In my post about Zak’s juice fast, a couple of you asked about some of his favorite juice recipes.  Let’s just say that there has been a lot of experimenting on his part lately.  He often makes what he calls “Kitchen Sink Juice”.  I’m sure this title needs no explanation (but here I go anyway.)   He basically piles together whatever he finds in the fridge and then proceeds to shove it into the juicer.  From where I stand there does appear to be some rhyme and reason to what he makes for himself – often adding greens, carrots and beets for the nutrients, plus some apple, pear, lemon, lime and/or ginger to help with the flavor.  But then there was that time that he juiced an onion.  And that day when he juiced 4 cloves of garlic.  We’ve put garlic in juice before – but not 4 cloves.  And not until we had that vampire problem.

Now call me crazy, but I like to make predictably good tasting juice.  Today I’ll be sharing a few of my newer favorite tried-and-true juice recipes.  No garlic.  No onions.  No Listerine gargling required.

I love green juice, but I’ve really been into red juice lately.  This is my new favorite that I’ve been coming back to morning after morning for a couple weeks now.

1 beet, 2 oranges (peel removed), 3 – 5 carrots and a inch or so of ginger root.

This particular bag of carrots had really skinny carrots, so I used more than five here. I’ve also adjusted the number of beets based on size, so keep in mind this is just a general guide.

So red.  So pretty.

So scary when you look in the toilet the next morning.  But then you remember that you drank beet juice yesterday and hang up on the receptionist at your doctor’s office.

The above combo makes a nice big glass of juice for one person, throw in a few more carrots and maybe another orange if you’re making juice for two.  It is seriously delicious.  Even if you think you don’t like beets, this juice will totally change your tune.  And the color of your pee.  (Sorry.  You must be warned.)

Different red juice, different day.  This is the same combo of vegetables plus 1/2 a red bell pepper.  It doesn’t seem like a big change, but red pepper has a very distinct, very enjoyable flavor, I can’t believe I’ve never juiced a pepper before!  We’ve also added jalapeno with good results – but only if you’re into spicy foods, and err on the side of caution.  Try half a jalapeno before throwing the whole dang thing in.

And definitely remember not to give any jalapeno juice to your juice loving baby.

Also remember to dry your hands off before moving your last little bit of juice to the fridge “for later”.

I didn’t cry, but it’s possible a couple of choice words escaped the beet shaped hole I call my mouth.

Even with my new found love of red juice, there’s still plenty of green juice to go around.  My latest twist on green is to replace my usual lemon and apple with lime and pear a la celery, ginger, lime and pear juice.  Lime is more subtle and less harsh than lemon while still making it very easy to drink the juice from green leafy vegetables.

This glass was kale, cucumber, celery, parsley, pear and lime.

Another noteworthy item:  Zak and I have each noticed (separately) that juice made with a lot of nutrient dense ingredients holds you over much longer than juice made with watery, less nutritious veggies.  (Again, I’m not on a juice fast, but I’ve been starting my mornings with juice and then eat my next meal whenever I feel hungry.)  Juice made with a lot of dark leafy greens, beets and carrots keeps hunger away longer than juice that is heavy with vegetables like cucumber, celery or leftover vegetable scraps like broccoli and kale stems.

This seems obvious to me now, but I never noticed or gave it much thought until we started juicing a wider variety of vegetables and varying the quantities as well.  I always expect to feel hungry about an hour after I drink fresh juice (on an empty stomach) but we’ve both come to notice that juices made with a lot of nutrient dense vegetables absolutely leaves you feeling fuller longer.

That’s it for today!  They’ll likely be more juice recipes to come, as well as an update early next week with the latest on Zak’s weight loss, more FAQ’s as well as more juice fasting thoughts and experiences.  Today is Day 27, 13 days to go.  Stay tuned!