Juice it up!

Here at Peas HQ we practice stealth health; we reinvent the classics by taking those unhealthy dishes kids love and making a nutritious version the entire family will eat up (or in this case, slurp up).  A fantastic way to get your kiddos to meet their nutritional needs is by juicing; taking the most fresh, seasonal produce you can find, juicing it and serving it up in their favorite cup is quick and easy.  Now I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t have a juicer and I’m not going to spend $300 on a machine that takes hours to clean.” We’ve got great news for you, all you need to make juice is a blender and a cheese cloth!  It’s cheap, easy and the outcome is just jucalicious!

For this juice recipea, we were inspired by California stone fruit because this time of year peaches, plums, cherries and nectarines are literally falling from the sky.  This made us realize – it’s time to reinvent the summer camp classic known as bug juice and turn it into a nutritionally packed juice that’s both easy and inexpensive.  Don’t forget that you can make this recipea your own by using this juicing method and exploring different veggie and fruit combinations based on your family’s tastes.  Let the stealth health begin! 

Stone Fruit Bug Juice

• 3 ripe peaches cut into quarters with the pit removed (the sweeter the fruit the sweeter and tastier the juice)
• 3 ripe plums cut into quarters with the pit removed
• 1 cup of pitted cherries
• ½ cup of water

Combine pitted fruit with water in a blender.  Blend until completely puréed.

Cover a large bowl with a large piece of cheesecloth (you want there to be a few layers of cheesecloth so that the juice is fully strained).  Pour fruit mixture onto cheesecloth, wait for the liquid to strain a bit so that the fruit mixture doesn’t over flow. When blender is thoroughly empty, grab all ends of the cheesecloth to create a little sack and squeeze all of the juice into the bowl until all that’s left in the sack is the fruit fiber.

Add a few ice cubs to your serving cups and fill about 2/3 with the juice mix and top off with water (if you’re feeling crazy, try some seltzer water) and mix with a spoon.