To boost my immunity during this week of little sleep and lots of fun / travel, I am adding lots of veggies into my diet. Last night I tried something I’ve been wanting to do for a while - I juiced a beet.
I grew up in a family that ate beet borscht, but despite the fun, hot pink color (and despite my more recent love for the book Jitterbug Perfume) the soup never appealed to me. My mom served it warm with some big bone in it on some occasions, and cold with sour cream on others. There’s also a spinach based borscht called shav (sp?). Those Polish and Russian Jews must have been desperate for food in the cold 900 years ago!
Before juicing the beet I did some Googling, because I did not know if I should leave the greens on or cut them off. I found a note that told me to ALWAYS mix beet juice with other juices because straight beet juice can cause temporary paralysis of the vocal chords. Not that Brian would mind if I couldn’t talk for a few hours…
It also said I could use the root and / or greens. So I juiced 1 beet with most of the greens, 2 carrots, and added apple juice and cinnamon.
I learned that I like beet juice, but not beet green juice. The leaves were a little to grassy/dirt tasting for me. I’ll leave them out next time and save them for roasting.
But what about all that great stuff that shot out the back of the juicer? Do you use it for soup or stew? Are the nutrients now gone? I wasn’t sure so I threw it in the composter this time, and will read some more about that.
This morning I tried something else I’ve read a lot about online — adding kale to a green monster smoothie. I’ve used spinach many times, but I have never eaten kale. I learned 2 things from my kale / vanilla yogurt / raspberry smoothie:
- I do NOT like kale
- Never put a knife in a smoothie maker while it is on
I tried to shove the kale leaves down and thought the knife was far enough from the smoothie maker blades, but when a hunk of plastic shot out the side of the blender into my abdomen I knew I was wrong.
Luckily what I thought was blood was only raspberry juice, and I’m hoping I can just order a part replacement from my smoothie maker company to make up for my idiocy.
But the kale sucked. Much stronger leaf taste than spinach and much more rubbery. I finished making the smoothie in my mini food chopper, and even tried adding extra yogurt and some honey, but I was still eating spoonfuls of kale smoothie the way Survivor contestants eat at a food challenge. Gulp down the back of the throat real quickly. I decided I’d eat till I felt like I had enough and would spill the rest down the sink, despite the fact that I HATE wasting food.
I’m not even sure I’ll try the kale cooked.
Meanwhile I have a crazy headache and I don’t know if it is because I tried new food or because I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I’m going to try lots of water today to see if that helps.
Workouts: Monday AM Yoga at home for 30 mins was all I had time for, so Monday night I went to the gym for Pilates mat class. The only other time I went there was a sub, and I liked the sub much better. This teacher kind of spoke like a woman leading 4 year old girls through a fairy princess party. Maybe my headache is from not getting a good sweat in yesterday due to meek workouts. But tonight is karate and I’m learning penon 2 - which I learned might be spelled pyung ahn 2. But I’ll use transliteration because I don’t know any Asian languages except for how to count to 4 in Japanese. And whatever was used by Styx in Mr. Roboto.
2010 goal update: 2920 crunches, 72 minutes of plank remaining.
What do YOU do with the stuff that comes out of the back of your juicer?
