This week I am doing a little juice fast. And this time I am doing it without a juicer. And even though I have a really nice juicer, often the thought of cleaning it out makes me not feel like juicing as much, just being totally honest here! SO, this week I am blending everything up in my Vitamix and straining it through a nut milk bag. (You can order my most favorite nut milk bag directly from me here!) And I have found that I LOVE doing it this way!!

A few reasons why:

1. Super easy clean-up

2. More flexibility in what I can juice (i.e. frozen fruits can be tossed right in.)

3. You get so much more juice out of each piece of produce. Once you have strained it through a nut milk bag, and given it a good squeeze, there is just a little bit of compacted fiber left to feed to the dogs or toss in the compost bin. As compared to all the left over pulp my juicer creates.

4. It takes a lot less fruits & veggies to produce a glass of fresh juice

5. You don’t have to spend time cutting up produce as carefully or spend as much time feeding each piece through a juicer.

6. You can really maximize the flavor of the fresh herbs like mint & basil you add, as they get blended in really well.

Now, I can totally see where some people would rather stick with a juicer, especially when you are juicing things like wheat grass that get destroyed when being blended to quickly. I completely understand and I totally support you for using your juicer! Juice on!! And I still appreciate having my nice fancy juicer too. It just comes in a far cry in 2nd place behind my Vitamix for how much use it gets. So if you are on the fence as to purchase a good blender or a juicer, I personally recommend going with a nice high speed blender and then purchase an $10  nut milk bag, which can be used for making homemade almond milk and fresh juices!

My Ruby Juice Recipe:

• 1 cup frozen blackberries
• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1/2 cup frozen cranberries
• 1 cup handful fresh mint leaves
• 1 cup handful fresh parsley
• 1 cup fresh radishes
• enough water to get the blender to spin

Toss everything in a blender. Ideally fresh is best, but I am in the process of using up the last of last summer’s frozen berries to make room for more this summer! I just blended everything together on high, then poured and strained through a nylon nut milk bag. I gave it a good few squeezes to separate out all the fiber and seeds. I tossed out the fiber and seeds, poured the juice in a glass, and enjoyed every last drop! It was like the smoothest raspberry smoothie I had never had before!

Note: Since I used all frozen berries, it was very cold on my hands squeezing the juice through the bag. Warning: very cold fingers! So ideally one would use fresh berries, but if all you have on hand are frozen ones too, don’t let it stop you! ♥

For lunch today, I made a delicious green juice version of my Cucumber Gazpacho recipe in my Vitamix (omitting oil, omitting avocado, but adding extra garlic and celery) and it was heavily! I strained it through my nut milk bag with such ease too!

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