miscellany
first, and most important, somebody posted this video of a mariachi band serenading a beluga whale on fb and it made me really happy, so i'm sharing it here.
today, i did day two of the juice challenge.if any of you ever decides to take up juicing and you see a recipe for a juice including cabbage and you think to yourself, 'gee, i wonder if cabbage juice tastes as bad as it sounds,' the answer is yes, yes, a thousand times yes. possibly even worse than you think. my success with using spinach in smoothies had made me feel quite willing to try it. the juice was cabbage, romaine, ginger, and a green apple. and despite the ginger, it just tasted awful to me. the thing to know is that i actually used to juice quite a bit with my aunt, and often vegetable combinations with maybe a carrot or half a beet for sweetness. i've juiced lots of greens other than celery and cucumber - kale, chard, watercress, whatever. it would never have occurred to me to juice a cruciferous vegetable, but i was willing to give it a try. i'm not at all sure whether i will try either of the two recipes that use broccoli - i can eat cabbage raw, and that juice repulsed me, i can only imagine what broccoli would be like, since i can't actually swallow more than one or two bites of raw broccoli. i might try a teensy bit just to see, but i am not hopeful about it.
i'm not sure whether the juicing will become a thing that i do. there are a few reasons why i much prefer smoothies - the easier cleanup for one. plus, i don't like wasting all the fiber from the food, and you go through so much more produce with juicing, so it's more expensive. on the other hand, i guess the point is that the nutrients are easier to digest and go into the system more quickly, and one can consume more veggies than from eating them all. oh, i forgot to say a really important thing - when i'm making my smoothies, it's like a fun adventure. when i'm juicing, so far, it feels more like a chore. we'll see if that changes in the next couple of days.
one thing i am seriously thinking about if i do decide to keep juicing is to buy a really good juicer. there is this slow juicer that the juice challenge people recommend that can also make smoothies, nut milks, and fruit ice creams. and oh, yes, it is also self cleaning - has a little brush that removes the pulp from the screen as it works and you run water through it, so cleanup is much easier. this would be killing two birds with one stone, so i could juice and make smoothies and not have to buy a separate blender, a huge plus in my tiny kitchen. if anyone has any knowledge to share about this sort of thing, please feel free to jump in. or if i give up on juicing, there's always that vitamix i've been coveting ... for even more money, lol.
today, i did day two of the juice challenge.if any of you ever decides to take up juicing and you see a recipe for a juice including cabbage and you think to yourself, 'gee, i wonder if cabbage juice tastes as bad as it sounds,' the answer is yes, yes, a thousand times yes. possibly even worse than you think. my success with using spinach in smoothies had made me feel quite willing to try it. the juice was cabbage, romaine, ginger, and a green apple. and despite the ginger, it just tasted awful to me. the thing to know is that i actually used to juice quite a bit with my aunt, and often vegetable combinations with maybe a carrot or half a beet for sweetness. i've juiced lots of greens other than celery and cucumber - kale, chard, watercress, whatever. it would never have occurred to me to juice a cruciferous vegetable, but i was willing to give it a try. i'm not at all sure whether i will try either of the two recipes that use broccoli - i can eat cabbage raw, and that juice repulsed me, i can only imagine what broccoli would be like, since i can't actually swallow more than one or two bites of raw broccoli. i might try a teensy bit just to see, but i am not hopeful about it.
i'm not sure whether the juicing will become a thing that i do. there are a few reasons why i much prefer smoothies - the easier cleanup for one. plus, i don't like wasting all the fiber from the food, and you go through so much more produce with juicing, so it's more expensive. on the other hand, i guess the point is that the nutrients are easier to digest and go into the system more quickly, and one can consume more veggies than from eating them all. oh, i forgot to say a really important thing - when i'm making my smoothies, it's like a fun adventure. when i'm juicing, so far, it feels more like a chore. we'll see if that changes in the next couple of days.
one thing i am seriously thinking about if i do decide to keep juicing is to buy a really good juicer. there is this slow juicer that the juice challenge people recommend that can also make smoothies, nut milks, and fruit ice creams. and oh, yes, it is also self cleaning - has a little brush that removes the pulp from the screen as it works and you run water through it, so cleanup is much easier. this would be killing two birds with one stone, so i could juice and make smoothies and not have to buy a separate blender, a huge plus in my tiny kitchen. if anyone has any knowledge to share about this sort of thing, please feel free to jump in. or if i give up on juicing, there's always that vitamix i've been coveting ... for even more money, lol.