I had been hesitating buying a juicer for a long time before i finally took the plundge. You hesitate before buying an specialty appliance like this because it is expensive and you have to go out of your usual way to use it and make it into a habit. If you don’t do that it will just gets stuck in the cupboard collecting dust.
So, I bought it because I love the idea of juice and I really think that it is an amazing way to get more veggies in my diet. I like veggies well enough but I really don’t eat as many as I should. But now i do and I can feel the difference. I make juice on *almost* a daily basis.
This is the is the Omega 8600, it is not the most expensive high end juicer but I did a lot of research and it was the one that best fit my needs a a reasonable price.
The boys enjoy fruit juice and don’t mind if I add spinach to our smoothies but they are not really the green juice fan just yet. Hopefully that will change. However, Wilhelmina loves it which is great because she eats like a bird most of the time.
My usual juice is as follows…1 head of romaine, 1/2 cucumber, handful of baby carrots, 1/2 lemon, a few handfuls of spinach and kale if I have any, a bit of ginger, an apple and a pear. I also add bits of other veggies that may be in the house. This makes a Litre of juice… Isn’t that amazing! I can eat all of that in one easy meal…
Because I have a masticating juicer, the juice could technically last up to 72 hours, but I drink it right away as a meal. Willa has a large glass and I have the rest, sometimes adding a tsp of chia seeds to it to to give the extra nutritional punch.
I have been buying the veggies at Costco to keep costs a bit down. I can buy a weeks worth of juicing veggies for about 25$ and we don’t just use them in the juice but in other meals as well so many of them enter our meal plan. The great thing is that we don’t lose many veggies either because I use them us easily when I see then need to go.
Another fun thing about this juicer is that it has the ability to make pasta… Well… You can make a quick pasta dough and put it in it and it comes with the little plates with different pasta size. I am not a big pasta fan, but I made a chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles when we were feeling under the weather and it turned out amazing,
It also has the ability to make sorbets and nut butters and more… With the blank plate, you just place frozen fruit such as bananas, strawberries, pear etc through the feeder and what comes out is like a soft serve ice cream. Especially bananas. It makes a quick, easy and healthy dessert that all the kids love. And for nut butters, groud seeds etc you just put them through… The more times you do it the more it breaks down and becomes creamier…
I am loving the machine…
Do you juice? I would love to hear about your favourite combos!
I don’t have nearly as nice a juicer as you but I do juice. In the mornings I find a blend of grapefruit, carrot and ginger to be very invigorating. Though straight fresh pomegranate juice is such a treat!
I would love to have a juicer that could make pasta and nut butters. Lucky lady!
i <3 my champion juicer. she's an old gal (at least 15 years) but she does it all. my fave juice includes parsley, cucumber, beet, ginger, apple. delish! it tastes great and detoxifies the liver, to boot. we're crazy for smoothies and juices, at home. enjoy!
I don’t have a juicer yet but I’d like to. The ReBar cookbook has fantastic juice blends that make me want to run out immediately and buy one.
What do you do with all the pulp? I’ve read you can add them to muffins which would be a great fibre boost.
I have kept quite a bit of the pulp to make dehydrated crackers but yes, I have heard you can make muffins and other things with it too…. I just keep on forgetting to put some of the pulp aside before changing veggies or adding fruit… there are some combos that I am not to sure of yet where the pulp is concerned…
Just last week I dusted off my juicer and started using it again, as it dawned on me it was a great way to get some – newly rejected – vegetable goodness into my toddler. Score! Biggest hit is carrot, apple and orange – and the bonus is that I love it too!!!