A Polite Little Green Juice

I was recently gifted some funds specifically marked for our continued journey toward lifelong healthy living. It was a most unexpected and generous gift. With a portion of the gift I went and purchased a cheap juicer.

Yes, I know you get what you pay for but when you don't pay for anything you don't get anything. For me it was better to have a cheap juicer than none at all.  I tried juicing with my blender. That went horribly and I won't be trying it again. If you want to juice with a blender you better have one of those blenders that costs half a mortgage payment. Me, I don't have one of those because I like to be able to pay my mortgage.

I've seen and heard of the mean green juice or green monster juice and other intimidating sounding juice recipes but this morning I made a polite little green juice. Why a polite little green juice instead of a mean monster of dark green goodness? Basically I don't have any dark leafy greens in my fridge at the moment. I have some in the freezer but they don't juice nicely. Frozen greens work nicely in a smoothie which is why I put them in the freezer in the first place.What I did have in the fridge were some nice light green veggies so that's where I started. The result was a tart spicy juice. You could tone it down with ease. Just use less lemon and less ginger. I happen to love both lemon and ginger so this was a great bright juice for a brewing nasty weather Wednesday.

Polite Little Green Juice Recipe: approx. 16-20 oz. juice

Ingredients
1 & 1/2 green apples (use 2 apples if desire a sweeter juice)
about 4 large leaves romaine lettuce
1 average sized cucumber
1 peeled lemon (use 1/2 lemon if desire less tart juice)

2" peeled fresh ginger root  (use 1" if desire less spicy juice)

Process
Follow your specific juicer's directions. I need to cut my fruit into smaller pieces and remove the skin from citrus. Leafy veggies juice better when processed with something of substance. I pair mine with the lemon when putting through the chute.

I got about 18 ounces of juice from this recipe. You could pour it over ice if you want or toss in a teaspoon of chia seeds for an extra healthy boost. I like to do that when I don't think I'll have a chance to eat something substantial. Sipping on my polite little green juice now. Feeling bright in spite of the winter winds blowing outside my office window.

Do you make your own juice? What are your favorite recipes?

Keep chasing perfection, people.

Eventually we are going to Catch Excellence.