When my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, I made these delicious juices for her to keep her freezer well-stocked with healthy options. She could stomach these easily even when the chemo treatments had her at her worst.
I don’t recall exactly what was in these that are pictured. I know Mom’s favorite is raspberry and blackberry, so I’m certain the purple one contained lots of berries! Two of my favorite juices which are my ‘go-to’ blends that I always stock the fridge for are my Green Lemonade and my Mock Orange. I make a small MO for first thing in the morning, then I make a larger GL for mid-morning. On the days that I juice, I do not typically eat anything solid until 11-12pm, or as long as I am comfortable. Then I will have a large salad, bursting with a nice variety of ingredients like raw sunflower seeds, chia seeds, celery, red cabbage, carrot shreds, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli and anything else I can find! I always put hard boiled egg and avocado slices on top. My favorite dressing is Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette – I find it just never gets old!
Here’s some guidelines (because I never really measure and that’s probably why I can’t bake!) for my ‘go-to’ juices. Please note that while I own both an Omega 8006 and a Breville Juice Fountain, I tend to use the Breville most often – so these recipes may need to be adapted according to your juicer style:
GL (Green Lemonade) – 2 roughly 10/12 oz servings
- 3 medium to large green apples
- 1 english cucumber
- 6-8 leaves of kale, chard, collards – whatever I have on hand
- 1 inch hunk of ginger
- 1 lemon, peeled
This juice is light and tasty and is palatable even to my husband. The apples and lemon do a wonderful job of disguising all the greens and the cucumber mellows everything out.
Juicing Tip #1: If using a centrifugal juicer like my Breville, I like to combine chard and kale to create a more solid piece to juice. I do this my actually rolling a couple pieces of kale up in a leaf of swiss chard or collards. By doing this, my juicer seems to work better with greens.
Juicing Tip #2: I do not recommend the use of spinach in a centrifugal juicer. It’s all spin and no juice. But definitely try it if you’re using a masticating style juicer, like my Omega.
MO (Mock Orange) – Two 8-10 oz servings
- 6-8 large carrots, unpeeled unless you object
- 2-3 medium to large apples (any tart variety works well, I typically keep Granny Smith on hand.)
- 1 1/2 inch chunk of ginger, less or more to taste – I love the stuff!
This simple concoction is so yummy and it really wakes me up in the morning. Gets the insides flowing nicely, too! The taste really is similar to orange juice and the color is just fabulous! Sometimes I will throw a peeled orange in there, too, if I have one on hand.
Juicing Tip #3: I generally recommend juicing harder veggies first, however, with a simple recipe like this one above, I would do the carrots and then run a few chunks of apple through with the ginger placed in the middle of the apple chunks. This way, you are sure to actually get some ginger in your juice. While I love my centrifugal juicer for it’s speed and ease of use, smaller items can simply get spun around and not actually juiced. Hide them inside larger items when you can. Lastly, I run softer things through to ‘collect’ some of the juices trapped in the screen from the harder veggies/fruits.
Not Just Juice 