(30 Days of Juicing Day #3 - Beginner Green Juice Recipe)
When I got back from my morning walk I was ready to fire up the juicer (affiliate link), so I asked Rod if he would like to join me in a glass of green juice.
Surprisingly, he said YES. So, I opted for this Beginner's Green Juice, which is a supposed to be a good one for juicing newbies like us.
The Skinny on Beginner Green Juice Recipe
Spinach is much milder than kale and the carrots and apple add sweetness, so it's much more balanced and easier on the taste buds than "100% Green" juices.
We both found this Beginner Green Juice recipe agreeable. Served over ice it was light, refreshing and gently sweet. It's another one I could see making and drinking regularly for breakfast. And a great alternative to recipes that are still just a little TOO GREEN for me, like yesterday's Green Genie!
I also had a half a banana and an english muffin with peanut butter to round out breakfast.
Unfortunately my healthy eating deteriorated from there, so I'm glad I started the day on the right foot 🙂
We had some work going on in the kitchen which made pausing for lunch difficult. I had a couple handfuls of nuts which held me until 5:30 when we ate way too much popcorn at the movies. Then we headed to the Taco Guild, a restaurant we have been meaning to check out for a while, where it was Happy Hour. I couldn't resist trying a margarita and guacamole and chips, which were delicious.
Oh well, popcorn is a whole grain and avocados are full of healthy fat, right?
This really punctuates for me the importance of getting the day off to a healthy start with a few servings of fruits and vegetables!
I hope you'll try this beginner green juice and let me know what you think. According to my calculations each serving has about 75 calories and *2 Weight Watchers Points Plus.
I only counted the calories from the apple juice and carrot juice to determine points plus. I'm not concerned about the negligible calories from the spinach, lemon and cucumber. Though after reading yesterday's post by Peter, maybe I should rethink the cucumber?
Enjoy!
Beginner Green Juice Recipe {30 Days of Juicing}
Ingredients
- 2 handfuls of baby spinach
- 1 cucumber
- 2 green apples
- ½ a lemon Peeled
- 4 medium carrots
Instructions
- Wash all produce well. Peel the lemon, if desired. Juice all the ingredients and pour over ice.
Recipe Notes
Source: Five Best Juice Recipes for Beginners from Family Gone Healthy
*Points® calculated by WW. *PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT each plan's ZeroPoint Foods (Green plan, Blue plan, Purple plan) using the WW Recipe Builder.
This is Day 3 in our 30 Days of Juicing Series. For a complete list of all the Juice Recipe posts CLICK HERE.
The Juicers we're using for our 30 Days of Juicing...
The Breville Juice Fountain Plus (affiliate link) and the Omega Slow Masticating Juicer (affiliate link)
Martha is the founder and main content writer for Simple-Nourished-Living.
A longtime lifetime WW at goal, she is committed to balancing her love of food and desire to stay slim while savoring life and helping others do the same.
She is the author of the Smart Start 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge.
A huge fan of the slow cooker and confessed cookbook addict, when she's not experimenting in the kitchen, you're likely to find Martha on her yoga mat.
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!
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Mary
Martha,
What type of juicer do you own? I need to start from the very beginning and purchase a machine!
I'm looking forward to reading about your journey,
Mary
Martha McKinnon
Hi Mary,
I'm using the Breville Juice Fountain. There's an Amazon link to it at the bottom of each juicing post so you can check it out there! Hope this helps.
Willa
Hi there! I was wondering how you calculated your points plus. How did you come by 2 points plus? Wouldn't it be 0 PP+ since you're using just fruits and vegetables?
I've never juiced before and am looking to do it following weight watchers, any other tips/suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Willa Flax
Martha McKinnon
Hi Willa,
Thanks for your question. On the Weight Watchers Points Plus plan fresh fruits and most vegetables have 0 points plus. The starchy vegetables such as corn, peas and potatoes have point plus values as do fruit and vegetable juice. If you look up "orange" in the WW Points Plus guide it has a value of "0." If you look up "orange juice" one cup has a value of "3." "Tomato or mixed vegetable juice" has a value of "1" per cup. I've done some research and discovered that carrot juice and apple juice have about the same calories as orange juice so I'm assigning them a value of "3" per cup for the juices I'm making. The calories from most other vegetables (cucumbers, greens, celery, fennel, etc) are negligible so I'm assigning them a value of 0 to 1 per cup. Everyone on WW tends to count points a little differently. It's a matter of finding the method that works best for you. Hope this helps.
Sherrie
Oh thank you Martha for sharing yourself and recipes. Your words of wisdom always resonate so much with me -- I strive for what you have attained BALANCE! You have been my favorite blogger for years and continue to offer the best support, book reviews, recipes and all around good living advice!
Martha McKinnon
Thanks, Sherrie.
I really appreciate you taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment. I can't begin to express how much this means to me! Sometimes I feel like I'm writing in a vacuum and wonder if what I'm doing is really helping anyone! Weight loss/maintenance can be such a challenge for so many of us. But I know in my heart that it's worth the effort!
Knate Henkel
What a great recipe for beginners and experts looking for something simple. Thanks for the awesome post. I can't wait to share it on Tiktok and Instagram, I definitely tag you when I do?