Beginner's Guide to juicing / blending

As you might know from previous blog posts I love having fresh smoothies for breakfast. Usually I like to add juices to my smoothies but since I'm not a big fan of the packaged stuff (also they don't give you as many nutrients as freshly homemade juices and you are quite limited on the combinations of fruits and vegetables) I bought a juicer a few months ago.

I found quite a few recipes that I love and so I usually make more juices than smoothies for breakfast now. For the most part I make a juice and blend in a bit of fruit like a banana or 1/4-1/3 of an avocado. I either have that on it's own or eat some nuts/nut butters, dried fruit (dates or cherrys) or some veggies, sprouts and fresh hummus with it. I usually drink this on it's own though as I don't have time to sit down for longer in the mornings (seriously, I'm  a single mom of a busy toddler ;) ) also they usually fill me up until lunch. (I have 750ml- 1250ml for a meal)

My favourite ingredients for juices are:
root vegetables (carrots, beets, ginger), citrus (lemons, oranges), other fruits (apples, pears, pineapple), cucumber (peeled)

My favourite ingredients for smoothies are:
Berries (all sorts you could possibly think of), stone fruits (cherrys, peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots) bananas, mango, avocado, baby spinach, baby kale, lamb's lettuce

Any combination of these will create a rather sweet drink.
I'm not a fan of broccoli or other stronger veggies from the kale family for eating raw. I love all these vegetables in my cooked meals though!
Personally I don't like celery at all in any meal or combination. If you like it, you  should try juicing it though since many people seem to like it and it's certainly a healthy option on the food market!

My rule of thumb for juicing vs blending is: juice harder fruit & veg and bigger leafy greens as well as citrus (because of the white skins) and blend softer fruit and young / baby leafy greens.

Use a good balance of fruits and vegetables to avoid ending up with a too sweet drink. Root vegetables add a lot of sweetness themselves!
If your drink doesn't taste as good as you've hoped for, try adding lemon or ginger. They usually do the trick!

I'll post some recipes in the future, so make sure to check back for those ;)