The WHOLE Pursuit April 18

Today's WHOLE food experiment--juice!!

This picture isn't a completely accurate one as far as ingredients go, but I was almost done making the juice before I remembered to grab my camera. What I did include was: Spinach (about 2 cups), Frozen berries (thawed), mixed, about 1 1/2 cups, and 2 apples (same size as the picture).

The verdict? So so. I have heard such great things about "green" juice, and homemade juice in general. I was a little disappointed with this experiment. I think a big part of it was my juicer. I spoke with a co worker who has a juicer she said was basically a blender, so she adds lots of water and keeps all of the pulp of the food. Mine has a push tube into a strainer with all of the pulp going in one bowl, and all the juice into another. The frozen berries came with some of their own juice, and they 'juiced' the easiest. 2 cups of spinach only got me a dribble of green, and two apples didn't seem to add that much to the mix either. But my biggest hang up is what I found in the pulp bowl. There was so much un-juiced food, I felt like I was wasting it by dumping it out. Besides the stems of the spinach, there was a lot of berry and apple pulp that I felt could have been broken down more. And without trying to add the pulp in for a second round, I was left with not enough juice and too much garbage. The juice did taste fine, although I mainly tasted the berries. And it was a nice addition to my breakfast this morning.

Anyone that could add input on how to make this better and/or less wasteful, I'd really appreciate it! And I may try the experiment again, but if the results don't change, I think I'd rather stick to smoothies--not a whole food if you add yogurt or juice, but at least I won't waste anything.