Adventures in Juicing

After overindulging during the Thanksgiving holidays, I felt like I needed to focus on doing something healthy for myself, especially with Christmas around the corner. Like most people, I probably don't eat enough fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. I had a juicer in the past and remembered how it was a great way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet, so I decided that I would look into getting one again.

I did a lot of searching and price comparisons and finally decided on the Breville Juice Fountain Compact. The Breville juicers had a lot of positive reviews on Amazon. There were more expensive models, but not knowing how much I would use it, I really didn't want something "top of the line." In addition to having a lower price than some of the other Breville's it also has a compact design and doesn't take up as much space.

Not wanting to turn myself off from the beginning with some yukky vegetable juice, I decided that the safest route to incorporating juice into my diet was to start out with mostly fruits.

The Breville has a powerful motor and does a good job of getting the juice out, as the pulp that is leftover is relatively dry. The juicer has a wide mouth, so it is easy to put large pieces of fruit in it. I did find that when I would drop the fruit in, I had to cover the top really quickly or bits of fruit would "spit out" the top.

The juicer comes with a pitcher that captures the juice. I find it to be of adequate size and didn't feel like I had to keep emptying it because it was getting too full. It has a nice lid that has a little lip to catch the foam off the top of the juice when you pour it. I like just a little foam and think this is a great feature. I did find that I had to hold the lid on when pouring the juice. I didn't do this the first time and ended up spilling the juice all over the counter.

Cleanup was pretty easy. I had filled my sink with hot sudsy water before I started juicing so that I could clean everything right away. All of the parts are dishwasher safe, so that is an option for people who aren't going to want to use the juicer again the same day.

I can say that juicing does take some time. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish which included washing and cutting up the fruit through cleanup. The juice was great and I am planning on moving into more varieties of fruit and adding more vegetables as well.

I saved some of the pulp for Leon and Riku. They gobbled it up, so that is an added bonus.

Overall, I would recommend this juicer to anyone who is interested in starting juicing. For the person who is already into juicing multiple times a day, you may want something a little larger and heavy duty.

NuWave Oven

Every so often, we have to say it. We have to tell our spouses/partners, "You were right, I was wrong." This is what I had to say to Todd recently about the NuWave oven that he purchased a couple of months ago.

I think it was around Christmas when Todd told me that he had been watching an infomercial on the NuWave oven and that since it looked so simple and easy to use, he had purchased one. I'm not sure what words came out of my mouth, but I'm sure that they communicated my shock and dismay (probably not in a nice way).

We had recently bought a new home and renovated the entire thing...including the kitchen that now contains double ovens; why on earth would we need another oven? I tried to wrap my brain around what he was saying to me, especially when I found out that the NuWave is not priced like a $39 toaster oven (which was one of my questions..."Why didn't you just get a toaster oven?")

Well, after a couple of weeks of avoiding the NuWave, I finally agreed to let Todd show me how to operate it. After using it a couple of times, I had to admit that it does have its advantages. It cooks frozen food very quickly without creating a lot of heat in the house, you don't need to pre-heat it, the food comes out crispy and it is simple to use. In fact, we actually use it all the time.

Tonight, I made a frozen pizza for Evan, the pickiest eater on the planet. It took 7 minutes to cook a frozen pizza...no preheating, no heating the whole kitchen up and minimal fuss and muss. Okay, "I was wrong, you were right." There, I said it.

Getting ready to cook a pizza in the NuWave oven.

Here it is cooking...only 7 minutes until it is done.

Perfect Pizza!

A happy child...priceless!