A Farewell to (Juice) Spreadsheets

I started this juicing experiment with a lot of skepticism, a free juicer, and a curiosity about the cost of juicing. But over the course of the last few months, I learned a lot about juice. And even more about myself.

Specifically, I learned that I make enough juice to justify the purchase of a juicer. That was really what the spreadsheet was about. That, and my love of spreadsheets. And my desire to know how much it costs to have a regular juice habit. It was about a lot of things.

There are many "things to buy for a kitchen" articles out there, and generally, I'm in the camp of people who think that you can make MOST things with minimal equipment. You need a pot, a pan, a knife, a cutting board, a stirring utensil. You can make a lot of stuff with those things. You can make COFFEE with those things (if you have ground coffee and water). I'm theoretically wary of specialty appliances that do only one thing, but in reality, I have a juicer, a blender, an immersion blender, a stand mixer and a waffle maker. The waffle maker is the most egregious of these "does only one thing" items and I use it all the time. Because waffles are delicious, and amazingly easy to make.

So the juicer...The juicer I have is awesome, and from the '80s. It's that odd yellow color that things used to be (similar to the avocado color of the '50s and then the '70s). It's not pretty, but it's very unique. This is not the juicer I would get for myself, but it is the juicer that my mom gave me for free. I started the spreadsheet with the thought that if I made enough juice, and tracked the cost both overall and per batch of juice, I could, eventually, normalize the cost of the blender that I *would* have gotten if I hadn't already had one just sitting in my kitchen. (And then, obviously, I could get that juicer. HA. No, of course not. But I would think to myself "I could totally normalize the cost of this juicer. But since I have a perfectly good juicer already, I won't." I would get the L'Equip Mini, if my brain were different than it is, for those wondering at home.)

Since January 22nd, I have made 28 batches of juice, and the average cost per batch (when I say "batch" I mean "liter" because that's about how much juice I make. I mention this because very few people seem to talk about recipe yield when it comes to juice, and I think that's ridiculous) has been $3.67.

I think that, while I don't make juice every day the way I did for the first couple of weeks, I still make enough juice to justify the counter space and the theoretical money I would spend on a nice juicer, if I didn't already have a perfectly good juicer. For me, the benefits of having a juicer in the house definitely make it a worthwhile accessory. If I wanted to do a juice cleanse, it would be pretty easy. It's also a good way to use up vegetables and fruits that might otherwise go bad (apples. I'm talking about apples. and maybe also spinach when you get it in the really big bag from Costco.).

Now that I have come to all of these conclusions, I don't think I really need the spreadsheet anymore. Plus, it's smoothie season, so I should probably start a spreadsheet for that instead. (just kidding. Each smoothie batch, which yields about 25 ounces, costs, on average, $1.24.)

Juicing: I Should Probably Keep Doing This

You may remember that I was *very* excited about juicing a couple of months ago, and I was making juice every day, and it was awesome, and I was keeping a ridiculously detailed spreadsheet, etc. Well, I got sick because that is how my body handles the transitions between seasons, and I stopped making juice for a couple of weeks. Then I got better, went to SXSWi, got a sinus infection, and ended up not making juice for a little over a month! (I know this because of the spreadsheet.) I did go to Jamba juice a couple of times while in Austin, but that hardly counts (it did reawaken my love of smoothies. Can't wait for summer!). Why didn't I make juice while sick? Laziness, habit, kept forgetting to buy kale, all these reasons and probably more. Actually, no. I think that's it.

When I was making and drinking juice almost every day, I noticed that my junk food cravings waned, and eventually almost disappeared. I'd have a soda once a week (at the Spectrum Live planning meeting), but I didn't really miss daily sodas, candies, or other traditionally awesome snack-type things. A couple of weeks ago, after not having had juice in several weeks, I started buying Kit Kats (when I say "buying" I mean "buying and immediately eating" and when I say "Kit Kats" I mean "like half a dozen Kit Kats") and drinking soda regularly and baking cakes (initially mistyped as "cats." I would never bake cats). It was very noticeable, and very weird. Today, I got a bag of post-Easter robin's egg candies (the ones that are basically malt balls) and ate half of it. Also I got a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper and drank several cups. These are facts. Another fact: My stomach hurts.

What I am trying to say is that, normally, I have a ridiculous sweet tooth (my ability to eat candy is legendary and terrifying) and absolutely no desire to curb it. What I noticed when I was drinking juice regularly, was that I just wasn't interested in the snacks that I would usually gravitate toward.

I've heard other people talk about not wanting the kinds of junk foods that they liked before they started making juice, and while I believed them, I was surprised that it was the same for me. I was also surprised by how *quickly* this shift occurred. So there's that.

This isn't to say that juice is a magical, life-changing thing. Juice can have a lot of sugar in it! I'm fine with that! I just think that I'm probably, personally, better off drinking juice than I am, say, eating 2 pounds of Twizzlers, which I WOULD have done over Easter weekend, but lately, every time I go to get Twizzlers, the regular strawberry ones are sold out and all they have are the pull-and-peels, which are disgusting, or the weird tropical flavors. Or Red Vines. Red Vines are *fine* but they're not *inspiring.* Not like strawberry Twizzlers. Other things, while I'm bragging about candies I have eaten: I used to pour Skittles into juice glasses and just eat them until my jaw hurt so much I couldn't eat any more. I also used to live on Raisinets, Mountain Dew Code Red, Twizzlers, McDonalds food and V8. The V8 was for health. Obviously. Also I'm not kidding. Shockingly, I do not have diabetes. Yet.

Back to things that aren't focused on my amazing ability to consume sugar, which I am weirdly proud of, and other people are openly horrified by:
Previously, I would make one particular juice recipe (mean green, outlined on this blog and many other places on the web), and if I didn't have those ingredients, I'd go to the store so that I could get them, and while that's an awesome and economical juice (about $3 per batch, which is just under a liter of juice), I decided that today was the day I was going to get back into juicing, and expand my juicing horizons.

Today's juice recipe:
2 large gala apples
7 carrots
1 lemon
a bunch of spinach (I stuff handfuls of lettuce into a container and then I use one or two containers per batch, depending on whether or not I have other dark leafy greens to use)
4 stalks celery

Yield: just under 1 liter of juice.
Taste: delicious.

I just have to remember to keep a couple of key elements in the house (haven't decided which those are yet - maybe apples. Apples are always nice to have around, since they make good snacks, and are a good delivery system for peanut butter. Apples, lemons because they last forever, carrots, dark green leafy vegetables. There! Solved it!) and I have to stay in the habit of making juice. Because it is awesome.