Clean Detox Recipes: Vegetable Juice

I’m rounding the corner of the first week of my clean detox.  Aside from the fact that my kitchen looks like two trucks, on their way to the farmer’s market, collided in my kitchen and I’m contemplating buying adult diapers so that I don’t have to get up so often to pee – things are going great!

I hope you’re enjoying these clean detox recipes that I’ve been posting.  I’m doing it for a couple of reasons.  First, this blog is about real food and food that you can feed your significant other (that they’ll like – a lot) and second, I wanted to show that something called a “detox” doesn’t mean you have to subsist on celery and water.  So even if you aren’t going to go hard core into a detox, you’ll take away some of these recipes and add them into your usual rotation and have some great tasting lower calorie foods joining your regular eating routine.  Because moderation is really what it’s all about.  Yes, I post about things like bacon chutney and chocolate banana bread (and I eat those things too) but it’s not the way I/we eat all the time.  I mix up the rich with the skinny.  It’s also the only way to keep from having to buy a new, and larger sized, wardrobe every couple of months.

I thought that I would keep with my regular Friday libation post by giving you one of the vegetable juice recipes that I’ve been drinking this week.  This is one of those juice recipes that you could drink any time, not just when you’re dieting or detoxing.  Many of the vegetable juice recipes that you’ll find (when/if you go poking around) are very straight forward, have few ingredients and are simple to put together.  Why is that?  It’s because using fresh vegetables allows these juice recipes to practically season themselves and they taste amazing without a bunch of fiddling around with them.  While the juice of a vegetable tastes much the same as the vegetable (duh) you actually taste more of the sweetness that it has.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, take the humble beet.  Yes, beets are sweet.  Generally, you don’t get a sense of the sweetness that they carry unless you roast them under high heat.  Which makes them taste completely different from when they’re boiled (and you can taste a lot of earthiness – a nice way of saying dirt).  Eating them raw gets you closer to the sweetness but also that “dirt” factor kind of creeps in.  Now when you juice them, you can extract the beet flavor and sweetness that lies hidden.

Combining the various vegetables that are found on the program that you are doing (or simply using vegetables that you like) allows you to create your own detox juice recipes.  That’s half of the fun of juicing – making up your own combinations.  If you are trying to accomplish something specific with your juice, look up what different vegetables are good for.

Beets - Due to red beet juice’s higher content of iron, it is thought to regenerate and reactivate red blood cells.

Carrots - Drinking carrot juice is thought to be beneficial for the liver due to Vitamin A’s cleansing effects.

Cucumbers – Cucumber juice is thought to clean your kidneys, lower high blood pressure and improve skin problems.

Parsley – Parsley is one of the highest sources of chlorophyll which helps to oxidize the blood.  It is thought to help clean the kidneys, liver and urinary tract.

So this vegetable juice recipe that I am sharing is thought to help a body that is going through detox.  But you can do the same research for other vegetables and definitely fruits.  Later on, I’ll share one of my favorite fruit juice recipes.

But since it’s Friday, I thought that I would jazz things up a bit and I poured this clean detox recipe into a margarita glass.  Plus, it helped me to admire it’s intense ruby red color.

Some of you may have made a resolution that sounds something like this: “This year I’m not going to put up with or fall for any guys’ bullshit!”  I thought I’d help you out with that, because that’s a pretty good resolution (although personally I replace guys’ with anyone’s and it’s more of a mantra than a resolution).

The type of guy you want to avoid – this is the first in what will become an ongoing series this year.  Today’s guy is the “Oh my God, you are so amazing!” guy.  I’m not talking about this sentence emerging from his lips after you’ve been together for more than a couple of months and you do something really cool, he should be sharing thoughts like these with you.  I’m talking about the guy who emits this in any kind of a drunken (or stoned) slur just hours after you have met him at your local watering hole.

While this may sound completely obvious, it’s a little less obvious if you’ve been drinking, it’s late, your friends are all drunk and/or are nowhere to be found or he’s the best looking guy in the bar.  If any one of these things are going on that one sentence sends most women into the deep recesses of their brain and they start fantasizing about going home with them, waking up in his pristine black and white bedroom, being awakened by this magical prince bringing her breakfast in bed on a stark white tray with a single flower in a bud vase.  News flash – that’s not what’s going to happen.  You’re going to wake up with your mascara smeared down your face, dried spit on the corner of your mouth and all of your clothes except for your panties can be found.  He’ll still be asleep and his snoring will have awakened you.  When you go into his bathroom you’ll find a pile of Playboy’s and Hustler’s, a toothbrush that looked like it might have been used to scrub the floor (oh if only you could levitate over that scrungy floor) and so much gunk on the mirror that you can barely make out the top of your head in it.

But should you decide to make this side trip with “Prince Charming” be aware that this will be the one and only time you’ll be playing slap and tickle with him.  No, he will not call and he will not acknowledge you if you run into him at the same place again.

Tags: clean detox, clean detox recipes, clean recipes, juice recipes, Relationship Advice, vegetable juice recipes, vegetables