Juicer Recipes Guide

So you just got a new juicer and are looking for some good recipes to try? Well, I don't blame you at all. Juicing fresh fruits and vegetables is one of the best additions to my diet that I have made in a long time. Not only is it incredibly healthy for you, but the taste of fresh juice is just beyond compare when all you've ever had is the store-bought stuff.

My wife and I got a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer a while back and have been very pleased with it. We had another juicer for a few months, before we got the power juicer, and it broke after less than a month. We've had no trouble with the new juicer and it's been faithfully churning out delicious fresh juice for us for quite some time now.

I'll talk more about the health benefits of fresh juice later, but for now let's check out some juicing recipes.

The easiest juice recipe I've ever come across is not only a great way to start your day, but is so easy you don't even really need to fire up your juicer for it. Just take one lemon, cut it in half, pour yourself a tall glass of cold water, and squeeze the juice from one half of the lemon into your glass.

Voila! You have a great tasting glass of fresh juice. This drink is an excellent way to start your day and will help replenish some of the fluids you lose during the night.

When you're ready to try out some new juicer recipes, I suggest starting simple. The fewer ingredients that you put into a juice, the better you'll be able to identify each fruit or vegetable and learn what it tastes like. In fact, to start out, I recommend starting by juicing single items by themselves, and just drinking that juice. Learning what the fresh juice from each fruit or vegetable tastes like will help you make better tasting juice down the road.

Some of my favorite fruits and vegetables to juice by themselves are apples, oranges, carrots, celery, greens, and sweet potatoes. If you've never had fresh orange or apple juice, you'll be absolutely amazed at how incredibly delicious it is. The store-bought stuff has nothing on this.

Carrots have a great flavor and taste surprisingly sweet when you drink the juice, and sweet potato juice tastes like candy. Also, it pays to be a little cautious when you juice celery and greens. Celery is remarkably spicy as a juice and greens can be a little bit bitter. Both are quite yummy, but they may be an acquired taste. (And by greens, I mean just about any fresh greens - kale, collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, etc. Try a few to find your favorites.)

Once you've got a solid idea of what each juice tastes like individually, you can begin mixing juices together. When you start this, I recommend starting with mostly fruit juices, as they are naturally sweeter and will be more palatable to beginners. Once you've been juicing for a while, your tastes will most likely begin to change and you'll start to prefer more the savory juices from vegetables, but there's no need to rush things at the beginning.

Some of our favorite two- or three-ingredient juice mixes are apple-orange, apple-carrot, orange-greens, pineapple-carrot and apple-carrot-greens.The amount of each ingredient you'll need will depend on how much juice you're trying to make. Start out by using the following portions: one apple or orange, 2 medium carrots, a few slices of pineapple and a small handful of greens. Then once you have a better idea of how much juice will come from those portions, you can adjust accordingly to your tastes.

Some other good ingredients to juice are alfalfa sprouts, beets, melons of all types, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce. Here are some tasty combinations: canteloupe-tomato-apple, alfalfa-greens-orange, pinapple-carrot-orange, beet-apple-watermelon, tomato-alfalfa-carrot, and pineapple-watermelon-orange.

When you make your juice, be sure to drink it right away if at all possible. The enzymes and proteins in the juice that make it so incredibly good for your body will begin to break down as soon as they are exposed to oxygen. Drinking the juice right away - and only juicing what you are going to be able to drink right then - is the healthiest way to go about it.

But since we all lead busy lives, there's often not enough time to break out the juicer each time we want some fresh juice. In these situations, the best method of storing your juice is in an airtight Mason jar. Fill the jar up as high as you can with juice to minimize the amount of air left in the jar. I don't recommend metal or plastic bottles as they can affect the taste of the juice or leak harmful chemicals into the juice.

For more information on other health and diet topics, check out the links to my other Hubs below.

• Living with a gluten allergy