Day 27: A Day of Lessons

I didn't wake up feeling adventurous this morning, but boy was I ever!  It started off with my first juice: Bone Builder.  Had I looked more closely at the recipes when I was planning my menus, I think I wouldn't have decided to arrange my drinks like I did.

Here's a little back story.  In "The Juicing Bible," there is a list of maladies people can suffer from, along with a list of suggested juice recipes that can serve as remedies. I think I probably went through those lists one day and was like, "Oh, I have trouble sleeping sometimes, maybe I should try "Bone Builder".  Since these lists only consist of the name of a juice and its corresponding page number, I don't think I bothered to look up the ingredients.  This is the only logical reason I can come up with with explain my menu for today.

I started off with making something called "Bone Builder". Sounds innocuous enough, right?  Well, not so much.  First, you're going to need about 30 minutes to make this juice. 10 minutes to get your ingredients together and juice them and 20 minutes to cook your kelp.  Yep, you read correctly.  There's cooked kelp in this one.

Bone Builder*

• 1/2 cup kelp or other sea herb
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 spears broccoli
• 2 leaves kale (I used 4)
• 2 stalks celery
• 1/2 green bell pepper (I used a whole one)
• 4 sprigs fresh parsley 
• 1 apple

Here are little side notes you might want to consider about the idea of adding soaked/cooked kelp to your juice.  First, your kitchen will smell like the sea while your kelp steeps.  Second, your juicer may not like juicing kelp.  Mine did not. It basically spit out what I shoved in.  There was very little, if any, extraction of juice.  And I ran the kelp through twice to no avail.  Definite juicing fail!

I ended up making the juice I was planning on having for lunch for breakfast.  It was good that I did have the lunch drink during breakfast, because I was in my apartment with lots of water on hand; I definitely needed it while drinking Spiced Carrot.

Notice the two spices on the right.  One is cinnamon, again, I thought "no biggie".  The other is Cayenne.  For me, that's a biggie.  I'm not much on eating or drinking spicy things.  However, I think of this juicing experiment as an adventure of sorts, so I figured I'd be adventurous and drink this concoction.  Oh my.  It was spicy.  Very spicy.  Very, very spicy.  And it did the trick by waking me up!  =)
 

Spiced Carrot**

• 3 Carrots
• 1 Spear broccoli
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach leaves
• 1 in. piece ginger root
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

The good thing about having this drink was that I hear spicy foods and drinks can help rev up one's metabolism, which will be helpful.  It was, however, not the tastiest way to do that. 

I was actually so turned off by both these drinks that I decided to not have the Aluminum Antioxidant (sounds yummy, right?) juice that was on my menu, but rather a beet-based drink I had had a few times before and liked.  It turned out my worry was a bit misplaced, since the Bone Builder really wasn't that bad.  In fact, it was pretty okay.  A couple of notes on that.  First, I think it would have been better colder.  Mine was room temperature.  Second, I think the kelp could have actually added a nice saltiness to the drink that I would have liked.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the kelp did not want to be juiced.  And my poor Breville was not in for a fight.

The beet juice was a nice way to end the day, though, so I'm not sorry I made it.  =)

Beet***

• 2 Beets, tops intact (I didn't have any greens attached to mine)
• 2 carrots
• 2 apples

The day, like the juices, were full of lessons.  First, enjoy things.  As I walked to the American Diabetes Association to volunteer, I really took time to enjoy the walk to the office.  How can you not with a view like this?

Second, don't take things too personally.  I had a project I had been working on at the ADA compromised a little bit by someone who was trying to help but didn't really have the instructions needed to make a positive contribution.  I'll admit that I was a bit cranky when I saw what happened.  Then, I took a step back, fixed things, and moved on.  It would have been a waste of time and energy to get upset over something that can be easily fixed.

Third, be prepared for anything.  I was hoping to hear the final outcome today about a job I interviewed for here in Seattle.  Sadly, I didn't hear anything.  However, while waiting for the Seattle job announcement, I got a call from the Alzheimer's Association about a second interview with them in D.C.  Yay!  

I'll be looking forward to seeing how that turns out tomorrow.  Maybe I'll live on the edge and finally try out that Aluminum Antioxidant juice for breakfast....maybe.  




*Page 241, "The Juicing Bible: Second Edition," by Pat Crocker
**Page 195, "The Juicing Bible: Second Edition," by Pat Crocker 
***Page 180, "The Juicing Bible: Second Edition," by Pat Crocker