Now, This Is Really Green

Drinking up a true green drink seemed a bit formidable to me a few months ago, but I made the gradual transition from standard breakfast fare to fruit smoothies, then added greens to the fruit smoothies and now I've gone to another level with mostly greens, juiced with just a bit of sweet veggies and/or a bit of fruit.

Once I'm drinking dynamite juice made with all fresh, organic green veggies, I'll have arrived at a good plateau toward my goal of achieving optimum health.

Meanwhile, I'm having a grand time, filled with energy and a sense of adventure as I experiment with combinations that are easy to swallow, yet still offer a wide variety of nutrients.

The glass of green juice above is simply:

2 Kirby cucumbers

1/2 bag of baby spinach (6 oz)

half a cantaloupe.

I chose to juice this combo rather than blend it, though it would work equally well in the blender, but wouldn't have the clear, deep green color. The added benefit to using a blender is keeping all the fiber from the pulp rather than extruding it in a juicer. I was aiming for a pre-dinner juice, not a meal replacement. But it turned out to be dinner, as it filled me sufficiently.

Someone asked me how to eliminate the foam that is created with juicing — I tried two methods.

First, I tried straining the juice into the drinking glass and only had a very small 'head' as you can see in the image below.

Then, I tried carefully pouring the juice into the serving glass, allowing the clear juice to slip out from underneath the layer of foam. Straining was a time consuming step that I'd just as soon eliminate. Pouring slowly at a good angle worked for me. I suppose you could skim off the top foamy layer much as you would if you were de-greasing gravy. If anyone still does that.

The foam is fine to drink. "Waste not; want not."

Experiment with a green drink — it's much tastier than you think!