Wheatgrass Juicing Recipes

Wheatgrass has really come on strong to the juicer community and has been labelled as a “superfood” when it comes to juicing, but for good reason.  Wheatgrass juicing recipes have wonderful restorative properties.

First of all, why the craze over wheatgrass?  What about other types of grass?  Is it possible to save money by just going to the park and eating the grass like a cow, instead of juicing wheatgrass?  As silly as it sounds, it is a legitimate question…and the answer is no.  Humans are not capable of digesting grass directly.  Our stomachs don’t have the ability to digest the cellulose.  Cows have 4 stomachs that can fully digest grass for all its nutrients.

But why wheatgrass? Wheatgrass refers to a young grass, which livestock owners feed to their animals because it improves the animals’ health moreso than adult grass.  All grasses begin as a grain, and as you could guess, wheatgrass gets its name from the fact it grows from wheat grain.  It was Dr. Ann Wigmore that made wheatgrass juicing famous a few decades ago, as wheatgrass juicing showed to improve her patients with incurable ailments.

Wheatgrass juice has a very high chlorophyll content that is great for cleansing the blood.  It also rids the liver and intestines of toxins that build up in those areas, though be careful of drinking too much juice, which could release too many toxins.  Wheatgrass contains many other nutrients and is great for boosting your energy.

You can get wheatgrass juice by either buying wheatgrass and juicing it, growing your own wheatgrass, or getting it at any juice bar.  Besides wheatgrass juicing, you can also buy it in powdered form at health food stores to store it easier.  Whichever form you choose, it is important to slowly work wheatgrass into your juicing diet.  It is very potent and can cause a lot of discomfort for those not used to it.  Use 2 ounces of wheatgrass juice AT MOST until you are sure you can handle it.  How much grass is 2 ounces?  Its a little hard to explain – you’ll just have to keep adding grass to the juicer until you get the required amount.  It will take some practice.

To get the most out of wheatgrass, you should use an auger juicer or a dedicated wheatgrass juicer.  A centrifugal juicer will not be able to extract as much juice out.

August 11, 2009  Tags: , , , , , ,   Posted in: Juicing Recipes, Wheatgrass  4 Comments

Vegetable Juicing and Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping for vegetable juicing can be hard to manage at first.  It seems like you have a laundry list of raw produce you want to buy, in addition to your other list full of necessities to you get you through the week.  No need to panic – all we need is to do a little planning.

First, we need to assess how much vegetable juicing we want to do.  For now, I’ll assume you are the average person wanting to make one glass of juice most days of the week – let’s say 5 days.  Next, we need to choose which vegetable juicing recipes we want to make.  It is important that you MIX IT UP! You do not want to stick with the same juicing recipes and get accustomed to a specific diet.  Besides, it’s good to be open-minded, so try new juicing recipes.  At the very least, you can use two, but we’re planning for 5 days, so aim for 5 different juicing recipes.

Now let’s sort out and list what vegetables we need.  I find it easiest to start with one juicing recipe, list the ingredients, and tally them.  Go to the second vegetable juicing recipes.  Add any new ingredients to the list, while adding tally marks to shared produce.  Do this with all the recipes.  When done, add any fresh vegetables you normally buy for dinner, salads, etc, though you should be able to reduce the amount you normally buy since you will get most of it through vegetable juicing.

With our list in hand, grocery shopping is as easy as finding the produce in the store.  Some of the produce you can buy comes in bundles, so you must account for that.  Also, you can choose between fresh produce on display or pre-packaged.  The quality is usually the same, but there may be differences in price and whether it’s organic or not.  Nothing you can’t handle.  Check this list of foods to buy organic to get a good idea of what produce is likely to contain pesticides if not organic.

Do NOT treat vegetable juicing as an exact science. The produce from store to store will vary in size and quality.  A green pepper from my supermarket will not be the same as a green pepper from yours, and this will affect your vegetable juicing recipes.  You can only learn by doing, so it is essential that you experiment…

August 7, 2009  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Vegetable Juicing Basics  One Comment

Use the Pulp After Vegetable Juicing

You made your favorite juicing recipe, and as you’re cleaning up, you go to throw out the pulp.  But wait, that’s such a waste! Before throwing it out, consider some of these options.

The best thing you can do with the pulp after making your juicing recipes is to eat it.  This way, you don’t miss out on the fiber and nutrients left in the pulp, and any juice that couldn’t be extracted.  You might be thinking that if you are going to eat the pulp, you may as well not bother with juicing and eat the fruit whole.  But by juicing, you can also extract juice out of the rinds you normally wouldn’t eat, like the prickly pineapple rind.  With vegetables, it makes it easier to eat that if you had left it in its original raw state, such as broccoli.

Alternatively, if you have an auger juicer, you can homogenize your produce.  This separates the juice from the pulp, but leaves it all in one mixture, leaving a thick pulpy concoction.  For example, you can homogenize an apple to make apple sauce.  This is an easy way to eat raw foods that are too difficult to chew, or for someone unable to chew solid foods.  A great example is to make baby food for your tots at home.

If all you want is the juice for your vegetable juicing recipes, you can add it to your soil!  The pulp provides for a lot of organic material that is great for soil.  This is a wonderful option for people who keep their own little gardens.  This is especially great for raw food purists that love to grow their own produce!

It is also possible to use the pulp after vegetable juicing for cooking.  You can use it in soups, pasta sauces, and for baking recipes, such as carrot cake muffins.  You can also find other ways for pulp usage that use leftover pulp after vegetable juicing.

August 2, 2009  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Vegetable Juicing Basics  No Comments