Juiced Up Juice Off! Bullet Express Juicer Vs. Black & Decker Juicer

My friend, Nikky, started joining me on my juicing journey. We both have two separate juicers and noticed that it seems like her juicer doesn't get as much juice out of her fruits and veggies as my juicer does. To find out if this was true, we devised an experiment and held a Juiced Up Juice Off in her kitchen. What we discovered fascinated us. Here it is!

THE JUICED UP JUICE OFF!

DUNDUNDUN!

Nikky's Juicer Information

Nikky owns a Magic Bullet BER-0601 Bullet Express Trio 3-in-1 Blender System which we will just call the Bullet Juicer from here on out. The Bullet Express is currently priced at $179.99 for a used one on Amazon. 

Bullet Express Juicer.

Dotchi's Juicer Information

I own a Black & Decker JE2200B 400-Watt Fruit and Vegetable Juicer which will be referred to as the Black and Decker Juicer from here on out. The Black and Decker juicer sells on Amazon, as of today, for $26.99. I bought mine from Wal-Mart for about $30.00 or so a little over a year ago.

The Black & Decker

 Setting up the Juiced Up Juice Off!

First I had to find a vegetable to juice in both juicers. I picked carrots because I was hungry and really wanted some carrot juice. I spent about 20 minutes weighing every carrot in my house. I finally found two carrots that each weighed 3.2 ounces.

 And here are the two carrots side by side so you can see I actually have two carrots.

 Next we set up the experiment area in Nikky's kitchen with both juicers facing each other for dramatic Juice Off effect!

  

Our first difference I noted is that her juicer, the Bullet Express, can juice a whole carrot without needing to cut it. My juicer, the Black & Decker, needs to have the carrot cut in half long way. Since I prefer not to have a trip to the ER, I cut it into fourths. Here are the juicers ready to go!

Next, she ran the carrot through her Bullet Express juicer and I ran the four parts of my carrot through the Black & Decker juicer. 

And then we marveled at the difference in amount of carrot juice in each cup for a moment.

Nikky's Bullet Express Juicer had made just below 2 ounces of carrot juice.

My Black & Decker Juicer had made right at the line of 2 ounces of carrot juice.

Then Nikky scooped all the pulp out of the pulp collection container and ran it through her juicer to see if she could get any more juice. Just to make sure she didn't beat my juicer, I did the same thing. And here are the second results. 

1.8 ounces <-----> 2.2 ounces

We did get more juice by running the pulp through a second time and by tilting the machines a little bit to make sure all the juice came out.

I had the brilliant idea of weighing both cups of juice too! I weighed each cup of carrot juice twice just to make sure I was right. I drank the carrot juice before I remembered to take pictures. But the results were... *drum roll*

Nikky's Bullet Express Juicer: 

1.8 ounces of carrot juice.

My Black & Decker Juicer: 

2.2 ounces of carrot juice.

WOW! Holy Juice Off!

With a 0.4 ounce difference, it really doesn't seem like that much. But, considering that I am using juicing as a source of nutrition, that could make a difference. If I wanted to consume 6 carrots in a day (like I did the other day) I would be missing 2.4 ounces of juice. 

That's more than a whole carrot if all my carrots weighed 3.2 ounces. 

After this, I think I'll stick to juicing with my Black & Decker.

THE WINNER!

Tomorrow, we will experiment with juicing 3.4 ounces of strawberries in each juicer! We'll let you know how it goes.

Juicer Recipe Review: Fresh Start

Remember how I said yesterday that I was juicing this week? Well today I have a juice recipe to review! I found it on a website called Juice Recipes that I really like. The juice I made this morning is called Fresh Start. Click here to see the recipe.

So I gathered my supplies, plugged in the juicer and made my morning drink!

The recipe is pretty simple

• apples 
• celery 
• carrots
• Run them through a juicer 

See my beautiful display! All that juiced into a mason jar (with helpful measurement lines). The finished product was about 20 ounces or 2 and 1/2 cups.


I decided to rate juices on a 5 star system. Here is how the star system works.

• 1 star: Ew. Not drinking that ever again!
• 2 stars: I might be able to develop a taste for it. If I am broke and have only this juice to drink, I'll drink it.
• 3 stars: Not bad but not my favorite either. I'll probably make it again. Might alter it though.
• 4 stars: Hey, that's pretty good. I could drink this! I'll be making it again.
• 5 stars: OMG! This is DELICIOUS! I am keeping this recipe!

My rating for this juice? 

I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. It's good! I can drink this! Honestly, I didn't expect it to taste this good as I didn't think apples and celery would go too well together. But they do! And the carrots, mmmm, I love carrot juice!

Have you tried this juice recipe? What did you think?

I'll Be Juicing It Up This Week!

I started getting my teeth pulled in preparation for getting dentures or, hopefully, implants. There are some things I never really noticed until now. Like, my front teeth have always hurt. I didn't chew with them much before but I had back teeth to grind my food to my hearts content. With no back teeth to chew with, and an ora-antral fistula (Google that at your own risk) making eating a chore, I am really noticing the pain.

You see, I only have teeth on my left and on the bottom. So when I go to bite into something, I have to bite with my front teeth that are left, the ones that hurt. I also have a fistula (a hole going from my mouth to my sinus cavity) on the left top where my molar used to be. I can't bite down back there because it sends food up into my sinuses. I actually sneezed rice out my nose (It was totally awesome!) 

In fact, I was getting to the point where I hated eating because if it wasn't liquid, I was having serious issues with it. Anything that I had to chew made it feel like someone was taking a row of knives and ramming them into my lower jawline. Anything that was thicker than water would up into my sinus for me to sneeze out later, even yogurt! I could smell what I ate for hours afterward and my sinus was really starting to hurt.

But I have to eat! And I was seriously sick of drinking soup. Then I remembered I have a juicer. So I ran out and bought some fruit and vegetables.

We juiced most of the grapes too. Very good with green apple!

The first thing I juiced was straight up carrots. Nothing else. Just carrots, and the juice was glorious! I actually felt like I had some nutrition, because butter, chicken broth, and rice flour only goes far as far as nutrition goes.

I have been experimenting with some mixes and found a few recipes to try. So this week... I will be sharing my juicing love! AND comparing two juicers, mine and my friend's.

FINALLY, I feel awake enough to function again!

Question for you all! 

Don't worry about allergies when you answer this. 

What vegetable/ fruit, or combination of them, do you think would sound good as a juice? 

I actually juiced a pepper today! I will tell you about it tomorrow.

FAQ: What is Hang Out Night?

I post about hang out night a lot and I frequently get questions about it. Today, I am going to spend some time answering those questions, in the order of frequency.

What is "hang out night"?
Hang out night is where we get together with friends and family and hang out. For awhile we called it "game night" but we don't always play games and it turned into "hang out night" instead.

Here are Sky and my kids playing a video game.

When is hang out night?
Every week (with a few exceptions. For example: when people are sick.) It's on Friday or Saturday nights, depending on everyone's work schedule. And sometimes it's both Friday and Saturday nights. This last weekend, it was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. That's why I like to post hang out night and fun things to do on Friday.

How do you organize hang out night?
I am more laid back about it. I wait and see who shows up. Sometimes people call and say they'll be in town. Sometimes we call and see who is coming over to visit and play games/ watch a movie/ wrestle/ work on a blog post/ eat/ whatever... and an occasional trip to the ER because we get rowdy. 

And if no one shows up, I head down to my friend's apartment for a good old fashioned "Stitch and Bitch" session where we crochet or knit while gabbing away. Or give manicures and pedicures...

Or a lovely spa...

What do you do during a hang out?
Goof off, sit and chat, drink (the adults, not the kids!), have ice cream (the adults, not the k... oh, wait), play games, watch a movie, walk to the store for a drink and a smoothie, shoot the breeze

Credit: Bob Downs, evilcrayon.com

What games do you play?

Here is a picture I took of all my games. These aren't all the games we play because other people bring over their games. I even numbered them to tell you what they are! And I am adding some other games that aren't pictured.

Some links below send you to Amazon, or other links.

1. Card games. Like, blackjack, kid-friendly poker, nerts, card tricks, rummy and other fun card games (click to go to a site for card games).
2. Backgammon.
3. Cribbage .
4. Pac-Man. The Atari game (yes, we have an Atari!) and the card game for kids.
5. Yahtzee.
6. Pente.
7. Monopoly City.
8. Cards Against Humanity. (NOT KID FRIENDLY! This is for after the kids are sleeping.)
9. Quelf Board Game.
10. Phase 10 .
11. Mad Libs , the card game and the game from the pad.
12. Chess or checkers.
13. Another backgammon game.
14. Dominoes.
15. Made the Terracotta Flower Pot Candle space Heater. (Not a game, but it was in the picture and we did this during hang out night)
16. Hide and Go Seek in the dark.
17. Apples to Apples.
18. Fluxx .
19. Video games on Atari, Nintendo 64, Commodore, Xbox, PlayStation, and computer.
20. Emergency Room visits. While it's not a game, some of our rowdiness lands us in the ER and we make the best of it.

    

    Don't snort kool-aid, no matter how cool they say it will be!
21. Dye our hair... sorry, Zack... I love this picture!

What is Hide and Go Seek in the dark, you weirdos!?

OMG! It's so much fun! Here is what you do...

• Gather all your crazy friends!
• Pick a "seeker".
• Turn off the lights. All the lights. And cover the windows. Unplug the coffee pot or anything with a light on it. NO CELL PHONES! That's cheating! Remove glow-in-the-dark nail polish.
• The seeker counts out loud while everyone else hides.
• Once time is up, the seeker wanders through the dark searching for everyone. Once tagged, you are found! 
• The best part is, if your friends are like me and can't see in the dark, it's MUCH harder to play. 
• The downside is, my brother can see in the dark. Poo.

And yes, we are weirdos!

That sounds like fun! Can I come over?

Uuuuh, suuure? Call first, my house is guarded by attack cats.

"I will act sweet... then attack your face."

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Top 6 Posts of 2013

How's your New Year going? Mine is going awesomely! Okay, so I am broke, I have no job, I've been eating rice for a week... but I am NOT letting any of that get me down! 

This morning when I woke up, I started going through my old posts of last year to get ideas for this year or just find the topics I can expand on. I started getting all nostalgic and stuff and suddenly, I felt a lot better. 

Then I got this brilliant idea to share my favorite Top 6 posts of 2013... cuz I'm getting all mushy eyed this morning. In no particular order...

#6 Post of 2013: Top 6 for I am a MOM!

I had a lot of fun making this post. Not only did I have fun writing it and brainstorming ideas, but I learned to make my own memes!

Like this one!

#5 Post of 2013: The Food Stamps Challenge

I loved the whole series... But reading back through the posts, I REALLY love the Food Stamps Challenge Final post. Man, I was hungry and cranky and you can tell! 

#4 Post of 2013: I'm a Writer, Not a Beautician!

As a sister, I feel it is my job to torment my siblings as much as possible. Only, this time it was my friend. Oh, wait... no, it wasn't. Teeheehee. And SO MANY people had a stroke when they saw this picture... 

Wait... no... they had a stroke when they saw the AFTER picture... which is actually my brother, Sky, dressed in drag... because Nikky wouldn't let me post her cancer-survivor picture on the blog. And before I get lambasted again, she IS a cancer survivor! So quit jumping down my throat!

#3 Post of 2013: San Diego Sailing Trip

The boys went to San Diego to visit their dad and got to sail to Catalina Island with their dad. I posted my favorite pictures of the trip! I would have posted them all but I'm sure your computer would have crashed trying to load it all!

Includes pictures of "boat bite"... and other better pictures of the kids!

#2 Post of 2013: 3 Easy Ways to Remember Your Deceased Loved Ones This Holiday

I was feeling sad because I had just talked to a friend about her girlfriend who had died this year. I made this post just for her... but it made me feel a lot better too! And didn't do too bad on page views either. Apparently, I am not the only the only with that on my mind.

#1 Post of 2013: Terracotta Flower Pots Space Heater

When I wrote this, I was just curious to see if it worked and share with my results with friends. Within a week, it had over 1,000 page views and they are still climbing! I was quite impressed. And apparently, everyone was wondering how to make them and if they work because it is the most searched post on my entire blog! Wow.

AND I felt so honored because someone pinned my picture on Pinterest. 

And yes, it really works!

Enjoy browsing... I am going to go to the bank to pretend to be a responsible adult and pay bills, and then I off to plan out next weeks posts. I have some ideas!