The Early Rising Challenge has begun!
Last night I was in bed over 1 hour earlier than usual (around 11pm instead of after midnight), however I didn’t end up falling asleep until 12:30am. My body is very much on a consistent schedule, so it is going to take me a while to adjust.
Some good did come of it. I got up just after 6:30am this morning, despite getting just 6 hours of sleep. I know I am going to be dragging today, but I think the only way I will be able to get my body on a new schedule is to have a few sleep deprived days. Everything will even out. :) My reward was Baked Breakfast Cake. Mmmmmm. So worth it. Plus, I just made a huge pot of Japanese Sencha and I am going to workout + WMM2, so I think that will have me feeling energized for a long baking day!
A Kitchen Appliance Confessional
My name is Angela and I am scared of new kitchen appliances.
Cooking? Baking? Whipping up crazy recipes? I’m down. You know I thrive on that stuff.
Figuring out a new kitchen appliance that has the potential to chew my finger off? I’d rather clean my closet than open the box. [Yes, I actually cleaned out the closet when I was supposed to be unpacking the juicer! Classic Avoidance Syndrome.]
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
So here I am, coming clean to you guys today.
Remember this beautiful food processor that Eric bought me for my birthday in 2009? Well, I broke it within the first 2 minutes (trying to process soft dates). I somehow managed to convince Kitchen Aid to send me a new food processor and embarrassingly, the new processor has been sitting in the box ever since.
I have been using my old half-broken processor all this time while a new one sits in the box! Typing it out sounds absurd, actually!
However, I stand sit here before you vowing to overcome my fear. I am determined, not only to become a food processing whiz, but to master my juicer, in every way, shape, and form.
I will start with the juicer. I channeled my inner fabulous goddess, Kris Carr from Crazy, Sexy, Life. [For Kris’s thoughts on juicing read the interview I did with her here! She talks about the benefits of juicing and her favourite superfoods and juice recipe.]
Behold the Breville Juice Fountain Plus:
As you can see, I was able to figure it out! It was actually really easy.
Look OSGMOM, 10 fingers! :D
I created my very first juice!
Rainbow Sorbet Juice
Ingredients:
- 1 large field cucumber, not peeled
- 1 organic apple, cut into thirds, not peeled, stem removed
- 1 lemon, peeled
- 1 cup organic baby carrots (grocery store was out of whole organic carrots)
Directions: Juice, stir, and serve immediately! I juiced the lemon on low and the rest on high.
Tip: Put a grocery bag in the pulp container so clean up is easy.
It created this beautiful juice that looked exactly like rainbow sorbet (albeit melted) that I used to eat so much as a child!
The order I juiced was: 1) Lemon, 2) Apple, 3) Cuke, 4) Carrots
Seriously fun.
I read you are supposed to toss the big pulp pieces before baking with it. Rather than throw any pulp out, I would rather process it all in the food processor to thin it out and make it even. Or you could just throw all of it directly into a soup! I like big chunks in my soup. :)
I have big plans for this pulp, don’t you worry!
I will let you know what I make with this. Eric and I tasted some pulp and we were so surprised at how tasteless it was! The juice has ALL the taste!
The juice really is the LIFE of the produce.
It made about three of these wine glasses!
[Sorry for the bad lighting, it is dark outside and flash batteries are dead.]
I was DYING to try it. I poured the glass and took a sip…
I was instantly floored by the taste. My taste buds were literally dancing!
The apple and lemon paired so well together, however the juice was not too sweet nor too sour. Just perfect. The cucumber and carrot were lovely as well, although not as pronounced. Just perfect background flavours, if you will.
Eric even liked it himself and drank his glass. I drank two full glasses and could have drank more but my belly was about to burst.
If I could describe it in one word it would be FRESH.
It was the purest tasting juice I have ever had by far. It was fun picturing the healthy nutrients being absorbed into my blood. But maybe I am just a nerd like that!? ;)
However, no review would be complete without a couple cons:
1) The cleanup was sort of a pain. Several of the parts are dishwasher safe, but my dishwasher typically doesn’t have much room in it due to all of the dishes I use in a day! I did it by hand and then put them on a towel to air dry. No biggie.
2) It is expensive. Eric and I figured that the juice we made was at least $3-4 worth of produce. Ouch! I can’t see myself juicing every day, but I can see myself doing it 3 times per week, alternating with Green Monsters. I think if I can use the pulp in my cooking, I can justify it a little more since I am not throwing anything away. This will just get my creative wheels a spinning.
Have you ever had fresh juice before? What is your favourite recipe?
I’m so excited to experiment with all kinds of fruits and veggies. Please share your fav. combos below! I bought some beets, organic celery, and fresh ginger too. I wonder if they go together?
Off to workout my big strong heart then a full day of baking + shipping…zing, zing, zing!!! Have a great day everyone!
Actually, I had started to try juicing last fall and fell of the wagon very quickly. Didn’t love the taste of the recipes. At the beginning of the year I have been drinking a daily Green Monster to get me back on track ;)
Here’s my favourite –
1 (green) apple
1 1/2 carrots (depending on how big they are)
1 small beetroot
1 1/2 inch (or bigger!) piece of ginger (I love it gingery!)
So refreshing and a pretty bright pink colour!
Welcome to the early morning world! I’m an early riser. I love getting up at 5am and having “me” time in the morning – it’s so peaceful and I’m definitely at my best then. I often get up early to do work during school term time (I’m a teacher) – and I power through everything at that time of day!
Eh, I have a real aversion to washing dishes… I could totally see myself letting a juicer rot on my counter. But I would LOVE to come to your house and try some of your juice. :-)
I work at Booster juice so I can get a great discount on juices and make them there — which is so nice because I doubt I’ll be buying my own juicer for a while! My fav combo is beet celery and apple, so yummy! I usually blend them with ice to make it more slushy.
yum yum yum!!! For some reason those pictures and your description made me almost be able to *taste* the juice, haha! I only drink water, so the thought of fresh fruit “dancing in my mouth” is incredibly mouthwatering. I really want a juicer, but I can’t afford one at the moment :/ Recent college grad…you know the drill. haha!
Heya! I have been following your blog for about a month no but this is the first time I am writing a comment. Just wanted to congratulate you on all you have achieved! Absolutely fantastic! I also went through a phase of putting on some weight but managed to lose it all through lots of exercise and healthy eating. I also have quite a sweet tooth and adore cooking and baking so a healthy exercise regime is the only way to make sure I still fit into those skinny jeans! Reading your blog has motivated me to try harder and stop making excuses!! I have just started running more again after my first half marathon back in October and want to sign up for another one later this year!
Good Luck with the early rising challenge! It’s certainly tough this time of the year – I was on holiday in Japan recently and although the trip was exhausting we had no issues getting up at 6 or 7 because it was already bright daylight by the time we would leave our hotel. Back in Brussels, the sun barely starts to rise by the time I leave for work at 8.30! So depressing! Hopefully this is over soon – generally prefer working out in the morning but am struggling with getting out of bed. Then again, I just bought a good friend a daylight alarm clock, maybe I should invest in the same? Have you thought about getting one of those? They are supposed to wake you up gentler – made make the early rise less of a challenge though! ;-)
Congrats on the early rising challenge! My alarm clock went off this morning at 6:15am to do yoga…and then I hit snooze…for an hour. I will think of your post tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off, and use your positive thinking for motivation!
Loved your confession about your food processor! I kept complaining how I couldn’t make a lot of recipes because I didn’t have a food processor. Then, I got one as a gift back in November, and it’s still in it’s packaging. I’m scared, too!! Glad I’m not the only one:)
Looks like you have a good juicer.I wish I had a juicer so I could make fresh juice. I just love the fresh taste.
Watermelon, mint and ginger. So refreshing! (Sorry, it’s summer here Down Under and watermelon is in season!)
Also, carrot, apple and ginger or carrot, pear and ginger.
Mostly, I like any juice with ginger in it :-)
I bought a juicer from Costco the other day, and haven’t used it yet. It was expensive (over $100) … and I am really struggling with whether or not I should return it.
The MAIN reason I want to return it is that I don’t want a BIG giant juicer sitting on my kitchen counter all the time … but I feel like if I put it away in a cupboard after every use, I will never use it because out of sight, out of mind.
I don’t know what to do!!
Pear, ginger, apple, celery and carrot – is the best – the pear and ginger are esp. great if you have a stomach upset.
I use my carrot pulp that is left over to make dairy free carrot cakes.
I’d love to be able to make fresh juice — we added the Breville to the wedding registry :)
spinach, apple, carrot, celery, and lemon. the lemon makes it “all good”. parsley is nice thrown in there too but my hubby doesn’t love it. i think you are supposed to juice on an empty stomach for best absorption of nutrients-and wait 30 minutes or so before you eat anything. i read that our bodies expend alot of energy digesting food. juicing supposedly gives your digestive system a “rest” so your body can expend that energy on healing and rejuvenating other areas of your body. how cool is that?! there are some good recipes in natalia rose’s book “detox 4 women.” natalia blogs on kris carr’s website as well.
OoOooOoooo…Breville! LOVE my Breville blender – there is no GM concoction I can come up with that can defeat that machine! Awesome brand.
I have the other problem – not fear of kitchen appliances but addiction to kitchen appliances. My husband may make me sleep outside if I bring any more home :-)
That juice really does look delish. Hmmm, how to smuggle in a juicer? Must ponder.
haha Ive been known to set up appliances in the laundry toom
ROOM i meant
Yum! I love love love the name you gave it–so perfect. I told my family about it while they were eating Rainbow Sherbet for dessert tonight. Talk about coincidences!
I’m confused about what the hyperlinking does to speed up blogging. Can someone enlighten me?
Basically every time I tried to link text in a blog post, I would get an error. So for several months everytime I needed to link, I had to go into the source code and manually link it.
My link ‘memory’ was also broken, so all my saved links weren’t working.
Have you tried to read in bed before sleeping? Works for me every time!
Yes I have tried it works all the time :)
yay on your new juicer I have the same one! Im bad with appliances too, I often rush into using them without reading the manual and end up with a mess.
This is something I have been dreaming about for years!! Hopefully 2010 is a year that a juicer lives in my house!! Looks delish and refreshing!!