JOOZ: The Most Basic Green Juice

Hey guys! So, Julia's going to be heading off to Washington D.C., so I'll be covering today's post for her. Just letting you know.

This green juice I'm sipping here tastes... phenomenal! Exquisite, delectable, pleasurable, scrumptious... I can't really think of any more synonyms that would accurately describe the absolute gold I'm tasting now.

So I'm thinking JOOZ should be a thing. Just say it a couple times and it really does start to sound like juice. Right? This can be the first of our many inside jokes together. I'm thinking JOOZ should be a new series... I mean I just got a brand spanking new juicer as a gift from my aunt and I'm thinking that I'll be doing a lot (l-o-t) of juicing this summer.

You might be thinking, "Why is it so important for Carolyn to have this new series?" Well friends, I, being the humanitarian person I am, really don't want to give you the trouble of spending 8 dollars on a teensy bottle of liquified vegetables from some hip new juicery. Okay, so fine. Maybe part of the experience is jogging up to a juicery in workout clothes you never really work out in and whipping out your ten dollar bill to pay for that snazzy glass bottle of pretty green juice. Presentation is a killer.

But it's both difficult and simply a burden to scarf up the approximate 200 dollars to pay for said juicer. That's why you beg and beg until a relative will get one for you! Totally kidding. In all seriousness, it is kind of an investment. If you're going to buy your juicer with your own money, I would really consider the cost to use ratio. Having a juicer just to have one isn't nearly as nice as the color iPod you could get that Apple just released with the money. But I'm going to tell you a secret. I still haven't opened up the juicer, but I still made this recipe. How, you ask? Let me show you.

Ingredients:
1 large celery stalk
3 leaves of romaine lettuce
Grapes (I'm not going to dictate how much you'll need. Whatever fits you. Diabetics need less, Carolyn's of the world need more...)
A small bunch of cilantro
Optional: A small spoonful of chia seeds

It's really that simple! There are the ingredients, in a nutshell. So this is what you'll do, no juicer necessary!

Method:
Wash all of your ingredients thoroughly. You don't want little specks of dirt floating around in your juice. Contrary to what many raw vegans and soil enthusiasts say, I don't care if dirt is health. It's just plain gross. So please wash your ingredients!

Put all your ingredients in a blender. Break up the celery so it fits, but the beauty of blending is the blender does the job for you. No prep, no mess. It's a nice relationship.

Once you blend so the whole thing is a smooth consistency, strain your mixture through a strainer into a measuring cup. My strainer fits snugly into the pitcher so it don't need to baby sit it as much. Your going to get a lot of pulp! Celery is super fibrous, so that is the majority of the good stuff. But don't toss it! I put it aside in a tupperwear and incorporate it (more like sneak it) into brownie mix, and you don't even taste it! 

Double strain. Triple strain, if you want to be super dedicated, but at that point its a bit redundant. You basically get 99% of the pulp out the first time but it's always good to be safe. Pour into a glass with a stalk of celery to garnish, and sprinkle on chia seeds.

And voila! Jooz. It tastes really good, I promise. Seriously, I'm not kidding. Drink it! Please?


xx Carolyn

Greek Yogurt Parfait

Sometimes, I like to eat breakfast and not feel guilty about it, because you don't tend to feel so good about yourself after eating a lot of bacon and buttered bread (you know, once the butter and bacon grease flavors surpass). So I worked away in my kitchen, trying to find something that balances my sweet tooth and the side of me that wants to make better food choices. And yes, I turned to Google. Because sometimes laziness just trumps health.

So I've taken some of the google results and meshed them with my fave flaves (favorite flavors in Carolyn lingo) to produce this parfait. It's like dessert for breakfast, minus the guilt factor.

You'll need:

      -Greek Yogurt (I use the Greek honey yogurt from Trader Joe's.)

      -Honey

      -Berries (I used strawberries and blueberries, but any berry or fruit will do)

      -Granola (The one from Le Pain Quotidien is my favorite, but I de-raisin it before hand)

      -Chopped fresh mint

So you don't really need measurements for this one, you kind of play it by eye (I mean, you can't hear your ingredients speaking to you so you can't really play it by ear…). I like to go heavy on yogurt, lighter on the honey, load on the granola, dump on the berries, and but just a teensy bit of mint. But that's just me, and you can do it however you'd like.

Layer, layer, layer! Yogurt first, granola next, fruit on, drizzle your honey, and top with mint. If you wanted extra presentation points, you could put it in a parfait glass and actually do layers. I don't have that kind of time before school so I actually chop my ingredients the night before, pop them in the fridge, and just assemble that morning. It's easier and still tastes delicious.

I've been loving tea lately, so I have a cup of barley tea (don't judge, it's amazing) with milk and sugar. But with this parfait, orange juice, a smoothie, or plain water will do just as well.

So that's that! Enjoy your breakfast and feel like a cool cat next time you layer up.

xx Carolyn