A Farewell to Frosting

This is one of those good news/bad news posts. The good news is that I’m back to my pre-pre-pre-pregnancy number on the scale! Before offering a hearty “woo-hoo”… the bad news is that number is still waaaay higher than it should be for a person of my height. At 36, I’m not expecting a vertical growth spurt any time soon, so it’s time to eat less and move more. The trouble is that I have always looked at food like this: Homebaked goods = Love on a plate. Douse pretty much anything in strawberry frosting and I’ll happily gobble it down. On the other hand… Veggies = Blech!  But the scale doesn’t lie and something’s gotta give before my pants do (and there’s no way I’m tapping into my stash of maternity pants!). So out of a need to introduce more green stuff into my family’s diet and a collective love of finding new ways to trash the kitchen, the Hubs and I decided to start juicing.

After spending a hot 5 minutes researching juicers, we jumped on eBay and ordered a Breville Juice Fountain. Since its arrive on Tuesday, we’ve been playing “Will it Juice?” with pretty much everything. We started small with juicing a pineapple (or as Loey calls it
‘Pie Apple’ – Baked goodies? Yes, please!) and that was an easy hit with all. Next, we tried a sweet potato/carrot blend which received mixed reviews.

By last night we were feeling bold enough to try the mother of all juice recipes: Mean Green. The following produce was harmed in the making of this drink:

• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 inch of ginger root
• 4 kale leaves
• 4 celery stalks
• 1/2 lime
• 2 Granny Smith green apples
• 2 cup assorted greens

Luke vs. The Machine

This was definitely a group effort. I chopped, Luke washed, Em gnawed on a celery stalk and Loey hunted for ice cream. I was really surprised at how into juicing Luke was! It must be a man vs. power tool thing. He loved sending the healthy stuff down the shoot and watching the juice squirt out. But that was where the fun ended – Mean Green is serious stuff. Serious stuff that tastes like grass and lemons duking it out in a cup.

Em obviously gagging at the sight of Luke trying the Mean Green. Some infants are soooo dramatic…

I definitely overdid it on the ginger and really thought it could use at least 5 cups of sugar. Tom held his nose and chugged it. Luke, obviously blinded by pride in his creation, took one sip and said matter-of-factly, “I like it.” His taste buds quickly betrayed him though and he told me I could have all the rest. Loey, our toddler culinary expert, took a sip, sucked in some air and rolled it around his mouth for awhile like he was tasting a fine wine. He then pushed the cup away and declared, “No yike it!” We’re still allergy testing Em, so she got a pass and looked as relieved as a 9-month-old possibly can.

So Mean Green was sent back to the I-Team Test Kitchen for tweaking. Overall, we’re really having fun with juicer and I’m enjoying the ease of primarily only shopping the produce aisle.

I’ll end this post by introducing my mess rating system. It’s on a 1-5 scale as follows:

1 Roll of Paper Towels = Can be done in a house with white carpeting

5 Rolls of Paper Towels = Just move out

I give juicing a 3 roll rating – 4 rolls if kiddos are helping.