Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Clementine, Lime, Pineapple and Ginger Juice


I have been rather obsessed with the juicer since we bought it. Neither my hubby nor I were certain how much we would use the juicer but most days it is used at least twice, sometimes three times. It is so nice to have fresh juice with no additives.

Today I made a juice of fresh fruit juice to go with my lunch. This was the combination I had in mind yesterday and I like it. You can add the fruit with the peels and the juicer will handle it, but it grinds things so finely the bitterness of peel and pith tend to overwhelm the juice. I found this out the hard way in the past. ;) When I am using a small amount of citrus relative to the other ingredients I leave the peel on but not when there is so much of it like today. Here is the juice I made.

Clementine, Lime, Pineapple and Ginger Juice
Serves 1

Ingredients:

2 clementine
1 lime
½ cup pineapple chunks
¼ inch fresh ginger, sliced (when it is organic I don't peel it I just clean the exterior with a brush)

Directions:

Peel the clementine and lime and break into segments. Feed everything through the juicer. Give the juice a quick stir and pour it into a glass.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 48.16
Calories From Fat (4%) - 1.77

Total Fat - 0.21g
Saturated Fat - 0.03g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 2.08mg
Potassium - 172.21mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.51g
Fiber - 1.14g
Sugar - 7.34g
Protein - 0.7g

Comments:

This juice has a complex flavor that is not easy to identify. There is an orange undertone, but the flavors of lime and pineapple take the juice to a new level. Ginger works really well in the juice. Next time I may double the ginger because I like the zip it adds to juice and in this case it is a little more subtle than I prefer.

One thing that I find so interesting is how much produce it takes to make juice. It makes it so obvious why juice contains more calories and nutrients than whole fruit. As long as you are getting plenty of fiber through other sources I think juicing can be a very healthy addition to your diet. For those of you that are curious I have tracked our fiber recently and we always get more than 40 grams per day and some days we have consumed as much as 60 grams. Clearly we aren’t missing the fiber from the fruit and veggies we are juicing.

Unrelated Note:

I spent the morning tearing apart my first closet and I am almost finished. It feels so good to purge myself of excess stuff that I don’t need or use. Which bring me to a question, when you have things to get rid of what do you do with them? Do you toss them or give them to charity? If you donate to charity which one is your favorite?

For now I need to get back to my project so that I have some down time before I need to take care of my regular life administration activities. I hope the weather is nicer where you than it is here and you are enjoying some time outside as the seasons begin to change.

25 comments:

  1. Nice juice! I am confused about your nutrition info, however. A single clementine has 35 calories and 1.3 grams of fiber (according to fitday.com). Are you subtracting the calories in the solids you take out of your juice, and if so, how do you figure that out?

    As for things to get rid of, I maintain a few Hefty bags of castoffs from each person's closet (6-person household) and every few months get together for a run to the local Salvation Army. I use Deduction Pro to value my donations--it takes about fifteen minutes for a bag or so of stuff, to make a list, add up the donated value, and print out the list. Then I take it to the attendant at Salvo and get a stamped receipt to attach to my list, which I use when I file for taxes. At a 15% tax bracket, I find that a typical 3-4-bag donation is "worth" $300 or more, so it saves me $45 on taxes. That's a good value, to my mind!

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  2. That juice looks so good to me right about now! I prefer to donate if I can. If someone happens to be having a yard sale, then I'll try to join up with them. My neighborhood isn't ideal for yard sales. I always feel bad about throwing things away that someone else could use. Sometimes we'll set things on the curb for people to pick up (like chairs or electronics).

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  3. I love fresh ginger in juices, it always seems to give me a burst of energy and good feelings!!!!!
    I also have a love affair with my juicer, we seem to juice alot more in the summer though, I just can't seem to juice when it is cold out. My youngest daughter is the juice queen, she always makes the most surprising combinations!!!
    We will definately ba making this juice!!

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  4. Cindy,

    I juiced each fruit individually and then measured the juice and used the nutritional info for juice not the whole fruit.

    Good tips on how you handle your deductions. Warms my little accounting heart!

    Heather,

    I try to donate things that have a life as well. Books I take to the library, clothes and housewares go to Good Will or Disable American Vets.

    Brandi,

    I can only imagine how much I will be using the juicer in the summer. I can't wait. Please post some of your juices this summer. I would love to see what your daughter comes up with.

    Alicia

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  5. I always donate, and either to Goodwill or World Relief, which are located close to home and work. Convenience I suppose :)

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  6. Sarah,

    Good point about proximity. That is a strong motivator for me too! ;)

    Alicia

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  7. Alicia, I will post them!!!! You will love her juices, thaty are brilliant!

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  8. Brandi,

    Thanks! I can't wait to see them!

    Alicia

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  9. I always donate to Goodwill, just because they take donations and I know that people do shop at their stores, so I know that my things won't be going to waste. I could never just throw things out!

    Courtney

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  10. Courtney,

    Very good point about things being more likely to be used since people shop there.

    Alicia

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  11. The juice sounds wonderful...I love the idea of the lime to balance out the sweetness of pineapple...good job on the fiber intake...I wish I knew what mine was.

    For unwanted items, I usually drop off at Goodwill if it has any use at all.

    But sometimes, if I'm feeling especially lazy and cheeky, I just put stuff out on the side of the road with a "Free" sign on it...that's very common around here anyway...

    You'd be surprised how fast stuff gets snapped up...I put an end table out last summer and it was taken within the hour...guess I live in a neighborhood with a bunch of scavengers...lol... talk to you soon. :)

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  12. I've been through some purges myself recently, through yard sales and donations to the local homeless shelter, the local women & children's shelter, the library (in the case of books and magazines), and whatever is left after that goes to the Salvation Army. And while not a charity, there is also "freecycling." It's another great way to find a home for that "one person's junk is another person's treasure" situation. :-)

    Good luck with your project! It always feels so good to get that done. (After my last purge, I made a rule - nothing new can be brought into this house unless something we already have goes out of it!)

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  13. I've been through some purges myself recently, through yard sales and donations to the local homeless shelter, the local women & children's shelter, the library (in the case of books and magazines), and whatever is left after that goes to the Salvation Army. And while not a charity, there is also "freecycling." It's another great way to find a home for that "one person's junk is another person's treasure" situation. :-)

    Good luck with your project! It always feels so good to get that done. (After my last purge, I made a rule - nothing new can be brought into this house unless something we already have goes out of it!)

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  14. Rose,

    Thanks for the juice compliment. I really liked the lime addition too!

    There are a few free places to track your food which will calculate things like fiber if you are interested.

    Great point about putting things out with a free sign. That would work here too. We live near two colleges so the "kids" are always looking for stuff. I have also put notices on the college bulletin boards when I have furniture to go. Thanks for the reminder!

    Lalo,

    I love your idea about the local women's shelter. How did I forget about that? Great idea, thanks so much for the reminder.

    I had that same rule about nothing new unless something old went out. The problem was that I stopped following the rule after a while. Maybe I am smarter now. ;)

    talk to you both later,
    Ali

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  15. You're welcome, Ali! :-)

    And don't feel bad... I said I made the rule. I didn't say I necessarily follow it! LOL! (But there's nothing like having to go through another sort & purge drill to reinvigorate that ol' self-discipline!!)

    Here's a favorite mantra... I find it helps...

    "Our life is frittered away by details. Simplify, simplify!"
    ~Henry David Thoreau

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  16. P.S. Yet another gorgeous plate! You gonna be purging any of them? Because I run this charity, "Pretty Plate Donations for People Who Only Have Boring White Corelle, The Poor Dears." In case you might be interested in making a donation. ;-)

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  17. Lalo,

    Thanks for sharing. That made me feel better. I am hoping the purging process gives me new incentive to simplify going forward.

    Great quote,
    Alicia

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  18. Lalo,

    This time I can tell you where to buy the plates. I got these from Crate & Barrel about 6 months ago. They are made in Italy (no Chinese ceramic worries). ;)

    glad you like them, I bought them for picture taking purposes,
    Alicia

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  19. I like to donate my excess and unnecessaries to my local thrift store. Here in Utah we've got the Salvation Army and The Deseret Industries. Both are great! I actually worked at Deseret Industries in 2002! I was in the women's clothing department! It was a fun summer job!

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  20. Valerie,

    What a great summer job that had an added benefit of helping others. :-)

    Alicia

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  21. Ali,

    I'm on a break (I'm union) ;-) and was poking around the Crate & Barrel web site (thanks for the tip!). No luck finding a plate like yours yet, but no trouble... some day I'm going to get myself a set of grownup dinnerware just like the beautiful plates in your photos (but not till after we've moved from here). Anyway, I had fun browsing through their goodies and when I saw this one I thought of you, because it's made in Italy too, and would no doubt tickle the fancy of a lemon-lover like yourself! :-)

    Okay, break's over. Time to clean Mouseville!

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  22. Lalo,

    LOL, you are union.

    Sorry Crate and Barrel doesn't have them now. Thanks for the link. The plate is from Amalif, one of my favorite places in Italy. You have just reminded me to use some of my Deruta Ceramica in my pics. I have a bunch of it and don't use it often because I don't want it to get broken. I may have to pull some of that out today to use this week.

    talk to you soon,
    Ali

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  23. I would love to know what kind of juicer you have? And do you think a Vita-Mix, which retains pulp (esp. useful when juicing veggies) is worth the cost? Any of your readers have/use one?

    Thx for all the great recipes and advice!

    Deborah/Fledgling Vegan

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  24. I'm going to try this recipe today!

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  25. Deborah,

    Sorry for the delay in responding. I was out all day today. I have an Omega 8006 juicer. There is a link to my review of the juicer in this post (which I hope still works ... please let me know if you have trouble with it).

    I also have had a Vitamix for about 4 years which I adore. If you are only going to buy one machine (juicer or Vitamix) I would make it a Vitamix since it can be used for more things. If you have any specific Vitamix questions I would be happy to answer them.

    Alicia

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