Sweet nectar of summer: DIY strawberry + raspberry + apple juice

Let me just start by saying, wow! I have a feeling I will be making this recipe a lot this summer. I decided to finally make one of the recipes from my sneaky chef cookbook and this one sounded very promising. it’s a recipe to make your own fruit juice. even better, after you make the juice, you can add it to all kinds of other recipes (like milk to make a great fruit flavored milk or sorbet). assuming you don’t drink all the juice in one sitting, like i’m about to do :p

So this recipe is super simple. all you need is some fruit and water and if you want, you can add a dash of sugar. fruit is pretty sweet on its own so you may not even need to add extra sugar. taste the juice before you add extra sugar.

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups fruit of choice (I used a combination of frozen strawberries and raspberries)

- 2 cups water

- some sugar to taste (optional)

- on a whim I also added 1/2 cup applesauce plus 1 whole apple (skin included for extra fiber)

- spoonful of honey

Directions:

Get out a pot and bring your fruit and water mixture to a boil. After it was boiling I took it a step further and threw it in the blender so the fruit would get mashed up a bit and have more of a juice consistency than a chunky consistency. Even doing it this way, I still ended up with some chunks but I can look past that because I know they’re nutritional chunks :p but if you have picky eaters in the house or just don’t like having a chunky texture, then you can just strain the mixture to separate the chunks from the juice. I also took the recipe one step further and added 1/2 cup applesauce and 1 whole apple. I should have blended the apple chunks first to get them nice and smooth rather than wait and try to blend it with the juice. I ended up with an overflowing blender and a bit of a mess. So if you do want to add extra fruit, make sure to puree it beforehand so it can be added to the mixture more easily. After tasting it, I decided I still wanted it a bit sweeter so I added a bit of honey. Not too much. Just enough to make it a tad sweeter. And there you have it, a great refreshing fruit juice.

another recipe in the book also caught my eye, fruit sorbet. after you make your fruit juice, you just add 1/2 cup of the fruit juice to 1 1/2 cups of frozen fruit of your choice and puree it all in the food processor. voila! DIY fruit sorbet! I am going to make sure to save at least 1/2 cup of my fruit juice so I can also try out this recipe.

Now for the goods on the ingredients:

- strawberries are very good sources of vitamin c and manganese. they are also a relatively good source of fiber. foods high in manganese can:

- Help your body utilize several key nutrients such as biotin, thiamin, vitamin c (ascorbic acid), and choline
- Keep your bones strong and healthy
- Help your body synthesize fatty acids and cholestorol
- Maintain normal blood sugar levels
- Promote optimal function of your thyroid gland
- Maintain the health of your nerves
- Protect your cells from free-radical damage

- raspberries are a great source of vitamin c (is a strong antioxidant and also helps the body manufacture collagen in blood vessels, bones, cartilage, and muscles), manganese, fiber, and a good source of vitamin k. As an antioxidant food containing ellagic acid, raspberries help prevent unwanted damage to cell membranes and other structures in the body by neutralizing free radicals. In addition, raspberries have been shown to contain almost 50% higher antioxidant activity than strawberries, three times that of kiwis, and ten times the antioxidant activity of tomatoes

- apples are a relatively good source of fiber (more on that here) and also vitamin c. research has also shown that the phytonutrients in apples can help regulate blood sugar levels.the polyphenols in apples help prevent spikes in blood sugar through a variety of mechanisms. Flavonoids like quercetin found in apples can inhibit enzymes like alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. Since these enzymes are involved in the breakdown of complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, your blood sugar has fewer simple sugars to deal with when these enzymes are inhibited. In addition, the polyphenols in apple have been shown to lessen absorption of glucose from the digestive tract; to stimulate the beta cells of the pancreas to secrete insulin; and to increase uptake of glucose from the blood via stimulation of insulin receptors. All of these mechanisms triggered by apple polyphenols can make it easier for you to regulate your blood sugar.

Related articles

• Straw-raspberry rhubarb crumble (f00dventures.wordpress.com)
• Refreshing Fruit + spinach smoothie with no yogurt and no added sugar (f00dventures.wordpress.com)
• The sweet side of life (fruits and veggies) (f00dventures.wordpress.com)
• Whole wheat challah re-visited (f00dventures.wordpress.com)
• Juice Your Way To Health (personalliberty.com)
• Fresh Strawberry Filling Recipe (faithfulprovisions.com)
• Sensational Strawberry Muffins (curlybug.wordpress.com)
• This Juice is Heaven! (the-fountain-of-juice.com)

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