I love orange juice. My cutie-pies, love orange juice. Therefore, we drink orange juice–a lot. Yes, we all know that OJ is packed with vitamin C, but the store bought version has been pasteurized (which is necessary) to kill unwanted, deadly bacteria. However, in this same necessary process for safety, much of the nutrients is killed off and we are left with mainly sugar, with a splash of Vitamin C. I am not sharing this to tell you to stop buying your favorite jug of orange juice, but to maybe/possibly/hopefully get you to squeeze one or two on your own. Vitamin C is a sacred vitamin that builds up our immunities, helps with healing, wrinkles (collagen), cardiovascular health, even eye sight to name a few. An orange can provide you with 100% of your Vito-C needs, that’s pretty impressive.
In an effort to engrave into my children’s brain that all food/beverage has a true source, we tossed out the juice boxes and got
to pressing! I still purchase orange juice to keep on hand for a smoothie or a quick sip, but I am really, really, working toward eliminating “convenience” when it comes to nourishment. The taste of a freshly squeezed batch of oranges does not begin to compare to the store-bought pasteurized glass. Also, I am finding that when there is some type of labor involved in whatever I put in my body, it tastes so much better. Even my almond butter (which I don’t particularly enjoy making) tastes better to me than ANY other store bought jar (organic, creamy and crunchy), it just doesn’t compare. So today my son pulled out literally every single orange in the house and said “let’s make orange juice”, well, we all know what happened next. He pressed them first and Mommy was given the job of checking that all the juice was extracted. We use a simple little hand presser that was gifted from a friend. We don’t have a special bowl or pitcher since I’m not the most décor savvy Mama, I’m a veggie mama. Well, here is how we made our fresh pressed glass of naranja-joy.
Ingredients:
- Oranges–duh
- Spring/filtered water
- Agave syrup
Process: Press them, pour through a strainer if you don’t want to drink up too much pulp. I add a 1/3 part of water and a drizzle of agave in the end. It tames some of the tangy bite and stretches the juice a little. I don’t see anything wrong with a little agave in your life. Yes I have a sweet tooth, but at least it’s glycemic index is low. The drizzle may not be needed though if your oranges are extremely sweet already.
Confession: Sometimes I just go around my neighborhood and pick the oranges off the street trees. They are super sour, but still packed full of natural goodness….I think I’m the only one in the neighborhood that does this.
My sons love helping me make juice of any kind, but this one is especially fun being that it involves their big, strong, muscles (ha-ha-ha!). You don’t need a store bought electric juicer to enhance your health. After our arms tired and all the oranges were pressed, I decided to give my boo a little extra treat for all his hard work. I got the idea of putting a sweet, cold, creamy treat in the orange bowls from Charlene Chic’s blog post “When life gives you lemons, stuff them with ice cream..”. Now excuse me while I go clean up my messy kitchen before these ruthless, gangsta, hormigas figure out I have oranges on my counter and send a scout! Happy pressing 🙂
This is great. I love how you get the little ones involved so they’ll make better choices when they grow up and start really cooking and shopping on their own. ‘Working toward eliminating convenience when it comes to nourishment’! LOVE that. I have to reference you in my latest post. You’re doing great things!!
Oh wow Kelley thank u so much for the encouragement, I really, really hope my boys will do that when they are grown. Thank you so much!!!