I'm addicted to my new juicer

[Liberal Christian]

I bought a juicer last week and since then, I've been haunting the produce aisle asking, "Will this juice? How would this taste? Wonder if kale tastes good mixed with parsley and red bell pepper with a little carrot thrown in. Hmmmm. I'll have to try that."

I love this machine! I know I'm consuming more nutrients from fruits and vegetables than ever, and it's so tasty! This morning, I'm starting the day with canteloupe/mango/strawberry/orange/white grape juice.

Yum!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone else a juicer fanatic?

[SHRED]

1. I want a new one

What kind did you get?

[Liberal Christian]

3. Champion 2000+

I tried to do some research, compare brands, pricing, etc.

The reality was that finally I decided I had to have one, there was only one store in town that sold juicers, and this was the only one they sold. I was so determined to buy it that I refused to wait for them to order in a white one, so I got stuck with almond, which doesn't match the rest of my kitchen appliances, but oh well.

This one is easy to clean, though, which I think is probably important in something like this. It's a masticating juicer, so these little tiny sawblades whir around and chew up the fruit/veggies and it gets pressed out a nylon screen. You put a bowl under it to catch the juice and another in front of it to catch the ejected pulp.

Here's a good juicer comparison chart. Mine is the one in the far left column (of course!! :) )

http://4juicers.com/compare2.html

[shance]

2. What kind of juicer do you have?

Is it pretty tough to clean?

Ive heard they can be difficult to wash.

[Liberal Christian]

4. It's easy to clean

The Champion 2000+ is easy to clean. Just two pieces to take off and run under cool water with a bottle brush. Make sure you have a good trap on your sink drain, though, as a fair amount of pulp gets flushed out.

[radwriter0555]

5. we got a cute one for smoothies with a lil spigot that we love.. and we

actually USE it, astonishingly enough.

Trader Joes sells pre-packaged fruit blends that are perfect.

I'm more of a fruit girl than a veggie girl I have to say; good on you!

[Liberal Christian]

6. Prepackaged fruit blends?

We don't have Trader Joe's, so I haven't seen these, but everything I read says that you want to keep fruits and vegetables whole and in their natural state until right before you juice them. As soon as you start cutting and exposing the surfaces to air, you begin to lose nutrients.

I'd recommend buying the fruit and taking a couple of minutes to cut it up.

[leftbend]

7. We love our Champion juicer

but we recently bought a Vita-mixer and like it better. The Champion hasn't been used since the Vita-mixer arrived. The advantage to the Vita-mixer is you retain the fiber and the drink is just as smooth and tasty if not more so than with the juice alone. My health has improved greatly since I began juicing. Great stuff!

[Liberal Christian]

8. What's the main difference . . .

... between the Champion and the Vita-mixer?

[leftbend]

9. You get the whole vegtable

or fruit with the Vita-mixer, there is a lot of nutrition in the pulp your throwing away. It's even easier to clean than the Champion. With the the Vita-mixer you even use the peels if you wish. Ours will also grind grain and you can make hot soup from fresh vegtables in a few minutes. Also makes great frozen coffee drinks. Hey, the Champion is a great product and we love it, I just wish I had discovered the Vita-mixer first as I don't really need both. there is lots of info on line about Vita-mixer also.

[bpcmxr]

10. Just this week I replaced my aging Acme 'Supreme Juicerator'

with a Breville Juice Fountain, and for about half of what I paid for the Acme when it was new (7-8) years ago, the Breville blows it AWAY!

It's a little loud in my small apartment kitchen, but it's extemely powerful and the feed chute is large enough to accomodate large fistfuls of greens or entire apples, pears, etc, all of which just disappear into pulp and juice. This unit is very efficient - it juices very quickly with little waste - the pulp is quite dry.

The pulp is expelled into and accumulates in a separate container which you can line with a plastic bag if you like, thereby eliminating what is usually the worst aspect of juicer cleanup. Except for the blade/filter basket part, the rest of the assembly is made of largish plastic pieces which you can clean quickly with soap and water, or in your dishwasher. The blade/filter is easily cleaned under running water with the supplied brush.

Juicer design has evidently come a long way since bought my Acme in the early 90s, and I can't recommend the Breville highly enough. Don't just take my word for it though, check out the customer reviews on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008ZCKV/qid=1077125420//ref=pd_ka_1/104-4965064-8637533?v=glance&s=kitchen&n=507846

[Liberal Christian]

14. I looked at the Breville

I think that's the one they sell on QVC. Ultimately, it came down to my wanting a juicer RIGHT NOW and I was too impatient to wait for mail-order. :)

So, I'll use this one until I decide I need to upgrade, then some lucky person will get a good used Champion at Goodwill.

[AgadorSparticus]

25. I have used juiceman and breville and like my jack lalanne best.

I got mine at www.hsn.com It's very quiet and efficient. Also easy to clean. I love juicing. I started because I wasn't getting my 5 fruits/veggies a day. Now, it's a snap.

[Hubert Flottz]

11. No just a juicer!

Just on days that end with Y!

[GumboYaYa]

12. I'm a big fan of the root vegetables mixed with apple... .

and other combos. Beet, apple, celery or apple, carrot, ginger, lemon are some of my faves. There are so many great combos to try.

Did you juice your canteloupe with the skin intact? That freaked me out the first time I did it, but it tastes great.

Have fun!

[Liberal Christian]

13. Canteloupe

The first time I juiced canteloupe, I left the skin on. I wasn't crazy about the taste, so now I cut it off. I do leave the pulp and seeds in, just in case anything can be squeezed out of it.

[pagerbear]

15. Step 1:

Admitted we were powerless over juicing, that our lives had become unamanageable

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. I love a combination of Beets/Carrots and apples

But careful not to go overboard as you increase your sugar intake BIG time if you use it too often..also fresh cranberry juice with apples and grapes is good...and I LOVE to take concors or other sweet grapes and make juice.

[Liberal Christian]

17. I made this for lunch!

1 beet w/ greens
kale (I could only find the purple ornamental kale, so I used a few small leaves)
1 small stalk broccoli
1 apple
4 carrots

Full of iron and quite tasty.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

19. I would substitute celery for kale..the kale probably made it bitter

[bpcmxr]

21. For bitter greens,

try squeezing the juice of an entire lemon into your glass before you pour your veggie juice - it cuts the bitterness beautifully.

[Liberal Christian]

23. The kale was actually good

It wasn't bitter at all, but I think the apples and carrots helped with that. Kale is great for iron and calcium.

The juicing book said that this combo was great for iron, and since I tend to be anemic, I figured I'd give it a try.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

24. Wow never knew that

Maybe I'll try it next time. Thanks!

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Heck if Jack Lelane can look that good at 90+ by using a juicer....

I'm all for it. :hi:

It's just not in the budget right now. Enjoy your juicer!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. LOL! As soon as I saw the thread title I thought, "WyoMee needs to see

this thread!" Lo and behold, no you don't!

Have you tried beets yet? I bet that would add a very tasty tang to a juice.

[Astarho]

22. I used to work in a juice bar

I hated it, since most of the customers were obnoxious, and anal retentive but we made some good juices.

We did our own version of the V-8, with carrots, beets, spinach, parsley, apple, lemon, garlic and ginger. One of the favorites.

A good fruit juice is apple and starfruit.