Wednesday 13 March 2013

Eating Clean---ish...

So did i mention that we watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead?  Or that (aside from my initial scepticism..i mean, in the greater scheme of things he wasn't that big aaaannd he had a lot of money to throw at fresh fruit and vege) we went out the next day and purchased a juicer....Sucked in BIG!!
 
 And guess what, those lovely American ladies were Spot On...the first couple of juices tasted just like grass and smelt just hideous!!
 
A couple of days, a farmers market and a bit of experimentation later...We are The Juice Masters!!  Honestly, our array of ingredients are impressive (by our standards) and the taste has most definitely improved!!  
Most of our juice contains a combination of the following...
 
# Apples
#  Carrots
#  Spinach
#  Pineapple
# Cucumber
#  Paw-paw
#  Wheat-grass
#  Celery
# Coconut water
#  Grapes
#  Broccoli
#  Pear
#  Nashi pear
#  Capsicum
#Kale

Sometimes all at once, sometimes just a select few! These juice drinks are DELICIOUS!! (i wont lie, we do still get the occasional dud that nearly exits via the nose)
 
Our very first Juice!!  So proud, even if we did gag a bit drinking it!!
 
We decided to try growing our own wheat-grass, and you know what, 'it can grow like the wind blows!!' (Thanks Forest)  It's awesome!!  That, combined with the kale, baby spinach, strawberries (yup, they're still going), broccoli and watermelon we're growing, will hopefully reduce the cost of our juicing venture (We do smoothies too) by a wee bit.  Im even more excited for next summer when all the fruit trees we planted start to fruit!!(I don't think i said that quite right?...oh well)
 
Our first attempt at growing our own wheat grass from seed :)
 
  For our smoothies, i've chopped a variety of fruit and vege, put it into individual freezer bags and chucked them into the freezer so that when we feel like a tasty treat, all we have to do is chuck the frozen stuff into the blender with a green tea brew and push "Mash" (Or whatever that button says)!
 
Smoothie packs ready for the freezer!!
 
  And then there's the Farmers Markets!!  What an awesome wee world that one is!!  What's even better than the locally grown, cheap produce, is that a lot of the stalls have bulk packs of their 'not-so-pretty' fruit for use in jams/smoothies etc, for a fantastically reduced price!!

One of our baby watermelons!!
 
I know this isn't the whole kit and caboodle of clean eating, but for a family of four on a tight budget, that has a taste for all things processed, it's a good start!! (Also, because we bought the juicer and all the fruit and vege/new plants for the garden, we can't afford take out any more, so that's another bonus!)

Our cucumber thinks it's an apple-cucumber....
 
We're investigating home kill for unprocessed meat (and reducing our red meat intake too), and looking at other processed foods that we can make ourselves, but for the moment i feel good with the few little changes we've made!! (Like literally feel great physically too!)
 
Lachy helping harvest our ripe capsicum and chilli's
 
If anyone has any more suggestions or comments on this topic or juice/smoothie ideas i'd LOVE to hear them, comment down the bottom or flick me an email!! :)


Renee  :)

'Not all who wander are lost'

5 comments:

  1. We haven't been juicing but have been focusing on eating clean, whole foods over the last few months. Have you watched Food Inc? I don't know how applicable it is to you as its very US based but its seriously eye opening too! Check out the blog "100 days of real food"! She has some great recipes!
    I'll have to check out Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead!
    I'm starting to feel like your my southern hemisphere twin, between this and your experiment 626... you keep posting all these things that I've been doing too! Love it!

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    1. Haha, great minds think alike!! We did watch Food Inc, but i was able to kid myself that because it was US based that it didn't really apply here....I seriously need to take my blinkers off!! I was really horrified the other week to find out that here in NZ a lot of the natural products that we purchase (eg Chlorella powder)don't have to meet any standards or be tested!! Any one can bottle anything and sell it as a natural product! (which is why we're growing our own wheat grass.) It's making me stop and think for sure!! Thanks for the blog tip!! I need it!!

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  2. I would love to juice and do more eating clean...i'm really trying. in the winter here it is hard but i LOVE the farmer's market. I love buying stuff that fresh from local places. and it's a lot cheaper than the store...especially the fruit!

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    1. Yeah, winter does make it harder!! I've been trying to find out if our farmers market is a year-round thing, because it's so much cheaper!!

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  3. so awesome + inspiring! keep it up!

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