Saturday, January 12, 2013

How I Learned to Love My Juicer

1. Line the pulp bucket with a (grocery) bag
         Problems: Every part of this machine gets coated in vegetable and fruit pulp, which will dry into vegetable and fruit cement if you don't thoroughly clean it immediately. Also, the pulp bucket is a pain in the butt to get clean. Also, I like composting... but I don't really like traipsing outside in the dead of winter after every single time I juice.

         Solution: I line the pulp bucket with a grocery bag. After juicing, the not-yet-full-of-pulp bag-and-bucket go in the fridge. For me, the bucket fills up after making maybe 5 or 6 drinks (so a few days' worth). So that works out to 1 trip to the composter instead of 6.

2. Clean the entire juicer before drinking the juice
          As I noted before, every single part of the machine gets covered in goo. Coming back to clean it later will just feel like punishment to your future self, and you'll stop using the juicer altogether.

         It doesn't take that much longer to go on and wash up--from start to finish, I can take out everything, make my juice, and have it all cleaned up in 20 minutes. And I swear my juice tastes better when there aren't dirty juicer parts in my sink.

3. Start with apples, trust the apples
        If you get super excited your very first time and jump straight into making a quart of celery-carrot-spinach juice, you will hate yourself. The idea of liquid vegetables is great; the reality is less glamorous.

        Let's be real: Americans are used to very sweet drinks. So ease yourself into it. Start with just making apple juice. Love how wholesome it tastes. Pat yourself on the back for your healthful choices. For subsequent drinks, think in terms of using apples as your base and adding in some vegetables. Your palate will get used to the different flavor profile, and soon you'll find yourself enjoying a sweet-potato-spinach-cranberry-carrot nightcap like the crunchiest hippie out there.

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