I first mentioned that we started juicing back in August. Since then, we have been juicing every day. We usually juice for breakfast and maybe have juice at lunch or dinner but Caleb gets juice every morning- and he likes it all now. When he is sick, we give him fresh juice and water all day long. Caleb is a milk junkie so it is really tough for him to forgo milk, but he loves juice so it goes well.
Just the other day, I took Caleb on a walk and a cyclist stopped and asked me what he was drinking. I didn’t realize it until that moment but- what he drinks looks pretty nasty (add the fact that Caleb was sick and had snot all over so I am sure we looked really interesting). I told the man it was homemade juice (spinach, cucumber, apple and orange because he was sick) and the man replied “wow, he’s the healthiest kid on the block”. I was happy he asked because it usually looks brown or orange or green- not like regular store-bought juice, and he probably asked because he thought “what the hell is that kid drinking!?”
A lot of people have asked me for juicing recipes but the only advice I can give is: try different things to see what you like. Always make sure to have one fruit in there for sweetness (usually apples in our house but we load up on strawberries and oranges and prunes). Here is a typical juice for Caleb:
As you can see there is: a handful of spinach, strawberries, orange, carrots, celery and cucumber. This is one of our most basic juices and it’s a big hit. We all like this one a lot. Usually for Tyler and I we add way more veggies but this is a perfect amount for toddlers. It makes about 12oz of juice and since Caleb usually drinks about 9oz in the morning, the rest goes in the fridge for after his nap. (Juice doesn’t do well over 24 hours, so we always try to consume ours withing 12 hours).
Here is exactly what Caleb’s juice looks like:
See how it’s a brownish-green? When we first started juicing the color alone turned Caleb off- he didn’t want it. We just put it in his sippy cup and he drinks from it with no problems.
Juicing has been so wonderful for our family and we love that Caleb is getting more nutrients than ever because of what we make him. We were nervous he would only like sweet juices made of fruits but his tastes have evolved so much and he will now drink our juice, which is pretty incredible considering we skimp on fruit in ours. In the words of Yo Gabba Gabba! “Try it, you’ll like it”!
