Two Ingredient Juice Recipe

Sometimes I feel dead-beat tired or just plain lazy after work, which I'm sure everyone feels every now and then.  On these days, I follow a quick juice recipe so I can maximize my relaxation time.  This recipe requires just two ingredients: watermelon and kale and it's enough for four 16 oz. servings.  It's a great fruit to juice since it's mostly made of water and there's not a lot of preparation involved.  The juice taste isn't as sweet as the other juice recipes I've posted so it's perfect if you're also looking for a juice mix that's somewhat mild.  I call this the two-ingredient juice recipe because you can substitute the watermelon for other fruits that are mostly made up of water: honeydew, cantaloupe, and even pineapple.  I've tried all of these fruits with kale and the juice always tastes like the fruit I used in the recipe.

Quick and Easy Juice Recipe

I was feeling a little lazy tonight and wanted to make juice as quick as possible so that I could catch Episode 4 of  Downton Abbey (my latest TV obsession).  This juice recipe calls for just 3 ingredients - kale, pineapple, and coconut water.  Since coconut water can be bought at any supermarket, and kale can be juiced immediately after a good wash, this juice was really easy to prep with my just having to peel the pineapple.  I play around with this kind of recipe a lot and I found that you can easily replace the pineapple and coconut water with honeydew or cantaloupes.

The Power of Juicing

I received fantastic news today.  My friend and her partner have been juicing fruits and vegetables for a couple weeks now and at a recent doctor's visit, her partner's doctor had to do a double-take at her results because he was amazed at how great her blood work was!  Prior to juicing, she did not have good health statistics but I'm ecstatic to hear they're improving.  Their daily juicing regiment consists of drinking juice just once a day and look at the results!  Stories like these inspire me to continue leading a juicing lifestyle.

Before I try or buy anything, I always like to ask my friends if they've tried it too and what their opinions were of it.  I normally read online reviews as well, but I become more convinced to say pass or OK on something if  my friends or family provide me their input.  I hope by sharing my experiences and results, juicing becomes more real and more doable to you.

Once I started juicing, I noticed that my energy levels sky-rocketed and no longer needed caffeine to get me through the day.  In fact, I gave up coffee and tea and donated my Infusion stamp card to my friend.  When I come home from work, I have enough energy to work out, tidy up my place, and do other things I normally won't do unless I take a power nap.  Waking up in the morning no longer involves the "10 more minutes please" conversation I have with my alarm.

My friends have commented on the improvement of my skin.  When I broke out before, I used to blame stress as the source of my blemishes.  Although pimples can be attributed to many factors, I now realize that not getting a daily serving of fruits and vegetables was one of the reasons I was breaking out.  In a more alarming situation, the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead follows a man who had a rare skin disorder that made his skin react at the slightest touch as if a thousand mosquitoes attacked him.  After incorporating juices into his diet, he no longer has to take medications for this disease.

Lastly, juicing has made me lose weight.  To be quite honest, I was not looking into losing any more weight than I already have, but it's a known result of juicing.  Even though I replaced my breakfast and most dinners with juices, my body does not feel malnourished or lacking.  I become hungry every 3-4 hours which I feel are the normal hunger cycles a body should experience.  And yes, I do eat snacks as long as they are not fried and contain no meat.  

Drinking juices from fruits and vegetables does not have to be an episode of Fear Factor. (In fact, I always see Fear Factor contestants being forced to eat animal parts and not plant parts.)  Juices can taste pretty good if you find the right balance of fruits and vegetables.  Here are two very easy and very tasty juice recipes from Reboot Your Life I like to follow:

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice (picture shown above)

Serves 2 (each serving is 16 oz)

6 carrots

4 apples

2" ginger

Apple Honeydew Kale Swiss Chard

Serves 2 (each serving is 16 oz)

4 apples

1 honeydew

1 bunch swiss chard

1 bunch kale     

Soup on a Rainy Day

I'm one of those people who always prefer sunny or windy days over rainy ones.  However, yesterday was an exception because earlier in the week, I had decided to make roasted tomato soup paired with grilled cheese sandwiches for the weekend and soup is always great to eat on a rainy day.  My juice was a Blueberry Kiwi juice which was a pretty refreshing way to finish off my meal.   

I took the recipe for the tomato soup from Smitten Kitchen, but added extra tomatoes and garlic.  I found all the ingredients at the Micronesia Mall Pay-less Supermarket, but I'm sure you can get the ingredients at other grocery stores.  It was my first time making tomato soup and I was happy to discover it was really easy to make.  I also love how it's vegan.  

I tried to make the grilled cheese sandwiches vegan, but I cannot find vegan wheat bread on Guam.  If I do, I will definitely post it.  I did what I could with the sandwiches though and used vegan butter and cheese.  I have extremely high expectations for vegan cheese, and am very pleased with Daiya cheddar style shreds.  It met both my texture and taste standards.  I also tried, for the first time, Earth Balance Original Buttery Spread and it sure fooled the dairy lover in me.  I am so excited to bake using this butter!  I found both at the Micronesia Mall Pay-less Supermarket.         

This was the second time I made the Blueberry Kiwi juice, which is a spin-off of the Blackberry Kiwi juice found on the Reboot Your Life website.  This is one of those rare juices that just has fruits in it, and I savor every drop.  If pretty in pink pineapples existed, it would taste just like this juice.