As seen on TV

My father-in-law is the king of gadgets.  He orders tons of stuff from infomercials and because I like to cook, he often sends me kitchen gadgets, many of which unfortunately are still in the package or haven't been used in years.  Saturday I received an Infrachef in the mail and I knew it came from him.  After dinner last night, my grandmother and I checked it out and it seems that it's basically a countertop convection unit powered by halogen, which is quite hot considering that headlights are halogen.  I will probably try it out to make a stew or perhaps steam fish. 

Then I remembered the Magic Bullet that he sent years ago that's still in the closet and the juicer that came in May 2008 (according to the postmark).  I said that I would pull these gadgets out and take a closer look.

There's no time like the present...

My son came home today very excited about the groothie he had in school.  He said it was delicious and that he wanted to get one everyday, I wasn't surprised since he loves Naked's Green Machine.  Of course that prompted me to whip out the juicer.  And I was pleasantly surprised that it was a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer that apparently produces less pulp and is easier to clean than standard juicers and it provides pointers about how to use the pulp (which I'm eager to try).  I  read through the recipe booklet and settled on my standard - carrot, ginger, apple and maybe a bit of lemon and beet for good measure. 

A word of caution...

As usual, I went into research mode so that I could optimize my juicing and then decided to put on the brakes when I came across all of the responsible juicing tips on the Juicing Book website - don't overdo it and be careful about mixing fruits & veggies (my dad used to have the same warning about my COSI's signature salad).  Both the groothie and the juices promoted by Arnold's mix kale with fruit so I guess I need to look into that a bit more.  Anyway, a word to the wise is sufficient, so instead of rushing out and buying veggies in bulk, I'm going to take it easy and see how the week goes.