Veggie Detox Day 1: Breakfast
Filed Under: Do It Yourself, Health Issues on March 27, 2011
As promised, I’m starting the detox today. For the first 3 days, it will be 100% vegetarian with no whole grains, meat of any kind, milk, cheese, etc. So today through Tuesday is nothing but vegetables in whole form.
Started out the day with the juicer. Breakfast is:
- four large carrots,
- a broccoli stem (you can juice the fleurettes as well, but I prefer to just eat them, which I did),
- and an apple. The apple is a Fuji and you can see marks on it where I let Heidi (14 month old daughter) chew on it for a while as I set up the juicer.
The trick to tasty juicing is throwing in something sweet to go with whatever else you’re working on. In this case, that’s the apple. I cut things to fit the juicer, but don’t bother coring the apple, taking the tops off the carrots, etc. Kind of pointless. I’m one of those weird people that eats the whole apple, core and all, normally anyway. So to juice: just wash, cut to fit the juicer’s 
mechanism, and go to town. The less effort you have to put into doing it, the more likely you are to keep doing it.
The juicer is a Juiceman Jr. model we got a few years ago. There are much better juicers out there, but for the centrifugal type, it’s top notch. If I had $300 to throw around, I’d get a best of breed masticating juicer, but since I don’t, I have this. Besides, I got it at a garage sale. Not only was it cheap (in fact, I think it was free in exchange for some labor I did for an old neighbor), but this is recycling at its finest.
Once the juicing is done, you have a nice container of juice. Note I used a quart jar. I have a lot of jars in quarts and half-quarts and they are our mainstay drinking cups. Mason (or Ball or whatever) jars have a lot going for them in this regard, not the least of which is that they’re strong glass that doesn’t stain or take on flavors. They’re easy to clean and have lids if you need them. You can tell people they’re “rustic style” if they think you’re being cheap.
This concoction I made is extremely tasty. I had to make another half-batch for Heidi after she tasted mine. The leavings from the juicer have several uses. They’re excellent compost fodder, can often be used in recipes, and can be steeped in water to make more juice. I threw these on the compost pile.
Hint: when you’re done juicing, immediately tear down the juicer and hose it off. If you do this, before anything’s dried, you don’t have to do anything more to clean your machine. Makes it very fast and easy. You can squirt the bulk of the leavings into a compost pail too.
Anyway, there’s breakfast on Day 1. I’ll be having a large salad for lunch. It will consist of:
- Romaine lettuce,
- tomatoes from the local hydroponic greenhouse grower, Whole E (right here in Pine Bluffs),
- some chopped onion,
Carrot lips to go with the carrot top.
- and apple cider vinegar as dressing. For me, the vinegar isn’t much of a sacrifice since I prefer vinaigrette or wine vinegar as a salad dressing anyway. For my wife, not using ranch is a supreme sacrifice. haha
For supper tonight, we’ll be having steamed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, sweet onion) and baked sweet potatoes leftover from this year’s garden. I will also be juicing more carrots and another apple.
