Blog / green juice recipes

This is the start of day 7 of our 10 day juice fast. WOW! There was a time on day 3 when I thought I would just scrap the whole thing right then and there. Yesterday I wrote on FB, the recipes that we had throughout the day but I didn't get to writing anything on the blog so I figured I'd do that today. Day 6 almost felt like 2 days rolled into one. There were some points when I felt like it was day 6 but then maybe it was day 7 now. What day is it? I think everything is starting to roll together into one big day. I think I felt like I could just do this fast forever and it doesn't matter about counting it out anymore. I'm feeling really good in my body. 10 pounds are gone, wow! Loads of inflammation is gone. I hope to see neither of them again! I'm running up the stairs again. WOW! It's been a long long time since I've done that. We are going through so much produce. I've ordered more for this coming week. We've talked about continuing on with the addition of smoothies for the next 10 days. So it would be green juice, smoothie and then green juice. We'll see how it goes. We also want to start a bigger exercise program so for me that will mean a little bit of weights along with the walking and biking and yoga that I do. I'm inspired not only by that movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead but also by this amazing body builder, Ernestine Shepherd who started her body building at age 56. When I saw her website and story, I thought, "if she can do it, I can do it." And after I watched Joe and Phil in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, I thought, "if they can do it, I can do it too." These people are amazingly focused and unwavering in their intentions and actions. This is key, I think. Working at the cafe yesterday was good. It wasn't super busy and I got a lot of things done. I slowed my brain down while I was there. I get into multi-tasking mode so easily there. It's really the nature of how things go: I've got a list of things I want to do, our employees have their own list, many of which need questions answered by me or whatever, customers come in, phone calls come in. I'm getting pulled into many directions. Even when things are slower, I still get myself into that habit of being pulled into many directions so yesterday, I had the opportunity and I took it to slow things down. I didn't try to make myself super efficient and get as much done as possible. I did one thing at a time until it was done. I slowed down my breathing and my pace. It was very enjoyable. Matt brought over a juice and that tied me over for about 3 or so hours. Somewhere around 3:30, I was hungry so I had some young coconut water and added a bit of coconut kefir water in it. It hit the spot incredibly well. The evenings still are the hardest part for me on the juice fast. I'm used to having liquids for breakfast and lunch. I'm used to not snacking (although I really did get back into the bad habit of snacking at the cafe.) But the evenings are when it's time to make dinner for the kids that the sights and smells are just there. Last night was no exception. It wasn't torturous or anything, but I was definitely looking at their meal with a little bit of longing in my eyes. :-) It's best, I'm finding, to keep active when the mind starts longing for something. We went to see the Harry Potter movie in the theater again last night. I'm also finding that I'm writing more, I'm reading more, I'm staying off my email more. I'm even cleaning and organizing more. I have this thing that I want to be a really highly-functioning being and I want my house to be highly-functioning too. So old rickety tables and chairs, if they aren't going to get fixed, are out and are replaced with newer models that I found off of craigslist. (Still into reusing/recycling, mind you!) :-) Things we've held onto that we don't use or have come to the conclusion that we aren't going to fix them, just have to go. My mind is also feeling clearer which is great. It's still just a part of the journey and I've got a long journey ahead of me. The other thing I'm noticing is that when the dinner is out and I've got that longing, I really employ my intention a lot. Same for when my stomach is starting to growl and I'm at work and it would be too easy just to grab some cheezy cauliflower and pop them in my mouth as I'm helping a customer. I'm glad I wrote out that intention because it's how I get myself back in focus of the bigger picture. That is the key to help shatter any self-talk that might try to convince me to just stop this silliness of doing only juice for 10 days. When I've got my intention back into focus, I can speak to that gremlin in my head and say, "Be quiet now. This is only 10 days. A person can do anything for 10 days and I choose to do this. I feel good and I'm going to continue." We all definitely have monkey-brain sometimes. So that's the recap now here's the recipes from yesterday... We drank a lot more juices yesterday:

the morning juice by Matt: bunch of kale, 2 stalks celery, 2 beets with greens, 3 small carrots, quart of strawberries, 3 oranges. we have a good 30 ounces of juice here. let's see how it tastes! YUM!

lunch juice - another big one! 2 stalks celery, 1 bunch kale, 3 small carrots from Pat, quart of strawberries, 3 peaches, 1 apple. YUM YUM - 30 ounces of yumminess!

afternoon/early evening juice: 1 bunch local collards, 1/2 bag pea shoots, 1/2 head local red leaf lettuce, 1 orange, 1 pear, a bit of watermelon (because I've never juiced it before) and 3 peaches. YUM. Today is lots of juices day as this was also 2 30 ounce juices

late evening juice: 1 bunch kale, 3 pears. made 2 16 ounce juices. yum yum yum thank you for reading! If you are on your juice fast, keep up the great work! thank you for supporting me and I hope we can support each other.

Wow! We're halfway done! Amazing.

Day 5 morning juice: 1 bunch kale from garden, 2 stalks celery, 5 or so peaches, 1 grapefruit. Made 2 16 ish ounce juices. grapefruit dominated the flavor. It was yummy though.

Lunch juice: Hmm... let's see if I can remember. Oh yes, I took a 5 mile walk with Karen. Came back to nearly chug down a quart of water. Was soo sweaty on the walk. It felt good. So I took the rest of the kale from the garden, the rest of the local lettuce, kiwi and celery and 2 apples. It was a delicious lunch. I went to look at my garden and we have wiped it nearly clean. Amazing as just a few days ago, I thought we had so much stuff in the garden! I went to the cafe and to be honest, I wanted to immediately go home and play hookie again, like I did yesterday. (Did you notice I didn't write a day 4 post yesterday?) It was a gorgeous day outside and I was happy to be home and only take care of myself and the kiddos. I had fun at the cafe though. I cut up the garlic for the 3 batches of kim chee I made yesterday. I also peeled, sliced up and sweated eggplant to prepare it for making more bacon. I stayed until about 5:30 at the cafe. I drank another quart of water with a little bit of homemade coconut kefir water in it. My taste buds are changing because I really liked the way this tasted. Normally I want to put some stevia in it to sweeten but this was very satisfying. The probiotic drink was thirst quenching and on a juice fast, everything feels as if it is instant nutrition going right to your blood and brain and body. I made an early evening juice of a small bunch of kale, 3-4 carrots, 2 apples and 2 stalks celery. It was good and it made about 12-14 ounces of juice. My energy level today has been good. Matt felt pretty low energy around 6 pm. Our friend Pat offered up some lettuce from her garden today. I didn't think I was going to need anymore produce but we've been POWERING through it. It's unbelievable the amount of fruit and veggies we're having. It's good though because Matt was concerned about getting enough nutrients and I can say that we've never gotten this many nutrients each day! We drove to Pat's house and she filled up a HUGE bucket for us with some beets bunches (including greens), some carrots, some lettuce, and some apples from her immense garden. She said she was happy to have us take some because she was feeling overwhelmed by the quantity. I went home and used about 1/2 the stuff for our evening juice. So funny! Normally we'd look at that big bucket and think, "OMG! That'll last the whole week!" But the rest will be gone tomorrow morning. No joke! So dinner's juice was a big one, about 30-ish ounces each. I know it's best to have more frequent smaller juices but I was just juicing and it got the better of me. :-) Dinner juice: a WHOLE LOT of lettuce from Pat's garden, maybe about 3 cute and twisty carrots from Pat's garden, 3 apples from her tree, a coupla beet greens, pea shoots (1/2 a small bag), 1/2 orange because it was starting to go bad and lots of fresh strawberries. It was a delicious juice. I notice that I start to jug the juice and have to just slow it down. It tastes so yummy and I've been hungry (which is nice) so I'm just drinking and drinking and then I have to consciously SLOW it DOWN. We sat outside on this gorgeous night and drank our juices. Tonight I think we're going to do a foot soak. That will feel very nice. Tonight I can honestly say that I had some cravings for solid food. Not anything specifically. I didn't want to talk about any solid food tonight and I was very happy that the kids again heated up their own dinner. Sam made a huge green smoothie for himself and his sister and I was also happy about that too! The smell of their dinner was enticing. It was about changing my focus. Whenever some solid food thought came up, I put my mind on something else. It went away pretty quickly but I wanted to write it down because it was something that was there. I've been thinking on and on about when I did a 40 day medically supervised fast when I was 19. I think I'm going to write about it because it keeps popping up in my head. Thanks for reading. The best part of this juice fast has been all the support and people joining in. It helps us all and I feel very supported. I want everyone to keep up the great work, keep inspiring me and I'll do my best to keep anyone inspired who is joining us.

Well work was crazy busy today and before I knew it, it was 5:30. I was feeling super hungry and actually it felt pretty bad. I finally had a juice around 5:30 and drinking it took a while for me to feel better. But by 6, I was feeling good again. I have to remember to STOP around 4 and have a juice while doing this fast. It's definitely MUCH easier to do this when you have an office job or better yet, not working at all. Just had a great big huge juice. It was about 30 ish ounces tonight. We were both pretty darn hungry! I made dinner for the kids and that doesn't bother me. Being at the cafe and making food for people doesn't bother me. But people talking about the food they are going to eat when they are off their fast - well that makes me hungry. For some reason, talking about food is worse than serving it. Anyway, here's the after dinner juice - or was it the dinner juice?

• 1/2lb of lb local mesclun mix from our CSA,
• 1 bunch of local chard from our CSA,
• a bunch of local radish greens from our CSA,
• 1 lbs of cherries,
• 3 oranges

I actually liked this juice a lot. The first sips tasted sour or bitter but then I really really really liked it. Mostly because it wasn't super sweet. I'm absolutely LOVING all the fruit varieties we are having but I'm not used to this much fruit. This made almost a full Vitamix pitcher full and it was great to drink. I'm going to hang out with my kiddos. xoxo

I like to ease into the day. Today Matt was eager to get things done so that somehow jump started me into things done. I'm now trying to press rewind and start again but kids are up and wanting to get their days worked out: mowing lawns, play dates, what's for breakfast, etc. So I feel a little grumpy to not have had my morning. They are going to be out of the house here soon so I'm going to ride the bike and sit in quiet (fingers are crossed.) This morning's juice:

• 1/2 lb local mesclun mix
• 2 stalks celery
• 3 oranges
• 2 peaches
• 1 mango

This served 2 16 oz glasses of yumminess. The flavors all mixed well.

first day at work for the week and I was once again short staffed so it's not the easiest to do. Mainly because I have lots of things I want to do but have to totally let them go as they just don't get done. I wanted to make kim chee and some pesto with the produce I have but had to put it on the back burner to help customers and pack up orders, etc. Thankfully our sewing maven Catherine helped me here and there. Matt helped too when he could. I had 15 minutes left to get a whole bunch of stuff done and my daughter dropped and splattered a green smoothie everywhere. I mention this only because in that 15 minutes I was desperate to make my juice before we had to leave (we had an appt in Burlington which is about an hour away) and the green smoothie she had splattered all over the floor and walls and counter where my juicer was. (I also wanted to get the compost out, wash all the dishes, put all the things away for the night that didn't get done, etc. A lot to try to accomplish in 15 minutes but I was motivated to do it before the smoothie bomb.) So needless-to-say, I had to take some deep breaths and change direction. I was still desperate for my juice because I was very hungry but I didn't want to be snapping. Instead I felt like crying. Day two and I'm definitely having moments of emotions getting to me. I'll back up a little bit to the start of the day. I exercised and did about 5.6 miles or so on the stationary bike. I made an incredible juice. it was THE BEST JUICE to drink and I'm now quite grateful for that Hurom slow juicer I got a few months ago. It does pulpy fruit very nicely and I'm not complaining that it makes those kind of juices like a thick nectar. This is what I did (if I remember correctly) Afternoon Lunch juice - best ever (this made 2 16ish ounces of loveliness)

• 1 big bunch of local curly kale (from the garden)

• 1 red bell pepper (because I had it)

• 2 stalks of celery (because I had it)

• 4-6 peaches

• 2 oranges

It was amazingly incredible. The best juice all day by far. OK, so drank that gorgeous peach nectar and went to work. There was no easing into the day (there hardly ever is) so I just went right into it. Helping customers, packing orders, answering phones, making food. Somewhere around 4 pm I started to get hungry again but still had customers I had to help. 5:45 rolled around and I thought it would be a good time to make a juice. That's when the smoothie went KABOOM and that's when I felt like crying. I didn't cry though. We cleaned up. I made my juice. Someone came in at 5:55 and then I wanted to cry again but thankfully she was self-sufficient and it was quick to be able to close the doors and get to my juice and get out the door to the appointment. Dinner juice

• 1 big huge bunch of kale from the garden
• 4 granny smith apples
• 2 stalks celery
• 4-5 carrots
• 1 small cuke

this was a yummy juice that hit the spot. We went to our appt in Burlington and had to make a pit stop to PEE! OMG, the peeing has been amazing so far! We got home and we were both feeling hungry AGAIN so it was time for another juice. We're definitely used to eating the heaviest meals at night and this is something to change if we can. Evening juice - interesting flavors

• 1 lb local baby lettuce mix
• 1 small bunch local mint
• 2 granny smith apples
• 3 ripe mangos
• 1 small cuke
• 1 red bell pepper (because it was the last one)

the mint dominated the flavor. Next was the mango. If I were to make this again, I'd keep the cuke out as that was the third flavor and I didn't necessarily like it. But I've got to say that juicing feels like instant nutrition. Hit the spot. So this gets me to the end of the night of Day two. So far, so good.

Matt made a delicious juice this morning: 1 bunch of curly kale from our garden 4 oranges 1 local beet 4 small local carrots

I'm looking forward to getting my produce delivery today. I'm getting kiwi and black cherries and pears and a whole bunch of fruits. It will be yummy to have them. When I was in the shower yesterday, I thought about CHERRIES and decided to order a whole bunch of fruit I don't eat a lot of. It's been nice to juice oranges and peaches. I'm glad my juicer will do the pulpier fruits. These things keep me looking forward to juicing and it also helps me to drink all my colors. OK, I'm about to do a bit of exercising. And then off to the cafe. oh p.s. I'm 4 lbs lighter today. YAY!

dinner juice was:

• 1 bunch local kale

• 4 green apples

• 1/2 big cuke

this served 2 16ish ounce glasses. DELICIOUS! a couple hours later we were hungry again so made the same thing (plus 1 red bell pepper) except used sour apples the second time. I only drank 1/2 of mine because it was too sour for me. Matt was happy to have more. The tip to remember is to do other things to keep yourself occupied instead of thinking about food. The kids had a large green smoothie because I didn't even want to make a salad (and be tempted by it) and they had some leftovers. (I made a boatload of food last night for them to eat.) The smell of their meals was making me hungry. So that's when the 2nd juice was made. I did the bills and did some laundry and read a lot of magazines on my day off today. Plus sat in the sunshine for a while. It was a nice day off!

this morning's juice: serves 2 16 oz juices.

1 head escarole 2 stalks celery 1 tiny peach 4 oranges 1 grapefruit

It was a tasty juice and the dominant flavor was grapefruit. I thought after making the juice that I might not have enough stuff to last the whole day (what if we are super hungry!!?) but the thought subsided after I visited my garden and the cafe. I pulled out various fruits and veggies and came back home with them. All is again well in the world.

I went to the doctor this morning after the juice so it was a sort of rushed morning for me. It's so weird for me to go to the doctor. I'm not used to the various questions and insurance questions. They are also not used to me saying that I take superfoods instead of vitamins, etc. So it makes for an interesting experience all the way around. When I got home with all my fruits/veggies for the next day and a half or more, the thought popped in of how nice it would be to have the whole week off to do this. Part of the challenge will be to incorporate juicing in the middle of the day. Not so much of a challenge when you have a raw food cafe with a juicer, but already today when I stopped by the cafe to pick up fruit, my first inclination was to grab some nuts because my stomach was growling. the juice I made for lunch was a lot bigger. Here's what I did: 1 small bunch local collards 1 bunch local kale (lacinato) 5 small oranges 1 red bell pepper 1 big piece of ginger This made 2 mason jars full of a very spicy green juice. Ginger dominated the flavor here. It is yummy. (I'm still drinking it as of this writing.) I'm using the Hurom slow juicer. It's got some pluses and minuses. I have a Breville at the cafe and I like that a lot. It's super easy to use and clean up is good. With the Hurom, you have to cut things up small so it takes longer to juice. The good news, though, is that you can juice pulpy things like oranges and strawberries, etc. So I'm not complaining at all!

I'm writing this quickly as I have an appt here soon. But I wanted to write a lil pep talk for me as much as anyone else that may read this. We were inspired to do a 10 day juice fast after watching the excellent and most inspiring movie called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. They certainly made doing a 60 day juice fast look very easy. We are only doing 10 days and I've done fasts before with varying degrees of ease or difficulty. The thing that I have to say that was of most importance when doing a fast is the intention behind it. That way you can keep your eyes on the prize, so to speak, particularly if/when the going gets rough. So I've got my intention. I'll write about it later. I'm going to begin here with a juice and I just want to say that I love love love my morning green smoothie so switching to a green juice is just different for me. I did it a bit last week and it wasn't bad at all. Some notes:

• drink 4-6 juices a day that are around 16 oz each.
• MAKE SURE to drink all your colors.
• Vary greens and get in all the colors each day for fruit and veggies.
• Something I heard a long time ago stuck with me: fruits are the cleansers and greens are the healers so eat them both often and vary them for good health.
• If at any time there is a desire for crunching, then eat a juicy crunchy apple but mostly that won't happen on such a short term fast.

OK, now let's begin! xoxo, me