Less Hassle

The further I get into my juice experiment the more I am starting to realise how much time in my day the preparation is taking. Because you have to make them fresh every day, I've been preparing and juicing the fruit and veg twice a day (not to mention all that extra washing-up). Determined to rejuvenate my flagging enthusiasm I went on a hunt for some tips on how to save time during a busy day. This is what several hours of Internet searching came up with:

Save on Washing-up: Rather than using a conventional blender, or your juicer, and pouring the finished smoothie into a glass use a stick blender. All you have to do is add the ingredients into the glass and blend right there - no awkward bits and pieces to wash up, so you might be more inclined to make a smoothie this way.

Freeze your smoothie: It's worth making up batches of smoothies when you're less busy, for example the weekend, or the night before, and freezing them for later in the week.You'll need to allow some space in the container because your smoothie will expand when freezing. Let them thaw in the fridge, and you're ready to go. This is a fantastic idea, if, like me you hate feeling like you have to do something every day. By freezing a big batch of different smoothies you can just defrost them as you want them. Also you'd save on washing-up and avoid the common problem of the fruit going-off.

Taking a risk, I went for 'morning dew' because I am running out of ingredients (a trip to the supermarket is looming). All you have to do to make this one is juice 3 celery sticks and 1/4 of a Galia or honeydew melon. This was quite a 'thin' liquid, was a light green in colour and did at first smell and look very appetising. However, if I was to advise anyone wanting to make their own juices it would be to avoid any recipe that contains celery. All the juices I've tried with it in the celery has ruined any nice tasting fruit and I've been left with a glass full of celery liquid to force down! This one was no exception. Rating 1/5

Instead of one in the middle of the day I decided to try one before I went to bed. You have to be careful which juice you pick when doing this, as you don't want anything that will be too high in energy, leaving you counting sheep for hours. I tried 'tranquillizer' which is made by juicing 175g of Romaine lettuce and 2 apples. Place ice cubes in a tall glass and pour the juice over them. You can also make it look pretty by decorating with an apple slice if you wish (I personally didn't bother). Lettuce has a long-standing reputation as a soporific food. Anyone who has read Beatrix Potter's The Flopsy Bunnies should know what this means. But, for those who don't, lettuce has been known to induce sleep and according to George Lang, in his Compendium of Culinary Nonsense and Trivia, "the ancient Greeks served lettuce soup at the end of a meal because it was supposed to be sleep-inducing. Drowsy it may have made me but it certainly didn't taste very nice, I did, however get a good nights sleep. Rating 3/5

Today's Ratings (out of 5) Energy:4 Hassle:4 Benefits:2