The Day We Beet

The first time I ever brought Beet Juice to the club and shared it was.... epic. Stephanie was leading a HIIT class and I remember running up to her and shouting

 "IMA'BOUTTOHAVESOMEBEETJUICEYOUWANTSOME?!?" 

And to this utter randomness Stephanie replies... "Sure." Friendship Level 1, Unlocked.

So I tote upstairs about 5 ounces of bright red beet-tastic juice. Stephanie shoots it like a pro and returns to her training group. Those poor ladies. Little did we know at the time and beet juice contains nitric oxide. Stephanie was now on a natural pre-work out and it was shooting through her blood stream like some kind of pre-teen vampire venom. Jumps squats became higher and rest periods shorter. Afterwards Stephanie says: 

"THATWASGREATICOULDHAVEGONEALLDAYIHAVESOMUCHENERGYNOW!"

It was at that exact moment Stephanie's love story with beet juice began. Beets are powerful little buggers. Both the leaves and roots hold amazing health properties. Beet leaves contain vitamins A and C and the B vitamins niacin, thiamine and riboflavin. Beet leaves as hold  calcium, iron and phosphorous. The roots not only have the nutrients located in the leaves but  also folate, magnesium, manganese, potassium and zinc. Beet root also contain beneficial bioflavonoids, betacyanins and the carotenoids beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin. WHAT!? Amazing. You do have to be cautious with beet juice. It is suggested that 2 small beets be juiced with three small green apples or five carrots. Beet juice can dangerously raise heart rates and even paralyze vocal chords... potent stuff. If you are looking to increase performance during high intensity exercises, I highly recommend a beet pre-workout.  But, I also suggest you warn those you are working out with that:

"IJUSTHADSOMEBEETJUICEANDIMMAGONNARUNREALFAST!"

Beet You To It Juice

2-3 Small Beets

2 Small Green Apples

2 Hand Fulls of Spinach

(and/or 1 Bunch of Kale)

6 Carrots

1-2 Blood Oranges (Peel Removed)

1/4 Lemon

When is a Parsnip Not a Parsnip?

I have been juicing for about a year and a half now. In the last six months I have encouraged and nurtured a juicing revolution in my work place. I work at a fitness club in Eagle River, AK, where, for about nine months out of the year, it's hard to get a steady stream of top quality fresh fruits and veggies. Even now as I type this post, on May 18th, it is snowing. Just in case you are speed reading this, let me repeat, it is SNOWING. Juicing has taken on a new meaning to me, living up here. It is literally how I am surviving the cold. When I try to picture how others see me, as I tote around mason jars of strange looking liquids, I can only imagine I must look like a character in a sic-fi movie. Some poor destitute newcomer to a strange foreign planet, slamming back pints of these cloudy green concoctions to keep her human vital signs strong. And so, with my strange addiction to vegetable based juices, I have fostered an exciting new exchange in my work place. We juice whatever we can find and reveal the results as a collective, both the good and the bad. A couple months ago I decided to try out a parsnip juice recipe I had found in one of my multiple juice bibles. It was amazing. I played around with it. Added some strawberries. Put in some mint. It became even more amazing:

2 Parsnips

2 Green Apples

1/4 Lime

1/2 Cup Strawberries

and a couple Sprigs of Mint

It's a blushing pink glass of non sic-fi appearing perfection. And I rushed to share it with my friends.
It was a hit and of course many of my friends tried to emulate it at home. Many mastered it. All really, but one. Stephanie kept trying to recreate it with no success. It was smelly. It burnt a little. With every attempt, it made her break out more and more with a little rash around her lips.
For the life of us we could not figure out what was going wrong with this juice. Maybe there was too much air left in the mason jar. Maybe Stephanie's parsnips were bad.  Maybe, and this was our final assertion, she was sadly allergic to parsnips. And that was the end of it. Stephanie must be allergic to parsnips. Curtain closes. Or so we thought. A couple weeks later, while Stephanie and I training we begin to rehash the discussion on the parsnip juice which tried to kill her.  I randomly relate the parsnip to a white carrot. Stephanie pauses. That is not what her parsnips look like at all. Her parsnips are big and smooth and really really white. We look at one another. What has she been juicing? Because it was definitely NOT a parsnip. Later that evening she returns to the store. Our friend Alyssa poses with the mystery non parsnip.

It is horseradish. Stephanie had been making apple, lime, horseradish juice. And it was not yummy at all. In fact. It was pretty dangerous! And looking back on it, it speaks volumes about Stephanie as a person. She's not a quitter. She was going to make that parsnip juice work, no matter if it made her lips blister! She was going to find the missing link which would make it delicious. It's one of the things I like most about Stephanie. She's tenacious. Sometimes though, no matter how hard you try. You just can't make parsnip juice..... with a horseradish.