My new(ish) Jack La Lanne Power Juicer Pro

I like to juice. I started juicing a while ago… just using a small Black and Decker cheapo juicer. It did the job, but the feeder tube was so small that even 1/6 of an apple wouldn’t fit in the slot sometimes. It’s sort of hard to get motivated to juice when the actual act of juicing is a pain in the butt. I wanted something easier to use, that would hold more juice and that was quieter.  I did some shopping around and decided on the Jack La Lanne Power Juice Pro.

Kinda funny… who would of thought I would buy something they sell on infomercials? Not I, that’s for sure. But they had it at Target —  and the reviews were decent and the price was right (compared to some of the professional-grade juicers, which can run you up to $1k!) — so I got myself a new juicer. Isn’t it pretty? All nice and shiny…

Some schools of thought believe that juicing has many health benefits. I believe that too, but I’m not going to get into that here. Rather, I thought I would show you some examples of how much juice you can expect to get out of various fruit and veggie combinations.

I like to do 1 to 3 day juice fasts periodically. They make me feel good, I generally lose about a pound a day and they help me kick-start “eating healthy” — by eliminating the “bad foods” (that I love) from my diet, such as alcohol (0ne of my favorite “foods”), dairy, caffeine, sugar, wheat, meat, etc.

This is a juice I did on one of those fasts…

I started off with six Campari tomatoes .  These are great for juicing, as they tend to be juicer, sweeter and less mealy than other tomatoes. Mine were on the cusp of being too old, as you can see by the wrinkled skin. The more ripe, the less juice… as they start to get dehydrated. This is true of any fruit and/or vegetable. Fresh is best.

They still yielded a decent amount of juice though… about 1/2 cup.

Next up? A combination of 1 apple, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots and a yellow beet.

As you juice the various fruits and veggies, they separate out based on density of liquid.

When all was said and done, I had 3 1/2 cups of juice. The celery and apples really throw off the bulk of it.

When mixed all together, not the prettiest… but it was pretty good. If I’m being totally honest… I’m not a big fan of juiced tomatoes. I love gazpacho, but not tomato juice. The other fruits and veggies helped make this more palatable to me.

The JLL Power Juicer Pro is sort of a pain to clean (but ALL juicers are). To take it 100% apart, you need to use a special tool that comes with the juicer:

Once the stainless housing has been removed from the juicer, you need to use the tool to unscrew the large grater in the center of the centrifuge.

The cool thing is that it’s magnetic, so it picks up the grater once it’s unscrewed. The rest of the cleaning is easy as pie… for juicer cleaning that is. It’s a mess no matter how you look at it, but that’s part of the joy in juicing! 🙂

The entire system is safe for the dishwasher, but to be honest, I prefer to wash by hand. For one thing, you often need to juice again before you run the dishwasher… so it’s just as easy to do a quick rinse of everything and a light wash. That way, if you are doing a jucie fast, the juicer is always ready to go — all day. One thing you DO NOT want to do is leave the jucier uncleaned for very long. Like, NEVER, EVER, leave the pulp sitting the waste container. One, it attracts fruit flies and two, it begins to ferment and lets off a smell that is quite potent. I know this from personal experience! 🙂 I like to either throw the pulp down the drain or into the compost heap… but you can also use it for adding to baked goods or pasta sauces to sneak in some extra vegetable matter and fiber into your dishes.

I’m really happy with the quality of the unit, the amount of juice I get out of produce and especially how quiet and easy to use it is. I definitely recommend it if you are considering getting a new or your first juicer. I have posted a bunch of raw and juice recipes over the last few months… and a site I love — the Raw Epicurean, has a lot of great recipes too. If you haven’t given juicing a try yet… don’t be afraid of the veggies — when mixed with apples, oranges or other fruit (like pineapple) almost anything tastes good! You can even juice greens, herbs and my personal favorite, ginger. Give it a try… I doubt you’ll be disappointed.