Make sure you don't ever feed your dogs grapes or onions. (ASPCA Poison Control for details)

I'm sure there are many other uses for this "dirty" water--please share if you have any!

Still Here

I didn't disappear--I was taking a break from the Internet for a little bit.

Here's some completely unrelated video from a trip to our friends' farm.





I'll be back soon with more recipes.