Juice ko po: Chronicling my first few juice experiments.

I was gifted with a juicer by my sister a few weeks ago, a hand-me-down, since she bought a new one for herself. I was all happy to have one because finally, I can make fresh juice instead of buying those in the carton with a lot of artificial coloring, flavoring, and sugar and enjoy fresh juice goodness. It's a pretty old model since it's been around for quite some time, and not really the expensive ones in the market, but as long as I drink the juice right away instead of making it stand for long hours, it would be okay.

I'm pretty excited to make fresh juice since it's so much more nutritious than the artificial counterpart. So far, we haven't bought juices on a carton for a month now. Before it was just orange juice from the carton or pineapple juice from the can and the fresh juice only being buko. Now I have made a lot of concoctions in pretty colors. Some can be found online or shared by friends and co-workers. Some are brave to experiment but I would much rather go and follow a recipe to know the right combination.

My first one is cucumber pineapple. It was a really hot day, and I needed something to cool me down. I juice my fruit cold, so there's no need for ice.

Of course I read about the pros and cons of juicing. I like the part that it's a better way of consuming food I really am not fond of eating as it is, say oranges, grapefruit, and pineapple but would prefer it as juice. It's less heavy than a smoothie too, so I can have it with a meal. The only downside though is that most of the fiber is lost during juicing, but my fiber intake is quite good anyway. I just like the fact though that instead of sugar-ladden drinks, I get the real thing, straight from the fruit and into my glass.

This berry mint julep consist of strawberries, apples, peppermint leaves, lemon juice, cold green tea, and organic honey to sweeten. Lots of vitamin C and the peppermint feels good since it's been really hot lately.

But a bit of heat is good with some ginger, and on some drinks, I add a bit of ginger, which is great for people like me with digestive problems. I don't have a photo of it but I add ginger to apple pineapple juice, beet juice, etc.

Beets are great for the liver and also for stamina. I originally wanted this drink to be pink lemonade but I think I put too much beet for it to be dark red, so it's like err dark red lemonade. I put a bit of sea salt on the rim of my mason jar and made it a healthy beet margarita. I think the beets did it well here because it became super sweet.

My drink this morning in a fancy Bellini glass so it's pretty for photo purposes. Pineapple juice with chia seeds and a mint leaf.

I used to make virgin mimosa with ginger ale and orange juice (from a carton). I wonder how it would taste with fresh orange juice now?

Due to the natural sugar in juice, I haven't been craving a lot for sweets lately, like before, which must be a good thing. A personal favorite during the hot day, which is also good for healthy skin is pineapple, cucumber, and mint. it's like a fruity shower in your insides.

Of course nothing beats the real thing, the fruit or veggie in itself, which I have. But this is a great way to consume them as well, Tidying up though can be time consuming, but I'm looking at it as an awesome workout as well.