Juice It Up To A Happy And Healthy New Year!

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Sometimes, after all the excessive indulgence of the holidays, a glass of fresh squeezed juice is just the ticket. We have recently discovered the joy of making our own orange juice. With a little bit of muscle, an old fashioned citrus press or reamer, and a good amount of oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, or a mix of any of the above, you can have yourself a glass of homemade goodness. My son calls it a glass of vitamins (except he says bita-mins).

Of course the purpose of our most recently squeezed cup of tangerine juice was as an ingredient in a buttery holiday Bundt cake. But those few sips of the leftover liquid was all that was needed to perk us up for the rest of the afternoon. It’s no wonder they call citrus juices “ade.”

I remember each Christmas, my grandfather, who spent the winter in Florida, would send us a box of individually gift-wrapped juice oranges. They weren’t so pretty but those little gems produced the sweetest, most delicious homemade juice for our Christmas breakfast.

Since over the past few years, it seems to be a trend for my family to pass a cold back and forth over the winter holidays, I’d like to revive this tradition of fresh squeezed juice during the holiday season. This year, my sons' Christmas stockings each contained a little Clementine in the bottom tip, just like in the old days.

Oranges, tangerines and other citrus fruits, with their common cold fighting vitamin C, are the perfect antidotes to a case of winter sickness. After the holidays lots of people like to dust off the old juicer that was sitting in the back of a cabinet, or put a brand new gift of a juicer to good work as a way to kick off a healthy new diet.

To start off the New Year, homemade juice is the perfect way to make a fresh beginning. The best results are obtained from juicing room temperature citrus. I know many people who have gone on juice fasts or cleanses, and they have said they never felt better.

While you can’t put your kids on an all juice diet, you can add lots of liquid nutrition to their diet in one morning or afternoon snack cup of a juice blend, if you are lucky enough to have a juicer. Include vitamin packed veggies such as beets, carrots, and kale along with kid friendly fruits like apples, pineapple, and grapes. It’s a pretty painless way to improve their vegetable intake.

Even plain old apple juice is healthier when you make it yourself. Including the peel also adds to its fiber content. If, like me, you don’t have a juicer, you can stick with good old citrus juice, made with an inexpensive citrus reamer or press. Then you can make an occasional trip to a juice bar. While you’ll never get me to try wheatgrass again, I do enjoy and share with my kids the occasional juice blend containing broccoli or spinach combined with fresh fruits, and always feel better for it. Just watch the calorie content on some of the juice bar goodies since some of them contain lots of sugars, caffeine, or protein, which could be too much for young kids.

So raise a glass of fresh squeezed juice; it’s just what the doctor ordered for the New Year!

Serves/Makes: 2 cups

• 12 tangerines