Grapefruit goodness and making the time for juicing

Every now and then I like to try new combinations, even though I have my tried-and-true favorites. This morning's juice featured grapefruit, red bell pepper, granny smith apple, lemon, carrot, ginger, golden beet and tomato. I used one large and one smaller grapefruit. You could really taste the grapefruit over the other ingredients, which was the goal. As you can see below I also used a rather large chunk of ginger root.

The approximate nutritional analysis of this combination (which yielded over a quart of juice, enough for two people) per-person:

Percent Daily Values

Vitamin A: >600%
Vitamin C: >230%
Vitamin E: 14%
Vitamin K1: 40%
Thiamin: 15%
Riboflavin: 14%
Niacin: 15%
Vitamin B6: 27%
Folate: 30%
Calcium: 8%
Iron: 8%
Magnesium: 12%
Potassium: 30%
Sodium: 12% (mostly from the carrots)
Zinc: 5%
Copper: 7%
Manganese: 24%  

Making the time for juicing
I hear people complain that it takes a long time to prep for juicing. I don't think it takes long at all. I don't peel organic carrots or cucumbers. In this morning's juice I peeled the beet and ginger root, and cut the rind off the grapefruits and lemon. Everything else required a minimal amount of rinsing and prep. If I know I will be pressed for time or have to leave earlier than usual in the morning, I'll prep my juice ingredients the night before and store them in a bag in the fridge overnight. To keep apples from turning brown, rub the flesh with the rind-less lemon before putting them in the bag. In the morning, just pull the bag out and you're ready to go.

I almost felt guilty

I almost felt guilty juicing half of a rather large organic yellow heirloom tomato. But then I realized, this is what tomatoes should be all the time! We're just used to eating crappy boring tomatoes, so these seem extra special.

We ate half of it last night sliced, and I saved the rest. It had almost no seeds and was nearly solid flesh. Wonderful flavor. I didn't want to waste the remainder — far too expensive — so I kept it covered overnight, which is about as long as you can with a fresh ripe tomato that's been cut. (You should never put tomatoes in the refrigerator. It ruins their texture.)

The leftover half was so big, I had to cut it to fit into the juicer's already large feed tube.





2 carrots
2 stalks bok choy
1 red bell pepper
half of large yellow heirloom tomato
1/4 teaspoon potassium chloride