emmamark

I have a Breville Big Squeeze juicer. I have never juiced anything before. I am not doing a juice cleanse and I am not trying to substitute meals. My goal here is to supplement my current diet with more vitamins and nutrients from vegetables and also to provide my kids with a better juice than store-bought. With that in mind I have a few questions:

1. My instruction manual specifically states you should not juice fruits/veggies with hard seeds and listed apples as an example. It says the apple core should not be run through the juicer, yet every instructional video I have seen of this juicer has entire whole apples being used. Is this ok? What about carrots and things with stems? Every video I see just has the whole thing going into the juicer, no trimming or anything. Is that the best way?
   
2. Similar to question 1, the manual says to peel any and all citrus and only juice the core, yet I see online people juicing whole lemons and oranges quite frequently. Is it ok to juice the peel of oranges and such?
   
3. I will mainly be using this juice for my morning and afternoon protein smoothie to avoid using milk (apparently as healthy as I try to live, my cholesterol is still a little high). Generally speaking, blending whole vegetables and such is difficult in a blender, but missing out on the insoluble fiber from the body of the veggies is also a bit disappointing in some regards. Is there anything that can be done with the dried-out body or is it best to just throw it out?
   
4. Again, my instruction manual suggested not to put nuts in the device, but I've seen instructional videos on how to make almond milk in the juicer. Safe?
   
5. Any advice on how to maximize my output and the most affordable cost and time. I am limited on time so I am going to try to make a couple of gallons at a time. Also any advice in general, I am all ears!
   

Fabric Galore

My daughter and granddaughter both love their juicers. They followed the manufacturer's directions since not all juicers have the same motor or capacity. Kale, carrots, celery, spinach or any green vegetables are great with unsweetened apple juice. My daughter used just about any fruit in her juicer but she removed the cores from apples, pears, peaches, etc. Unsweetened natural yogurt is also a good source of protein and probiotics. I add a little bit of vanilla flavoring to my fruit and yogurt. You can also use flax and chia seeds along with acai seeds for added fiber. Good luck!

osewme

I juice carrot juice for my DH a lot. I don't peel the carrots but I do cut off the stem end. I think it is best juiced "as needed" & not stored as in gallons. I think it looses it's flavor if not used immediately.
I would not juice the orange/lemon peels along with the fruit. I think it would tend to give it a more bitter taste. I would use the concept of....if you wouldn't eat it outright, don't juice it. I wouldn't eat an orange peel so therefore, I would not juice it with the orange.
I've always wondered what to do with the "plup" of the carrots that I juice. Well, I've not come up with a good answer so I just throw it out for our wild country critters like the opposums, rabbits & such.
I have a pretty strong juicer so I would think it would handle nuts but I've never tried them in with the other things I've juiced.
Once we were drinking so much carrot juice that we started looking a bit "orange". So, we slowed down of the carrot juice. Now granted we were drinking LOTS of it when we first got our juicer years ago...and I do mean LOTS.
Hope this bit of information helps in some way.

jmoore

I love my juicer and use it for the same reason…to add nutrients to my diet. I have several “go to” recipes that I would be happy to share with you if you PMd me your email. I mostly do celery, spinach, cucumbers, apples, pears, carrots, etc. I always peel my citrus, remove core of fruit and prewash everything. I use small amounts of ginger, lime or lemon for flavor. I have saved glass jars with lids from juice bars where I have purchased which make great storage when I make a batch I usually get about 4 servings which last in the fridge for a few days…just have to shake them before drinking.

sewingpup

Some seeds and pits of fruits contain things like arsenic or other hazardous compounds....so that is why you do not want to include the seeds of apples. And don't feed the apple cores to your dog either. The white "pith" of the orange and other citrus is really bitter and has a nasty flavor if added to stuff. yep. you need to wash things well. As kids, we would eat the carrots out of the garden, wiping the dirt away on our jeans. Those skin on carrots always had an "earthy" flavor. I would make sure stuff was very well washed before juicing anything especially greens as they are more commonly the sources of food poisonings.