Juicer Meets World

Today the juice extractor made its official debut! Despite feeling fairly intimidated by the prospect of my first home juicing attempt, due to the below scary-looking assembly instructions...

...things turned out to be a breeze once we got over that first hump.

There are really only four simple steps to achieve juicing success, as far as I can tell. 

Step one: Wash veggies and slice up any that are more than 3 inches in diameter (e.g. apples). 

Step two: Feed said veggies into the tube one by one. 

Step three: Should any veggie give you trouble, squash them in using the "masher of death" (the technical term) pictured below. 

 Step four: Pour and enjoy!

Here's what went into my juice (yielding 28 ounces):

• 2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
• 2 handfuls of baby romaine lettuce leaves
• 3 celery stalks
• 2 whole carrots
• 5 large kale leaves (with stems)
• half a cucumber
• one apple
• half a lemon

Best part? I totally put Juice Generation's "Supa Dupa Greens" to shame. Half the cost and twice the homemade love tastes much, much sweeter.

If you are a juicing connoisseur, please share your favorite recipes or veggie/fruit combos. I'm eager to avoid the sophomore slump with my next juice outing!

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Juice Crazed

I've officially jumped on the juice craze band wagon. Typical, I know. True to form, I'm a couple years late to the juicing party, but I'm here now and ready to partay. As someone who struggles with incorporating enough greens into her diet (sorry Mom!), I love the idea of consuming an entire day's worth of leafy greens and vegetables (that I would never eat individually. A plate of parsley??) in one delicious gulp. Something about the veggies in liquid form instead of whole makes me feel immediately invincible--like I've just been given an IV drip of pure vitamin-mineral-goodness straight to my bloodstream. Juice craze, I totally get you.

As the brand-spanking new owner of a home juicer (thank you Kevin!), nervous yet to actually juice my first vegetable though, I've been researching and taste-testing different combos at various places around town taking notes on which ones are yummy enough to recreate at home. When I do finally bust open the home juicer, my taste buds will be ready and opinionated.

Emerging quickly as one of my favorites to stop into is Juice Generation. The Soho location is conveniently located two blocks from my office. Plus, it's attached to an Equinox gym so I get the added bonus of pretending to be fresh off an invigorating workout as I exit smugly, juice in hand.

My go-to order is the "Supa Dupa Greens" with spinach, kale, apple, parsley, cucumber, romaine, celery and lemon. Plus, a Raw Crunch Bar on the side for good measure (all organic! no artificial anything!). All deliciousness.

While I love the on-the-go convenience, my wallet does not. This juice craze party takes some serious funds to maintain. The ol' bank account will be much happier when I start making my juice at home instead of forking over $11 every time.

Do you have a favorite juice combination? Please share!

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Preparing For the Apocalypse...With Chili

Alright, so the end of the world is not upon us, but what the heck, I like to be prepared.

This need to feel prepared, I believe, dates back into the far reaches of my childhood. As a youngster in elementary school, I remember wearing my school uniform to bed so that I could wake up the next morning already dressed and ready to go. Seriously. My eight-year-old self was convinced I was so clever to have come up with such an idea. Proud of all the time I was saving in the morning (which couldn't have been more than 5 minutes at most), I would secretly congratulate myself as I jumped out of bed clad in a white collared blouse and navy jumper smurking I bet no one else does this! Yes that's probably true, because all the other 4th graders were busy being normal kids and waking up for school in normal pajamas. Looking back, #1 I can't believe my mom let me go to sleep dressed like that. It's nearly impossible that I woke up with anything less than 1,000 wrinkles all over my uniform which she then had to iron out. And #2, did I not shower in the mornings?? If I did, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of hopping out of bed dressed and ready to go? These are just a few of the burning questions I wish I could go back and ask my eight-year-old self. Unsurprisingly, all I can seem to recall is how pleased I was with myself for coming up with the whole idea.

Veggies give their last looks.

Eventually I grew out of the habit, but revisiting the memory now it's clear, in hindsight, that my adolescent self was just trying to wrest some sort of control over the seeming chaos of the morning school-day routine. Anticipate the "unknown" in some way. That, or capture a few extra minutes of sleep. As anyone who knows me can attest, I love my Z's. Regardless, having said all of this leads me to Sunday's chili-making spree. In my adult life I'd like to think I've learned to go with the flow more and remain flexible in the face of uncertainty, but admittedly, my latent preparad-ness tendencies only manifest themselves in less crazy ways than when I was a kid. Exhibit A: batch cooking for the week. Sunday was spent slicing and dicing onions, bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes and parsnips (along with some ground turkey and black beans!) into a delicious, hearty pot of chili that's served as my lunch every day this week. With the cool, crisp days of Fall just around the corner, there's really nothing better than stick-to-your-ribs chili.

Simmer away!

In a strange way, having my lunches/food ready to go for the week beforehand makes me feel generally less-stressed and mentally ready to tackle the workweek along with whatever else crops up. The way I see it, already knowing what I'm going to eat for lunch is one less "decision" to think about during the day. Don't get me wrong, I love a splashy Chipotle lunch as much as the next gal. As they say, variety is the spice of life. But for the most part I find it works for me. Plus, it helps at the end of the day too, when work goes late and I'm about to eat my arm off in sheer starvation--to have healthy food options already prepared and ready to pop in the microwave. Literally, life- and arm-saving. 

What little tricks and tips do you do to prepare for the day/week ahead? Hopefully it's not sleeping in your next day's clothes!
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