Bad Beet Grit

Help. I can't seem to clean my beets properly. The juice was delicious, but the grit was disgusting. I still managed to drink the whole pitcher - I just pretended I was camping. The flavor was wonderful, truly.

Beet Juice

2 Large Beets (greens, stems, roots, everything)

7 Carrots

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 Inch of Fresh Ginger

Any suggestions on how to clean the beets? I noticed that even the leaves are littered with dirt. The beets really add a wonderful flavor to the juice, and beets are known to increase the body's production of glutathione levels which help fight cancer, especially tumors, so I can't just omit the red buggers. Somehow, the body uses glutathione as a master detoxifier, and the body uses it in the cleansing of each and every cell in the body. Research shows that cancer patients are massively deficient in glutathione. There are supplements to help boost your body's levels, but the problem is that glutathione is synthasized in the body by combining three specific amino acids. Therefore, supplements don't really work. You need to use food as your supplements to truly be effective. I think that's why all of the medicine, and supplements, in the world don't seem to make you healthy if you have a poor diet. It's fine to eat bad food every once in a while, but we need to nourish our bodies daily so that we have the building blocks to fight cancers, disease, fatigue, etc. 

So.....although the beet juice was a success (minus the grit), last night's dinner drink was pretty rough. I followed a recipe called, "Immune Builder." I've been nervous about Dan since he's been doing night work. He leaves for work at about 10:15 pm, arriving home in the morning at 8:00 am. They're doing taxing work, ripping out old escalators at the airport. He loves his job, but I worry about the irregular hours, and his exhaustion. As we speak (...or as I write...), Danny is curled up in bed with the curtains drawn. He'll remain there until late afternoon or hopefully into early evening. I have my little MP3 player on, quietly blogging, and running laundry in the basement. Anyway, I digress, my point is that I thought I'd find a good juice to boost our immune systems. Obviously, I'm always in need of some extra help, and although Dan seems to conquer any bug that swims into his airstream, I figured it couldn't hurt. 

Immune Builder (you'd better like garlic - Larry, this one's for you!) - serves 2

8 Carrots

4 Garlic Cloves

4 Stalks of Celery 

1 English Cucumber

1 Granny Smith Apple

The immune builder is definitely a breath buster, but least we were stinky together. In the future, I think I'll keep the garlic in our foods, not in the beverages. It's too confusing. I wanted to chew it. If anyone has any specific juicing suggestions, I'd love to try them out!

Jess is Juicing Again

Uh oh. If you remember a year or so ago, my mom surprised me with a juicer. I continued to create the most nasty concoctions, liquid evil, that would make even the most open minded health food fanatic cringe and scold me. In this new phase, I've decided to follow recipes, and you know what, those little juice chefs really know what they're doing! My first juice was DELICIOUS. I am addicted to a place called Thrive in Seattle. It's a raw vegan establishment, serving my favorite juices, including spicy shots of various greens. I used to favor a different type of liquid lunch (and still do from time to time), but now I've become a complete juice head.

It's interesting, I've never liked juice. Boxed, canned, or bottled juices are all so gross, they're too sweet, and I feel like they're not even good for you - there's too much sugar and yuck, don't even think about the preservatives. I used to laugh, and tease my girlfriends in college, "I don't drink juice unless there's champagne in it." Now, I've created a juice so delicious that it tastes better than a mimosa! I swear. If you don't have a juicer, and you live near, I'll make it for you and I promise it'll open your eyes.

My hijacked recipe.....
Better Than A Mimosa (serves two)
10 Carrots
1 Granny Smith Apple
1 Inch of Ginger

I'm excited to play around with my other ingredients. Juicing is so much fun! Dan doesn't seem to be quite as excited. He's more of a meat and potato kind of fella. He's a great sport, always allowing me to shove all sorts of concoctions and recipes down his throat, never complaining, but I know he needs more substance. I'll let you know how things turn out with the other juices. I think I'm going to make a dinner drink too...poor Danny.

Also, on another note. I was thinking about it last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, I'm sorry if I'm annoying. Sometimes I wonder if I sound too cheesy. Or I wonder if it sounds like I'm bragging about how wonderful my life is. My only hope, if that's how I sound, is that you feel the same way about your life. I've gone through a real gamut (engagement, calling off a wedding, marriage, divorce, getting fat, losing weight, etc), and I probably sound completely nuts, but this is the best part of my life so far. Undeniably, I am incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful husband, kind family, overflowing network of fabulous friends, and those things along with my happy disposition (which has not always been the case) have catapulted me into a position where I believe I have the best life I could possibly imagine. Life is perfect, elephant in the room not included. Life is quite complicated, but the things that truly make me happy are very simple. It's been a great lesson for me to learn.