Hellobee Boards

i was thinking about buying a juicer, but just stuck to making my smoothies much thinner by adding more liquid in my vitamix. It's not the same -- I love green juice too. But I freeze all the ingredients in a ziploc bag per serving so I just have to add almond milk. It's very cold and refreshing!

I posted about a juicer a while ago and everyone advised me not to get one, that I wouldn't use it and that it was a pain to clean. When I see how much veggies go into a green juice, I understand why they're so pricey!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000MDHH06/ref=pd_aw_sbs_k_1?refRID=0ZHDQ2HTMJBKTHWFJVBP

I have this one. Not expensive and works great - have had it for 6 years now! I can make a ton of juice with one romaine heart, one Persian cuke, 1-2 carrots, 1-2 stalls of celery, 1 peeled lime, and 1 apple. Sometimes I throw in a little kale (the Dino/lacinato kale makes more juice) or a little knob of ginger or a handful of parsley. I also love to juice the core of a pineapple.

My 2 cents...We had a juicer for a while, but gave it to MIL b/c we totally stopped using it after the novelty wore off. It was a PITA to clean, took up way too much space and required a lot of fruits and veggies to make a glass of juice.

We got a high powered blender and use it so much more.

Oh yeah, I also already have a high powered blender (Vitamix), so its not so much picking one or the other for me. Its possible your local thrift shop has a juicer you can try for a few bucks, but honestly the cheaper juicers waste a lot of juice because they don't have enough centripetal force to fling the juice out. That's why I went with a Breville and I know people who enjoy their Jack Lalane, but others have been less impressed with other brands that were cheaper.

When I traveled while pregnant, I drank a lot of Naked Juice and Bolthouse green juices - whatever one had the kale or green veggies in it. They were fine for $2.50 a bottle on the go, but it definitely didn't TASTE as good as the fresh stuff to me. If you have an Asian market or farmstand nearby you can buy a ton of veggies for very cheap. Also your combinations need not be expensive and complicated. When I was a poor law student, I used to buy those big bags of romaine hearts and 10lb bags of organic carrots at Costco and then buy a bunch of limes and a 3lb bag of smaller apples at the grocery store (they fit whole in the chute). That was my basic daily juice and I could get a week's worth of juice for under $15.

@shopaholic: Have you tried the Suja green drink? I get a HUGE bottle from costco. Pretty tasty and no bananas!

We also have a Breville juicer and we love it. The cleanup isn't bad as long you rinse/soak all the parts right after use. The "waste" we put into our compost, so we don't really feel bad about the parts of the veggies/fruit it doesn't use. Honestly, the fresher the juice the better., and the bottled juices you can buy are not near as beneficial as fresh juice. I can't say how much the cost of average juice costs for us if you include the price of the juicer, but the taste and health benefits vs the bottled juices are worth the investment to me. (We also don't really have a juice bar close by, so there's that.)