Sour Apple Spinach Juice

Last week one of my friends gave me a whole bag of lemons that had been lovingly grown in her mother's house. Lemons are not native to Indiana, folks--these had been grown by hands of love. And now I had a bag of them. And they smelled amazing. (Why, yes, I do have the greatest friends, ever in the world--thanks for asking). I wanted to do something special with these lemons--something amazing. The risk, of course, with getting something really nice is that sometimes we put off using it due to its preciousness. And then, like, all things in this world, if we're not careful, it returns to dust. (Or stinky citrus mold, as it were, but I'm trying to wax poetic here.)

So today when I came home after working out with my two super fit friends (ugh, don't you just hate it when people start talking about working out on their food blogs--especially when you could all be eating chocolate pie instead; don't worry; I'm not planning to start logging treadmill workouts any time soon). But anyway, after I got home, I knew the perfect use for at least one of those beautiful lemons. Because I'd had my eye on this spinach juice that called for spinach, blueberries, an apple, and a lemon--peel and all. In my sweaty nasty clothes, that sounded like just the thing.

And I know that sometimes sometimes it might seem like I just sit around all day snarking chocolate caramel pie and washing it down with bon bons. Sometimes I even play that angle a bit because I don't think a woman should ever feel guilty for a bit of indulgence in chocolate pie. If you're going to eat chocolate pie, you should definitely have fun with that. However, in truth, I usually try to keep it pretty healthy around here. The truth is that I like to exercise and I like to eat healthy food (most of the time, people, most of the time), and I start feeling kind of bleh when I don't. This juice had everything going for it--berries, greens, the apple a day, and lemon with the healthy, but often over-looked rind included. Now all I had to do was commit to cleaning my juicer afterwards (blah).

It was worth it. I should tell you that if you're only used to fruit juices, this juice will be a bit of a shock. But a good sort of shock--the kind of shock that's a gateway into other less usual juices. In fact, if you've been kind of sort of toying with the idea of juicing more veggies and less fruit, but weren't quite sure how to make the transition, this--my friends--is an excellent transition juice. It's not a sweet fruit juice, but it's not the pepper, broccoli, and spinach juice either.

And it's sour, but not pucker-up-spit-it-out sour, no. Rather, it's that combo of sweet and sour we go for in a lot of the foods we love (notice that title I gave this juice--that's what it kind of embodies (not imitates, but embodies) for me--sour apple flavor, only with a serious health makeover). And the lemon--oh, the lemon--it was good. You could smell it. You could taste it, but it didn't overpower or kick you in the face.

One warning though--this juice is uggo. Here's a pic of it premixed when it's still kind of interesting. But after you mix it, it's kind of greenish brown--it's not scoring any beauty points.

Sour Apple Spinach Juice
from Clementine Bean
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Serves: 1
Cost: $1.70 (I know that that doesn't sound cheap for a cup of juice, but if you bought fresh-squeezed juice from any juicing bar/place, you're going to pay a whole lot more--probably about quadruple that)
spinach: .40, blueberries: .50, lemon (free!)--but probably about .30 normally, apple: .50

 2 C spinach
1- 1 1/2 C blueberries (these must be fresh or THAWED; frozen will NOT work)
1 lemon, rind included (though I cut off top and bottom)
1 apple, cored (any will work; I used a sweet variety since I dropped it on the floor while getting my apples out, but something tart will work too--just know that you're increasing the bang in this juice if you do that)

Juice those babies. It helps when juicing to follow the spinach (and even the apple) with juicier things--this will help you get the juices from the harder-to-juice things flowing. I put in apple, then a quarter of the lemon, then the spinach, then the blueberries, then the rest of the apple, then the lemon.

PRINTABLE RECIPE