Juicing is a wonderful way to give your body a boost of energy. Besides a wonderful glow on your skin, juices have multiple hidden benefits that will help your body fight off infections, improve the immune system, help in losing weight and detoxify. A glass of fresh juice has significantly more benefits than the packaged ones available off the shelf. Juices are a vegan and gluten free alternative to your morning coffee.

Healthy living: Detoxifying Juice

Here are three of my favorite morning juice recipes:

1. Green Lantern juice

Image via: Oh! She glows

Ingredients:

2 green apples

4 stalks of celery

2 handfuls of spinach

2 cucumber

1 lemon

Whiz all the ingredients together in a juicer and top it up with lemon. Green lantern is a great detox drink for a morning boost. Down a glass after your morning run. You can also add health food supplement like a spoon of spirulina.  Spirulina is a high source of essential nutrients and vitamins.

2. The ABC juice

Image via: Pinterest

 Ingredients:

1 green apple

1 Beet

2 Medium carrots

Put it all together in your juicer, it’s as easy as ABC! You may need to choose a base for some juices that turn out to be pulpier than the other. Still water, apple juice or watermelon juice can be used as a base. Top off your ABC juice with a few drops of lemon.

 3. Berry blast juice

Image via: Dinner dishes and desserts

 Ingredients:

A handful of strawberries

A handful of blueberries

1 kiwi fruit

1 apple

Once again, dunk all your fruits into a juicer and extract the rich goodness of berries. Berry blast is a great juice to replace your morning coffee. The berries contain anti-oxidant properties and vitamins that boost your metabolism. Energize your mornings for a fulfilling day.

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Ginger is a great addition to your juices during the winter. The warmth of ginger juice will help kick start your body on cold mornings. You can create your own wonderful juices by choosing a base like apple or cucumber, add a fruit or sweet vegetable, a leafy green and top it off with some lemon juice, ginger or spirulina. Try these Healthy Living: Detoxifying Juice Recipes today!

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Wouldn’t it be great if we could enrich our bodies with antioxidants in a great tasting way? Our body needs antioxidants. It protects our cells against the effects of free radicals. Antioxidants can be found in many fruits and vegetables. The antioxidants found in these fruits and vegetables prevent cancer, heart diseases and other sickness. Smoothie recipes are one way to get the vitamins and nutrients you need.

One of the delicious ways to consume fruits and vegetables is to make smoothies. This healthy juice can definitely quench your thirst and supply your body with antioxidants. It is so easy to prepare and can be done even without a juicer. Here are two of the best antioxidant smoothies that you can make:

Carrot, Mango, and Herb Smoothie Recipe

Image via: Martha Stewart

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Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen mango chunks
• 1 cup fresh carrot juice
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh herbs, such as mint, tarragon, or basil

Procedure

Combine all ingredients in a blender; blend until smooth. Serve.

Green Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup kale or collard greens firmly packed, stems removed, coarsely chopped (4 ounces)
• 1 Granny Smith apple, coarsely chopped
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Procedure

Combine kale, apple, banana, parsley, and 2 1/4 cups water in a blender; blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more water. Serve and drink while it’s cold.

Both of these smoothies can serve up to two persons. The  carrot, mango and herb smoothie and green smoothie are a great source of antioxidants. You can now enjoy drinking these delicious and healthy smoothies at the convenience of your home. No need for fancy equipment and ingredients. You just need your home blender and the fruits and vegetables you have in your fridge.

Indulge yourself with these healthy and delicious smoothies. It’s a great way to quench your thirst and at the same time protecting your body from harmful diseases.

For more healthy living recipes on Stagetecture, click here.

Every New Year don’t we all try and instill healthy living back into our lives after the holidays? Well, for me I have been trying to consistently practice healthy living since January of 2011. From eating more proteins and green vegetables to exercising consistently I have been very successful

Although, one of my challenges in eating the right vegetables and eating enough of them! My husband suggested I start juicing about a year ago and I absolutely loved it, but didn’t love how many attachments were on his juicer! So I fell off the juicing wagon for quite a while and I could feel it in my body once I stopped, and knew I was going to need to get back to it, and stop paying $7.00 a juice at Whole Foods.. he he!

I was excited to try out Hamilton Beach’s – ‘Big Mouth Juice Extractor’, because I heard it was powerful and didn’t come with a lot of attachments.. Win-win! Let me show you my new juicer that I use daily and share my favorite “Sweet Greens Juice” recipe with you. One of the other benefits of juicing is the nutrients from the juice are absorbed quickly by your body instead of having to go through the digestion process, it’s awesome.

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Sweet Greens Juice Recipe

Ingredients — All fresh (no canned or frozen)

Makes approx 4 cups of juice (Use less if you want to do this daily, I make a lot at once and put in the refrigerator!)

2 Green apples – cut in half

1 Whole pineapple – cored and skin removed

4 Celery stalks

1 Cucumber

1/2 Lemon – peeled

6-7  Full leaves Kale ( Lacinato Kale is best for juicing)

1/2 cup Spinach

1/4 cup Parsley

6-7 Sprigs of mint

1/4″ slice of Ginger root

Directions

1. Clean and wash all vegetables and fruit.

2. Cut off pineapple outer later and core the center (I buy the pineapple already cored – but fresh, not canned!)

3. Feed items one by one into your juicer

4. Taste juice at the end and add or detract ingredients to your taste

5. Enjoy!

How to  Use the Juicer

First – Use an empty plastic bag from your produce or grocery store and put inside the compartment that catches the skins, peels, etc.. This will help you with cleanup in the end, and will help your juicer not stain over time from the juice ingredients.

Second – Cut up your ingredients so they can fit through the juicer easily.

Third – Start feeding your ingredients into the juicer one by one. I use a larger beverage container to pour all of the juice into as I go. That way when the extra juicy ingredients like cucumber and apples fill up the juicing container you can still keep going!

Once all of the ingredients are in you are done! All of the pieces of the juicer come apart easily to wash in the sink and then put in the dishwasher. Ensure you scrub out all debris from all the pieces with the cleaning brush that is included!

Thanks Hamilton Beach – I love my new juicer, and will keep it up through 2013 – I’m going to try a soup next!

To see my other product review of the Hamilton Beach coffee maker – click here.

Note: Hamilton Beach provided me with the juice extractor for this product review. All opinions and comments are strictly my own.

For more wellness ideas on Stagetecture, click here.