I hope that everyone had a happy Halloween!
If anyone was curious about this year’s Halloween costume… I was a cactus! I cut white pipe cleaners into small pieces, folded them into “V” shapes and stitched them all over a green fitted American Apparel dress! I added a cactus flower in my hair and as a ring as well : )
Thursday-Saturday consisted of lots of sugary drinks, candy, and costume changes and I think it’s about time for a juice cleanse!
I’ve been complaining to my friends about being super tired and sluggish, and to be honest it’s probably all of the extra crapola that i’ve been eating! Halloween is only once a year, and candy and punch is necessary to celebrate.
My friend Brett (my gorg bunny model) and I are starting a 3 day juice cleanse and I would love some bunnies to join us! I’ll be posting my daily juices and feedback on my blog for you guys to read and follow along. It’s always great to have a buddy so you can hold each other accountable and stay motivated.
I’m really really excited for this post, because I love sharing what i’ve learned along the way of my weight loss journey. I want to showcase my simple juicing tips to make a homemade juice cleanse less intimidating and less time consuming for you guys. Hopefully you will learn some new tricks or be inspired to do a cleanse of your own after reading this!
TIP #1: BUY LOCAL. IT’S CHEAPER.
A lot of people can get turned off by juicing or juice cleanses because of the price. Store bought juice cleanses are super pricey, but making it at home doesn’t have to be!I went to a local store called “Growers Direct” which has excellent prices. I bought all of my produce for the next 3 days for $14.50 (unless I forgot something and need to go back!). Farmers markets are excellent for buying produce for a juice cleanse because they tend to be less expensive than your average grocery store or Whole Foods. Even hit Costco or Sam’s Club for bulk produce!
What I bought:
4 bunches of kale
4 oranges
4 lemons
4 cucumbers
7 Fuji apples
ginger root
5 lb bag of carrots
All for $14.50! That’s the price of 2 store bought juices, or one meal at a restaurant!
TIP #2: LINE THE PULP BIN WITH A PLASTIC BAG.
This will definitely help when cleanup time comes! You won’t have fruit and veggies bits all over your kitchen and they will be pre-bagged and ready to be transferred. For ideas on what to do with your pulp, see TIP #7.
TIP #3: SORT YOUR PRODUCE FOR WASHING.
Place all of your produce that needs to be washed in the sink (anything that the skin remains on i.e. apples, greens, cucumber, grapes, etc.). In the meantime, place a few pieces of paper towel next to the sink for easy drying. Kind of like a little fruit & veggie washing assembly line!
After your produce has been rinsed, place them on the paper towel and gently blot dry. Don’t worry about drying them completely, just blot the excess water.
TIP #4: SORT ITEMS THAT NEED TO BE CHOPED
Sort any produce that needs the skin removed (i.e. citrus and ginger.) At this time, you will also want to chop any large fruits or vegetables that cannot fit into the juicer whole. I like to chop my apples into 4 pieces each so they’re easier to feed into the juicer.
TIP 5: JUICE CITRUS IN BETWEEN SOLID PRODUCE.
To get the most juice out of your citrus and greens, place them in between more solid produce like apples or cucumbers. I like to line up the “mouth” of my juicer with an apple, lemon, and then more apple and press it in with the “plunger.” This way I know I’m getting all of my citrus juice pressed in!
TIP #6: FILL THE SINK WITH SOAP AND WATER FOR QUICK CLEANUP
Fill your sink with warm water and soap while you juice your produce. This will make the cleanup process MUCH faster! Once you finish juicing, place all of your washable juicer parts in the sink and let them soak while you bottle up the juice. This will allow the soap and water to help loosen up the pump for quick and easy part cleanup!
TIP #7: RECYCLE YOUR PULP!
Now that your pulp is already stored in a plastic bag, it’s super easy to transfer it to your refrigerator for later use, or to compost! I love using juice pulp for crackers (recipe coming later this week)! Just remember, if you want to use your juice pulp for another recipe later on, be sure to remove any inedible seeds and skin before juicing. Get that pulp in the refrigerator and save it for my Juice Pulp Cracker recipe later this week!
TIP #8: LINE YOUR COUNTER WITH PAPER TOWEL FOR JUICE STORING.
Line your counter with a couple sheets of paper towel to make the juice storing process less messy. Remove lids from your glass jars and get ready to pour.
Tip #9: HOW TO PROPERLY STORE YOUR FRESH JUICE
Fresh juice right out of the juicer is not only the best tasting but the best for you because of it’s high nutrient level. But we can all agree that it’s not always practical, right? No one really has time to juice several times per day, so it’s necessary to make juice beforehand. A couple of questions I frequently receive are “Is it possible to make juice ahead of time?,” “how long does juice last in the fridge,” and “how do you store fresh juice?” Well here are my answers. Yes, it is possible to make a batch of juice ahead of time and store it for later. Fresh juice can last about 24 hours without losing any nutrients if stored properly.
The biggest concern for keeping juices fresh is oxidation. During the juicing process, fruits and vegetables are broken open and their enzymes and other nutrients are released from the fiber. When the juice is exposed to air it gives up an electron to the oxygen in the air, thus oxidizing the juice and making it less nutritionally stable. If you can reduce the amount of time the juice is exposed to the air and seal it up quickly you have a better chance of keeping the nutrients intact.
This means storing your juice in glass jars with an air tight seal. Below I will describe the process of filling the jars to get the least amount of oxygen in them as possible!
Fill the jars all the way to the top rim with juice so that they actually overflow a little. The goal is no air inside the jar.
Place the metal lid on top of the jar. Some juice may overflow, which is ok. This ensures that there is no excess oxygen in the jar.
Screw the metal band on tightly to ensure the lid is on and sealed.
Clean off the jars and throw away the paper towel. Store for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator! Careful when opening, they’re full!
TIP # 10: DRY JUICER PARTS ON A DRYING RACK
After cleaning all of your juicer parts, let them air dry on a drying rack (I bought a bottle rack at Target for about $10). The less work, the better, and the more likely you will be to juice again!
Now for that juice recipe you’ve been waiting for!
Catherine’s Glowing Green Juice
Makes 4 16oz servings
2 bunches of curly kale
4 Fuji Apples
2 Lemons, skin removed
2 large cucumbers
1.5-2 inch slice of ginger, skin removed
This is one of my favorite juices and an excellent basic green juice for a cleanse!
I hope that these juicing tips have helped and/or inspired you to juice at home! xo
If you have any juicing tips, let me know in the comments below!
Congratulations to the blushing bride and groom! (Photo credit: Farfum)
With Jocelyn and her gorgeous bridesmaids! Ashley, Nicole, Jocelyn, & me!
Highlight of the night before the wedding: getting photo-bombed by the camo convention at the bar! I 
In attendance were these fineeeee bloggers:
I arrived in Yuma to sunny skies at a warm 103 degrees and tons of Natural Delights goodies in my air conditioned hotel room!
Night one started with a happy hour full of Medjool date appetizers like mascarpone stuffed dates, and sweet Medjool date salsa.
After happy hour we made our way to Glen Vandervoort’s house for a beautiful dinner with other Bard Valley Medjool Date growers and their families. The Medjool date appetizers continued with prosciutto wrapped dates, and an olive date tapenade that was to die for. Just think, salty sweet deliciousness. I will be sharing the original recipe with you this week!
I came home from dinner to turndown and a box of Bard Date Company chocolate covered dates from Dave & Debbie Mansheim’s shop 
The next morning, we all met in the conference room for breakfast, history of Natural Delights Medjool Dates, and a rundown of their current and upcoming products.
Natural Delights is now offering Snack Packs of Medjool dates and their super popular date rolls. I love the convenience of these mini bags. They make for a great healthy on the go snack! I actually wish these would be in the check out lines at Whole Foods and other grocery stores. I would definitely grab mini bags of fresh Medjool dates versus a bag of candy any day!
Glen Vandervoort brought us freshly harvested medjool dates straight off of his tree for us to try during breakfast. Words cannot even describe how divine fresh dates are. They literally taste like caramel. For the rest of the day, all we (the bloggers) could talk about was how insanely amazing the fresh dates were!
After breakfast we visited the medjool date gardens!
We had the opportunity to go up in the cherry picker and harvest dates from a 30ft tree.
Safety First! Andrew Costanza: Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association’s Director of Compliance and Standards got us in our sweet harnesses before going up in the trees. How fab do Alyssa (
When dates are growing, they are covered in cloth bags to prevent birds from eating them, and any from falling to the ground. In order to harvest dates we shook the bags, untied the string holding the bag together at the bottom, and then let the ripened dates fall out of the bag and onto a tray.
Once the dates fall onto the trays, they are checked and sorted depending on their ripeness. As you can see the yellow date closest to the front is not yet ripe, the date in the center is only partly ripe, and the last one is just perfect.
Theresa (
Beth from 
“The Big Six”
Me standing with one of “The Big Six” Medjool date trees. As you can tell, they are soooo tallll!
After frolicking in the date gardens, we arrived at 
Health and safety required us to wear these super chic hairnets and visitor passes while inside. #lunchladychic
While at Datepac, we watched the dates make their way from being washed to sealed up in their packages.
After being washed, the dates go one by one down a conveyer belt which takes individual photos of each date with a fancy shmancy state of the art camera. Once the computer system receives each image, it determines the date’s size. A brief puff of air then blows each date onto next next conveyer belt according to it’s size. So high tech!
The packing grade scale doesn’t just go by size. It actually goes from highest quality and largest date, down to lowest quality and smallest date. The quality is determined by how tight or puffy the skin of the date is.
It was amazing to see how much of the process was actually done by hand. In order to sort the dates, it must be done by (extremely clean) bare hands to feel the skin’s texture.
We even got a chance to sort the dates and see if we could tell the difference between jumbo, large, extra fancy, fancy, mini, and confection.
After dates are sorted, they go to the packaging area.
Dates on dates on dates.
Another fun part of Datepac that we got to explore was the Date Roll area! We watched them make some fresh pistachio date rolls. The lower quality (not so pretty, but still tasty) dates are ground up (kind of like sausage), rolled in their topping, and then sliced up and packaged.
After our tour of Datepac, we had a beautful lunch at 
Once we got back to the hotel from lunch, we had a social media break for a couple of hours before our next event. Andrew (Director of Compliance and Standards) asked if any of us wanted to go on a spontaneous trip to the sand dunes in California. Funny because we were staying in Arizona! Five of us we’re up for the adventure, and away we went!
The sand dunes were absolutely gorgeous.
On our little adventure, we also made a quick stop in Mexico. Just kidding! Kind of…
We were so close to the border. No joke! We were in Arizona, California, and Mexico all within 15 minutes! Andrew dared us to go and poke our fingers between the border fence, but none of us took the dare, haha! The sign was a bit intimidating!
Kim from 
Cynthia (
After our trip to Mexico (ha) it was time for a Date Shake Competition! All of the bloggers were randomly paired into groups of two and we had a huge variety of ingredients to use. Nicole (
After our wild adventure to Mexico and Date Shake Competition, we had our final fiesta at 
The next morning a few of us who had later flights went on a tour of the