Living in NYC, we jumped into the healthy living bandwagon. Took a few years but here we are - body conscious people, exercising regularly, eating salads and gulping down juices and smoothies in an effort to get more veggies and fruits into our body. I was on a salad diet for a while and after a while it started to get to me. Not the leaves - that was ok, but the variety-cost correlation. I used to order in and pay nearly $15 each time for someone to add sprouts and thai peanut dressing to leaves, or mix up goats cheese and beets in a bowl for me. In the end I had to settle for buying the leaves, salad dressing and toppings from the grocery store, while pushing daily variety to the side.
Smoothies, however, were our extravaganza. Whenever we were in the shopping center, we would buy a smoothie or two, because it was the best solution to thirsty, tasty and healthy. The kids loved it, and I was pleased that we all had our shots of vitamins and minerals under all the ice cream or milk base. Life was good.. until our friends brought over a few jars of homemade watermelon juice. Yummy, refreshing watermelon juice that we finished over dinner in one night. "Buy a blender", they said. "Best thing ever. You will use it all the time to blend everything."
Visions of readymade juices floated in my dreams. Bottles of watermelon juice, carrot juice (I had a giant bag of carrots in the fridge at the time), healthy morning smoothies, fruits turned into tropical thirsty quenchers, juices turned into ice cream - the possibilities were endlessly delicious and convenient. I even pictured myself wearing leggings and running around everywhere with a reusable smoothie bottle in one hand (and my hair looked great!)
"We will buy a blender," we said. "Loads of fruits and veggies too. Healthy us!"
I found a recommended blender on Amazon that had an affordable price tag. Figured that we would see how we go with that before committing to those $300 juice marvels. On the day that the blender was due to arrive, I went out and bought a huge watermelon and a couple of bottles. That evening, I set the kitchen island: watermelon, knife and cutting board, bottles and the blender in the box. M came home and with great excitement, we opened the box with the blender. Took it out, admired the sharp blades and different compartments for juice and pulp and then got ready to juice.
Cutting a full watermelon into smaller pieces is bloody hard work! That took a while so we decided to just do half today and the other half the next day. After some chopping and smashing we were finally ready to juice. Juice bottle on one side, container of watermelon pieces on the other - and we started! The blender was super loud as it crushed the watermelon pieces, splattering flesh and juice everywhere in the pulp compartment. When the juice finally started to flow, the excitement level in the room went up! We had maybe about 2cm of juice in the bottle when I noticed that nearly half of the watermelon pieces were already in the blender. Then we realized that that the pulp compartment did not fully seal and the blender had leaked crushed watermelon pulp down the side and all over the the kitchen island. There was no point trying to clean up - we had to wait until the juicing session was over.
When all the pieces were in, we had barely a glass of juice. If each of us had two sips each, we would finish it straightaway, no need for a bottle, thank you very much. Our beloved basic blender simply pulverized the fruit pieces. There was no filtering or straining the pulp. We did that manually, feeding the pulp through the juicer a couple of times to try and extract as much of the juice as possible, making an even bigger mess everywhere. I was determined to have more than two sips of juice after all the effort, but soon, I gave up. Two sips it is.
Clean up was another mission. Pulp and sticky juice everywhere except inside the specially purchased glass bottles. The next day, we decided to eat the other half of the watermelon, because that way everyone would have enough to satisfy themselves.
A few weeks later, I bought another huge watermelon. Thought we would give juice making another shot. It took about 1 week of nagging M to get him to cut and juice the watermelon. I added an apple or two to get more juice. We went through the whole chop and blitz process again and got about 2 glasses of juice which went into the bottle. The bottle stayed in the fridge for another week before I tossed out the juice and stored the blender and juice bottles in the back of the cupboard.
Smoothies, however, were our extravaganza. Whenever we were in the shopping center, we would buy a smoothie or two, because it was the best solution to thirsty, tasty and healthy. The kids loved it, and I was pleased that we all had our shots of vitamins and minerals under all the ice cream or milk base. Life was good.. until our friends brought over a few jars of homemade watermelon juice. Yummy, refreshing watermelon juice that we finished over dinner in one night. "Buy a blender", they said. "Best thing ever. You will use it all the time to blend everything."
Visions of readymade juices floated in my dreams. Bottles of watermelon juice, carrot juice (I had a giant bag of carrots in the fridge at the time), healthy morning smoothies, fruits turned into tropical thirsty quenchers, juices turned into ice cream - the possibilities were endlessly delicious and convenient. I even pictured myself wearing leggings and running around everywhere with a reusable smoothie bottle in one hand (and my hair looked great!)
"We will buy a blender," we said. "Loads of fruits and veggies too. Healthy us!"
I found a recommended blender on Amazon that had an affordable price tag. Figured that we would see how we go with that before committing to those $300 juice marvels. On the day that the blender was due to arrive, I went out and bought a huge watermelon and a couple of bottles. That evening, I set the kitchen island: watermelon, knife and cutting board, bottles and the blender in the box. M came home and with great excitement, we opened the box with the blender. Took it out, admired the sharp blades and different compartments for juice and pulp and then got ready to juice.
Cutting a full watermelon into smaller pieces is bloody hard work! That took a while so we decided to just do half today and the other half the next day. After some chopping and smashing we were finally ready to juice. Juice bottle on one side, container of watermelon pieces on the other - and we started! The blender was super loud as it crushed the watermelon pieces, splattering flesh and juice everywhere in the pulp compartment. When the juice finally started to flow, the excitement level in the room went up! We had maybe about 2cm of juice in the bottle when I noticed that nearly half of the watermelon pieces were already in the blender. Then we realized that that the pulp compartment did not fully seal and the blender had leaked crushed watermelon pulp down the side and all over the the kitchen island. There was no point trying to clean up - we had to wait until the juicing session was over.
When all the pieces were in, we had barely a glass of juice. If each of us had two sips each, we would finish it straightaway, no need for a bottle, thank you very much. Our beloved basic blender simply pulverized the fruit pieces. There was no filtering or straining the pulp. We did that manually, feeding the pulp through the juicer a couple of times to try and extract as much of the juice as possible, making an even bigger mess everywhere. I was determined to have more than two sips of juice after all the effort, but soon, I gave up. Two sips it is.
Clean up was another mission. Pulp and sticky juice everywhere except inside the specially purchased glass bottles. The next day, we decided to eat the other half of the watermelon, because that way everyone would have enough to satisfy themselves.
A few weeks later, I bought another huge watermelon. Thought we would give juice making another shot. It took about 1 week of nagging M to get him to cut and juice the watermelon. I added an apple or two to get more juice. We went through the whole chop and blitz process again and got about 2 glasses of juice which went into the bottle. The bottle stayed in the fridge for another week before I tossed out the juice and stored the blender and juice bottles in the back of the cupboard.
