Juice! It's what's for dinner.

Well, now THAT is what I call a great Saturday. 

    After Randy went to the men's Bible study at church, we started things off right with a family breakfast in town.  Then we squeezed in a workout at the gym, and relaxed by driving around looking at houses for sale, always a favorite pastime. We got sandwiches for lunch and did a little bit of shopping and headed home.

   Speaking of shopping, I had thought for about 15 seconds that maybe this year would be the year I tried to see how far I could make it through the year without buying clothes, but that lasted like, 5 days so clearly I have a problem.

   I know of a brave soul that made it a whole year, I repeat, WHOLE YEAR without buying clothes, but I am just not at all confidant of my own abilities to refrain.  I'd rather do a whole year without pop, which I've done once and am thinking about doing again.  (some of you who never drink pop are rolling your eyes right now, but hey, take it easy on us mere mortals.)

   Jocelyn, clearly ecstatic that we allowed her to have her very own apple juice at the restaurant.  Poor thing usually gets water.

  
   Speaking of juice, we got a juicer for Christmas and have been juicing ever since.  I tell you, there are not many things more healthy-feeling than watching a big ol' bowl of kale, carrots, cucumbers, grapefruit, apple, and celery get liquified and poured down your throat.  All those fruits and vegetables at once!  Perfect for a lazy health-food eater like myself. 

   So, what are your thoughts?  Do you juice?  Have any great juice recipes to pass along to me?  I know it's very much of a fad right now, and so much so that the checkout lady at Fred Meyer knew we were juicing just because we were buying kale and beets.  But I am hoping it won't just be a passing trend with us, but will stick around as part of our regular, normal routines.  It makes me feel so good and healthy and like for once, I'm erring on the side of too many veggies and fruits, (if there is such a thing) instead of not nearly enough.

   For some I guess a big deterrent could be cost, and I suppose it can be a little pricey, but if you juice things more often like carrots, spinach and celery instead of always your more expensive produce, it really isn't too bad.  The most cost effective way would of course be to grow your own produce, and I have big plans for our garden this year.  Pretty sure this time last year I didn't even know what kale was!  Sad.  And did you know you can make kale chips?!  Where have those been all my life?! 

   Anyway, enough about all of that.  Oh wait I lied, one more thing.  If you do have a juicer, I'd love to know what one you have, and what you like/dislike about it.  We have this one:

   Which maybe isn't the best option out there if you're going to be doing tons of fruit, but it does really well at getting a lot out of leafy greens.   I tend to be a little impatient, and so I am much more tempted to get a power juicer, like the ones you can just throw a whole apple into, but Randy talked me into this one, as it gets more bang from your buck, so to speak, by squeezing more out of the produce, and making less waste.  O.k., so I've thoroughly bored you non-juicers to tears.  If you have advice/thoughts, I'd love to hear them!  I am so pleased with the feedback I got from last post about solid foods and toddler beds....encouragement, advice, and witty remarks that made me laugh....it was all I could have hoped for, really.  So keep those comments a-comin', folks!

Happy Saturday night.