Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Fruits and Veggies - is it possible to eat too much?

For over a year now, everytime we went into Costco and walked down a particular isle, I would enthusiatically say "Look, the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer!". It's not that it's just fun to say, but it has always looked like a pretty cool product.

One weekend, there was nothing on TV and an infomercial for the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer came on. Of course, I watched the entire thing (I'm having Magic Bullet flashbacks, which is also a great product), and my desire to own this juicer immediately doubled. So I asked Scott if we could get one for my birthday, but with my birthday being more than 2 months away, I asked if we could get it early. And I promised that we would never have to buy apple juice or orange juice ever again. Thus, I am now the proud owner of a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Deluxe!

I really like this product. So far I have made:
1 - Carrot, Apple, Pear juice
2 - Carrot and Apple juice
3 - Pineapple, Grapefruit and Strawberry juice (definitely my favorite so far)
4 - Carrot and Cucumber juice
Naturally, I like the ones with fruit in them since they are sweeter. But I also figure that this is a good way to increase my fruit and especially veggie intake. And the juicer came with 2 recipe books, and rather than waste all the pulp that goes with juicing there were ideas of putting it into muffins, or making breads or cakes. What a great idea - what better way to make a carrot cake, right? So my next project will be to make bran muffins with the pulp.
BTW - The info on the box says that Jack is over 90 years old - wow, he looks amazing. If I look like that when I am 90, this is totally worth it.

I hate to sound like a sales pitch - but it also is pretty easy to clean, and it is quiet. The only thing I don't like about it is that the spout only fits our shorter glasses underneath. I would prefer to put a taller glass to catch the juice or use one of my little pitchers. So what we have been doing is holding the pitcher underneath the spout with one hand, and feeding the food and using the juicer with the other hand. And it's up on our 3 inch cutting board to add a little extra height.

Right now, I am drinking concoction #3 from above - and decided to eat the pulp straight out of a bowl. It's just grapefruits, pinapples and strawberries - and it's all mashed up and mixed together - pretty yummy. If you freeze it, I bet it would make a great sorbet like dessert. But then it makes me wonder - is it possible to overdose on fruits and veggies? This means that my breakfast conssisted of an entire pineapple, one grapefruit, and 7 strawberries. Hmmm - maybe no more juice for me today... good thing I didn't do this on the morning of my glucose test last week (still awaiting results)!

1 comment:

Kara Weinsaft said...

Some how I knew this blog entry would happen. I remember when you got the bullet. Even then you were talking about the juicer. Lol.