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More Juice Experiments

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Fruit and vegetables chopped up for juicingThis morning’s juice was yet another variation and experiment.

I made a very tasty fresh juice from apples, cucumber, carrots and celery.

I won’t post a recipe this time, as the quantities this morning were a bit “off”, as I was running much lower on carrots and cucumber than I’d have liked.

An annoying reality – carrots do not keep. I bought 3 bags of them on Saturday and they’re all gone now. The ones that are left aren’t usable for anything – they’ve got that shrivelled up thing going on as well as the horrible softness and odd discolouration.

So again, this evening, I’ll have to go to a local supermarket to stock up on vegetables and fruit to feed the beast ie. the juicer.

I’m also going to break out my Jason Vale recipe books. Like other things they’ve been gathering dust since shortly after I got them!

At the moment I’m trying different fruit and vegetable combinations that use fruit and vegetables that I can get easily. From what I recall, however, a lot of the recipes from the likes of Jason Vale also include quite a few combinations and ingredients that aren’t that easy to get in a provincial Irish town.

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Fresh Juice: Carrot, Celery and Apple Juice

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Juicer with debris from juicingApple and carrot juice is very tasty, but a lot of people use celery as well.

So yesterday evening, on the way home from work, I grabbed some more apples as well as some celery in a local shop.

This morning’s juice had an extra “bite” from the celery, but was still incredibly tasty. I’m not sure if this is the “winner” in terms of taste and combination of ingredients, but it’s very nice.

Juicer with debris from juicing
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Fresh Juice: Carrot, Celery and Apple Juice

A refreshing juice
Course Juice
Cuisine International
Keyword juice, juicing
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 4 minutes
Servings 1
Calories 340 kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 apples
  • 4 carrots
  • 3 stalks of celery

Instructions

  1. Wash and clean the fruit and vegetables

  2. Core and slice the apples.
  3. Chop, cut or slice the fruit and vegetables into chunks that are small enough to fit into the juicer
  4. Juice the ingredients
  5. Enjoy a freshly made juice!

Recipe Notes

Adding a bit of fresh ginger can add a bit of kick

 

Apple and Carrot Juice

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This morning’s freshly made juice – made with my own “fair” hands – was a mixture of apple and carrot juice.

I didn’t have that many apples, but apples are much juicier than carrots, so it didn’t really matter.

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Apple and Carrot Juice

A very refreshing juice for breakfast
Course Breakfast, Juice
Cuisine International
Keyword apple, carrots, fruit, juice
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 1 minute
Total Time 3 minutes
Servings 1
Calories 150 kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 apples
  • 4 carrots

Instructions

  1. Core the apples and slice them up.
  2. Clean and slice the carrots
  3. Juice the fruit in a juicer
  4. Enjoy

Recipe Notes

For extra kick add a slice or two of fresh ginger

 

Carrot Juice At Breakfast

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English: Glass of juice and carrots Français :...

English: Glass of juice and carrots Français : Verre de jus et carottes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I bought a juicer machine about a year ago. A friend had been singing the praises of “juicing” and how it was beneficial for health and weight loss.

Of course, like so many things, I liked the concept more than the reality and the machine has been sitting in a corner in its original box for the last year.

A couple of days ago, however, I was having breakfast in a Dublin hotel. One of the options on offer was freshly made carrot juice. They had a juicer and piles of chopped carrots sitting beside it with basic instructions on how to make your own.

That got me thinking. I like carrots – I like grating some carrot into sauces to add flavour and carrot juice is delicious. Why couldn’t I make my own?

So this weekend instead of buying one bag of carrots from the local supermarket I bought three.

I unboxed the machine this morning, rinsed the bits that needed a cleaning before use and set about making my own fresh carrot juice.

It wasn’t hard – it was actually incredibly easy!

4 or 5 carrots yielded a good sized glass or so of fresh carrot juice and it was absolutely delicious!

So what are the benefits of fresh carrot juice?

According to Wikipedia:

Carrot juice has a particularly high content of β-carotene, a source of vitamin A, but it is also high in B complex vitamins like folate, and many minerals including calcium, copper, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. A pound (454 g) of carrots will yield about a cup of juice, which is a low yield compared to fruits like apples and oranges. However, carrot pulp is very tough; the main difficulty in juicing carrots is in separating the pulp from the juice.

So it’s absolutely packed with nutrients!

Whether I’ll have “plain” carrot juice or start experimenting with combinations remains to be seen, but I love fresh juices, so my juicer might start getting some use from now on .. at least that’s the plan!

Fitbit Ultra Is Go

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Fitbit ultraSince I got a wifi scale (the Withings) I’ve been weighing myself almost every morning. The scales sends the data to the online service and then I’m able to access it on my iPhone or via the web interface.

But what about burning calories?

Or sleep?

Sure, you can track walks and other specific exercises / activities using a number of apps. But you have to explicitly decide that you are now “doing” exercise.

As for sleep .. the more I read about healthy lifestyles the more I realise that “sleep” is an important part of it.

Of course anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t sleep a lot. I tend to stay up quite late and get very little sleep. Last night for example I got about 5.5 hours. That’s probably not enough, but what might be more important than the number of hours I’m sleeping is the actual “quality” of sleep

So the Fitbit Ultra seemed like an attractive idea. Several of my friends have got them over the last year and they all love them. I wasn’t sure if it was really for me, but the price dropped a bit and so I decided I’d give it a go.

I only got it yesterday so at this stage I don’t have much data to go by, but so far I’m impressed with the device’s functionality.

It’s small. You can clip it onto your belt, shirt or some other part of your body or garments.

It’s light. You won’t notice it’s there – my one worry being that I’ll drop the damn thing and not realise it.

It can work with the Withings, so the two devices can share data about my overall “progress” or complete lack of it.

Once I’ve got a bit more data I’ll have a better idea as to how well it works. Maybe I’ll love it, maybe I’ll find it completely pointless, but I need to give it a go.

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A Trip To Toronto’s Impact On Diet and Weight

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I was over in Toronto for a business trip just over a week ago.

When I came back I was dreading weighing myself, as I was quite worried that I’d have balooned in the space of a week or so.

The reality, however, wasn’t as bad. Sure, it wasn’t good either, but I had been expecting worse.

Foodwise Toronto, and Canada in general, seems to be a bit better than the US. You can still get heart attack on a plate, but you can also avoid it.

The hotel I was staying in did offer a buffet breakfast, but it was too expensive to have every morning ($31 / person!). Most days I ended up grabbing something from the Starbucks in the lobby, which wasn’t “amazing”, but sure beat paying $31! (Though it was also stupidly overpriced)

Lunch varied quite a bit, while dinner was usually pretty good overall.

The other “danger” area was alcohol. Beer and other alcohol are a surefire way to put on weight fast. Unfortunately, unless you opt out of alcohol entirely, it’s very hard to avoid them when a lot of what you do on trips is “networking”.

So after just over 1 week in Canada I’d put on a couple of kg. And by couple I really mean 2 or 3 – not 5 or more.

Losing the extra weight is never easy. (More on that later .. )

Herbs and Spices With Healing Properties?

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I came across this image on Facebook

It shows a number of different herbs and spices with their supposed healing properties.

I’m not sure how helpful they are, but I do believe that eating more natural foods and using more natural herbs and spices is probably good for you..

Cloves, for example, are a natural painkiller. You might have been given “oil of cloves” by your dentist at some point..

Garlic – I’ve no idea about what it does with cholesterol, but it’s meant to be good for you for a number of reasons.