9 New Juice Recipes from my vacation in China

I spent last week on vacation in China. Yup! I said China. My beloved cousin/sister-from-another-mother/BFF/maid-of-honor/ok… I think y’all get it, lives there. There is simply no other reason I would go to China. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel, but my preference is almost always to go to a place with sun, white sand, clear blue waters and cute English-speaking beach boys. That aside, I had THE time of my life! I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there (Shanghai and Nanjing) and took time to really soak in all the sights and sounds. China is a beautiful country, with a fascinating history and is quite the experience when it comes to food. As it pertains to this blog, I am so excited to share with you the incredibly delicious juices I enjoyed during my 6 day adventure there.

I did not look for all the great juice bars my cousin and I came across. They were simply everywhere. Everywhere. In malls, train stations, the airport and were street shops on busy roads. It was such an incredibly exciting find for a juice-lover like me. All the juices were affordable and ranged in price from $2-$4.

As soon as I arrived in Nanjing from Shanghai, with luggage in hand at the train station we came across this juice bar. My excitement was palpable. I thought I’d died and gone to juice heaven. He had what looked like an Omega VERT 350 and a Vitamix. Some of the juice recipes were combos of fruits juiced and then blended in the Vitamix i.e. my first juice was apple and mango. He juiced the apples and then blended the juice in the Vitamix with the mango. I hardly ever do this at home because I only want to clean one appliance but this juice was such a delicious treat and I appreciated his effort to make my first juice in China!

LEFT: Apple and Mango 

RIGHT: Orange, Pear and Lemon

Our second juice bar encounter was in Fashion Lady Shopping Center. We got our juices much faster at this juice bar because they had everything prepped and sitting in many different stainless steel bins waiting to be juiced/blended. They were both super tasty!

LEFT: Papaya and Orange (the oranges were juiced and then blended with the papaya)

RIGHT: Watermelon and Strawberry (this was just blended)

Our third juice bar experience was in a mall. I got to finally enjoy a green juice, I noticed that almost all the juice bars had recipes with just fruit which is ok because it’s better than no juice but I was craving something green and was thrilled to find cucumber on the menu. We enjoyed…

LEFT: Apple and Grapefruit

RIGHT: Carrot, Apple and Pear

BELOW (green juice): 2 Cucumbers and 1 Lemon, I actually paid attention to the proportions when they were making this one:-)

It was nice to see that they used my first and one of my favorite juicers, a Breville Juice Fountain Plus.

Our fourth and last juice bar encounter was on my second to last day in China. It was the perfect breakfast!

LEFT: Orange and Mango

RIGHT: Watermelon and Mango

Anyone travel to a city/country with lots of juice bars? Kindly share… 

~Juice, Travel & Be Merry!~

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Juicing date with my mother and Juice Recipe #28

I had an incredibly fun Saturday evening. I spent it juicing with my mother. I obviously looooooooove juicing, hence the blog, but it is an activity I do solo. My mother has had a juicer for a while now and why we haven’t had a juicing date before yesterday beats me! Turns out, juicing is so much more fun when you have an equally enthusiastic partner. We had so much fun, made three different juices, and I took no pictures because I was too busy chugging them. My beloved mother had two big AHA! moments while we juiced.

The first one was that she does way to much prep work. After thoroughly washing the veggies, she chops them up into smaller pieces!?! I couldn’t believe it. I basically told her she did not need to help her super powerful centrifugal juicer out and that she should just (gently)  shove her veggies whole down the chute, as long as they fit of course. She had the most surprised look on her face as I threw whole cucumbers down the chute, large and long carrots, celery stalks etc.

Lesson #1: Don’t help your juicer out by chopping up the veggies. Your juicer can take it! Just wash and juice. Slice/Chop only to make larger veggies fit.

The second AHA! moment she had was that I have a rhyme and reason to my juicing while she doesn’t. My mother just juices a little of all of the vegetables and fruits she has available in her fridge. She ALWAYS juices this way and of course sometimes they taste great and a lot of times they don’t. That must not have been very encouraging for her. I’ve been experimenting with different fruit and veggie combos for so long now that I know, for the most part, what works together and what doesn’t.

Lesson #2: Recipes are great for making your own juices. Feel free to make them exactly as you see them or use them as inspiration but be warned that throwing everything-but-the-kitchen-sink down your juicer’s chute may not always result in a tasty juice.

While these lessons may seem pretty basic to novice or expert juicers, I hope there’s a beginner out there who will see this post and benefit from them.

One of the juices we made was this creamy and delicious orange-colored juice, the second was your usual deep red colored ABC (plus ginger) juice and the third was a green juice that I don’t think I’ve made before. Check out the ingredients below. We made an incredibly large batch but I will modify the quantity to what should make approximately 16 ounces.

MAMA’s green juice

• 4 organic celery stalks
• 1/2 large cucumber (1 whole small cucumber)
• small handful of cilantro
• 1 large head of organic romaine lettuce
• 1 organic apple
• 2-3 stalks of a dark leafy green, we used beet greens

~Happy Juicing y’all!~

Juice Recipe #23: Lean Green Juice!

This green juice recipe is sure to make you feel & look great. It was the perfect light and super healthy breakfast recipe and it has super ‘green’ powers to make anyone lean (after lots of doses on a consistent basis alongside a healthy diet of course). Yes, being lean doesn’t come easy. I know because I’m still on that path but I love and appreciate every step I make in the right direction. And by lean, I don’t mean skinny, I mean… ‘right & tight’ 🙂 I just can’t think of a better way to describe it. Feel free to help me out.

Anyway, here’s the recipe to this delicious and refreshing green juice. Your whole body will thank you for it. This made exactly 32 ounces which is a whole lot but I woke up starving, ran a few miles and needed that much. Cut ingredients in half to make the usual 16oz.

• 4 medium/large collard green leaves
• 5 celery stalks
• one handful of mint leaves
• 3 granny smith apples
• 1 cucumber
• 1/2 lemon (I juice with the peel on)

Some of the benefits of this green juice, just to name a few, are that it is anti-inflammatory, alkaline, a diuretic, promotes weight loss and improves immunity.

Ingredients of The Lean Green Juice

Lean Green Frothy Goodness

Lean, green and filled to the brim.

Settling in

~Juice & Get Lean!~

Sources:

Benefits of Juicing Collard Greens

The Incredible Powers of Celery Juice

Juice Recipe #4: Celery, Cucumber, Kale & Green Apple Juice

This is a wonderful and simple green juice to make that’s ridiculously healthy and nutritious. I really just made this recipe up as I am beginning to do more and more and it came out wonderfully. Every single juice recipe I post is a juice I consider extremely delicious and nutritious. I have made plenty of juices that taste awful but I see no point in wasting space talking about them.

When juicing cucumbers that are not organic I wash and peel them. I know there are still chemicals that are within the juice of the cucumber if its not organic but it definitely reduces the amount if you peel them. I used about 4 stalks of celery, 2 kale leaves, one whole cucumber and one green apple for this recipe. Everything was organic besides the cucumber as I just couldn’t find one.

Here are some of the wonderful nutrients and benefits of cucumber juice!

Cucumbers have vitamin A, C and K, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous,. They are therefore good for our skin, hair and nails, a diuretic and anti-inflammatory. Bear in mind that many of these nutrients are found within the skin so if possible always juice organic whole cucumbers. Cucumbers added to any green juice makes it extremely refreshing. Can’t wait to make more of this juice on hot summer days 🙂

~Happy Juicing!~