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!

Green Smoothie - "Weeds in the Garden"

3 bunches red dandelion greens
4 leaves rainbow chard
1 small juicing orange
~3 oz mango frozen
~3 oz peaches frozen
~2 oz strawberries frozen
Dulse
3 T ground chia seeds

I called this Weeds in the Garden because I got the chard from my garden and dandelion greens are considered a weed. A very nutritious weed. Kind of funny that I bought the weeds from the store. I'm going to look into growing dandelions. Easy of course, but I don't want them to take over my whole garden.

This was very green tasting so probably not for the uninitiated.

I found a conjoined twin chard in the garden!

Green Smoothie - "Frozen Blue"

3 leaves rainbow chard

2 large handfuls baby spinach

1/2 cucumber (not pictured)

1 small handful mango frozen

1 small handful pineapple frozen

1 small handful peaches frozen

1 large handful blueberries frozen

Handful raw pumpkin seeds

Ice 

Water

When I made this (a long time ago--I can tell by the plastic straw and the poor picture quality), I had a lot of partially used bags of frozen fruit. I decided to use it all up and not let the fruit get that frosty again. Because a lot of the ingredients were frozen, the blender had a hard time mixing it up. I didn't want it to be too watered down so I added the cucumber. Cucumbers and watermelon are great ways to add liquid to a smoothie without that weird watered-down taste.

Green Smoothie - "Cherry Rainbow"

Large bunch of rainbow chard (I had about 4 leaves of each color--pink, red, orange, green)
~8 oz cherries frozen
~8 oz chilled vanilla almond rooibos tea (no flavorings, just vanilla bean, almonds, and rooibos)
3 T ground flax seeds
A few shakes of Ceylon cinnamon
Ice

I actually made this today so this recipe is jumping way ahead but I just felt like writing about it now.

I stopped juicing and blending for a while because I got really busy with other things and then I started to get headaches almost every day. Maybe because I stopped? My skin is also not too great since stopping. I was determined to make a green smoothie today but didn't have much in the way of produce (or any groceries for that matter) so I went out to the garden and harvested some rainbow chard. Thankfully, I had some frozen cherries left. I was a bit worried that this would turn out bitter but the tea and the cinnamon really helped balance things out and it had a bit of a kick. This was a very watery smoothie--more like a juice but that is completely fine with me.

Green Smoothie - "The Cuke"

3 leaves rainbow swiss chard

2 large handfuls baby spinach

1/2 cucumber

1 handful mango frozen

Meat from young Thai coconut

Handful raw pumpkin seeds

Ice

Water

I forgot to take a picture of the smoothie...nothing special...green.

Even though it only had 1/2 a cucumber, this one came out tasting like a cucumber smoothie. The cucumber must have been very intense! I love cucumbers so I thought this tasted great, of course. 

Green Smoothie - "The Tracy"

2 large handfuls baby spinach

2 leaves Swiss chard (yellow)

3 leaves dandelion greens

1 thin slice watermelon

Handful frozen pineapple

Handful frozen cranberries

Ice

Water

Made this for my friend,Tracy. She was looking for a way to get more greens and veg in her diet. She doesn't like greens (or most vegetables) at all and I wanted her to try them in this form. She wanted me to include the pineapple and cranberries. I thought she wouldn't like it because it wasn't very sweet (cranberries add tartness but not sweetness and it doesn't cover up the greens' bitterness well) but she said she liked it. I believe her because she drank all of it!

Green Smoothie - "Green Watermelon"

3 leaves swiss chard

2 large handfuls baby spinach

1 large handful frozen mango

1 thin slice watermelon

Ice

Water

Maybe not the most original name but very descriptive. The watermelon flavor was very strong but the greens complemented it perfectly. The frozen mango added sweetness, minimized foaming, but didn't add flavor so it let the other ingredients shine.

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. 

Green Smoothie - "Melon Rainbow"

1/2 cucumber peeled*

1/4 cantaloupe

3 large leaves rainbow chard

1 thick slice watermelon (not pictured)

Water

*I didn't know it at the time but you do not need to peel cucumbers.

This tasted great but was very foamy--I did not know it at the time but frozen produce and/or ice keeps the foam to a minimum. 

Green Smoothie - "Green Melon"

1/2 cantaloupe
1 cucumber, peeled*
2 leaves lacinato kale 

2 large handfuls baby spinach
2 leaves red chard 

Water

*I didn't know it at the time but you do not need to peel cucumbers.

It looks like there is less greens then there really is because the cucumbers are sitting on top of all of it. This is the first green smoothie I made that didn't need major tweaking. The only thing I would change knowing what I know now (other than not peeling the cucumbers) is add ice and less water to compensate. The ice (or frozen produce) keeps the foaming to a minimum.