I have a new hobby for 2012: vegetable juicing. 

I’ve made so many juices already - always a variety of greens with vegetables or fruits added in for flavor. This is SO easy. I have to admit receiving a Vitamix blender for Christmas, so it has definitely made the difference in ease and accessibility for juicing at our house. I just put all the ingredients in and POW! i have a super-smooth veggie juice ready to go in about 1 minute and clean up takes even less time. It’s easier than cooking toast, practically. 

I decided to start veg juicing when I was thinking about what kind of cleanse I wanted to do this year. I’ve done a few in the past and didn’t want to do anything too harsh or cumbersome, and I wanted to have a lot of nutrients coming in so I didn’t feel starved for nutrition. I think now, in addition to doing a vegetable juice cleanse for 1-3 days, we will end up making green juices part of our weekly home routine - Adam loves it just as much as I do, thankfully! 

Above are a couple variations on vegetable juice that I have made, but the possibilities are really endless. 

-tomato, carrot, spinach, parsley, red bell, slice of onion, celery - a true “natural” V8!

-cucumber, spinach, strawberries, water

-kale, cucumber, parsley, coconut water

-spinach, frozen blueberries, coconut water

-cucumber, celery, ginger root - for a nice spicy kick.

All of these took me about 2 minutes to make, start to finish! Granted, the Vitamix is an impressive machine, so may take a bit longer in a regular juicer - but still faster than making eggs or pancakes! Vegetable juicing is a great way to get added servings of veggies in each day, the juices are easily digested, the nutrients easily absorbed, have far less sugar than fruit juice, and they pack a lot of vitamins and minerals into one small glass. So long fruit smoothie - hello green juice!