#RealJuice with Philips and Madeline Shaw - Weekend juice recipes

Juicing seems to be buzz word this year in the  health community but taking part in a juice detox can actually not be that good for you or your health. Philips are campaign for #RealJuice and want to encourage people to ditch bottled juice in exchange for one fresh juice a day rather than an extreme detox.

I am currently following the #RealJuice plan created by Madeline Shaw (Millie Mackintosh’s nutritionist) and Phillips. You can read more about the plan and my first 5 days following it here but I've shared the weekend recipes below.

Here are a couple of tasty recipes from the plan that you can try yourself at home:
Saturday: Hangover helper juice - 3 medium-size tomatoes, 3 stalks of celery, 1 peeled lemon (or less according to taste), 2cm of ginger, 1 jalapeño pepper (seedless), 1/2 a cucumber

This is a spin on the classic bloody mary and the ginger and pepper gives it a real kick.

Sunday: Classic cleanse juice - 3 carrots, a beetroot, an apple and two stalks of celery.

Beetroot contributes to cleansing of your living, helping to reinvigorate your body. It was a little too earthy for my tastes so I simply added another apple. Delicious!

Which of these juices sounds the most tempting to you?
Have you tried any of the juices from the first five days of the plan?

#RealJuice - 7 Day Juice plan with Philips and Madeline Shaw

It's a big trend with A-listers to use juice cleanses to try and shed some weight and get glowing skin  but Madeleine Shaw (nutritionist who has worked with Millie Mackintosh and Louis Smith) says that having a juice a day alongside your regular diet can have lots of health benefits. There's no need to replace every meal with juice, you can have one a day and still see some big changes. - 'Juicing for me is a way of life. It's amazing how all of the goodness contained within a freshly made juice can fuel a workout, beat that afternoon slump or to help you sleep,' she said. 

Freshly made fruit and vegetable juice is packed with nutrients and a easy way to get your 5 a day but be warned 'If you are always on the go then it may seem like an easy option to grab a bottled juice. However, shop bought juices actually lose many of their nutrients over the course of their long shelf life due to the pasteurisation process. Plus they tend to be fruit-based making their sugar content 

higher,' As explained in my previous post I've been taking part in the #RealJuice Philips plan which encourages people to drink a juice a day. I was really looking forward to upping my fresh fruit and veg intake and juicing for the first time.

I've been following a 7 day plan created for me by Madeline Shaw and here are the flavour combinations from the first five days:

Madeline Shaw's 7 juice plan - Days 1-5

Monday: Glowing greens juice - 3 stalks of celery, 2 handfuls of spinach, 1 pear, 1/2 cucumber, 1 peeled lemon (or less according to taste), 1 handful of parsley

Tuesday: Pre-Workout juice - 3 carrots, 1 beetroot, 2 handfuls of parsley, 2cm of ginger

Wednesday: 4pm Pick me up juice - a handful of spinach, 5 romaine lettuce leaves, 1/4 a cucumber, 4 stalks of celery, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 2cm of ginger and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Thursday: Stir & purr sleep tonic juice - 1 green apple, 7 strawberries, 15 de-stoned cherries, 1/2 a cucumber

Friday: Watermelon cooler juice - 1/4 of a watermelon, 1 peeled lime (or less according to taste), 1 handful of fresh mint 

I was really worried about drinking the glowing green juice, I've never had a juice containing vegetables before and I HATE celery but the lemon and cucumber meant it was really refreshing and I actually enjoyed it. The green juice helps you get glowing skin as cucumber contains silica which maintains skin elasticity and pears contains vitamin C which helps fight free radical damage to your skin. I have to say that after a week of juicing my acne had improved slightly and I felt like my skin was less dull.

The Watermelon Cooler was definitely my favourite juice of the week, it was so refreshing and just what I needed after a long week in work. The smell of fresh mint filled the house and this is going to be something I make a lot in the summer.

I'm not sure that I would carry on juicing 7 days a week because some days I'm out 8am- 8pm with the commute, work and yoga but I'm going to make sure I don't waste any fruit and juice it and make a few of the glowing green juices a week because I noticed a big difference in my complexion after drinking those.  If you have any juice flavour combinations you think I should try please leave them below.

Philips and Madeleine are going to be hosting a Google+ Hangout Monday 27th October at 1pm. (TODAY) Madeleine will be talking about the Philips Campaign for Real Juice, giving her top tips on juicing and offering advice on how to incorporate juicing into your everyday life, rather than using it as a quick fix detox. She will also be able to answer any questions you have on juicing or nutrition in general, provide any advice you might be after so make sure you get involved. 

#RealJuice - Viva Collection Juicer

I've been taking part in the Philips campaign which promotes #RealJuice for the past week. They want to encourage people to add one juice a day to their diet which is much easier to stick to than one of those juice cleanses. I've had a little help with this challenge in the form of a Philips Viva Collection Juicer to play with and a 7 day juice plan to follow written by celebrity nutritionist Madeleine Shaw. Madeline has created recipes such as pre-workout, energy boosting and a hang over cure so there's a juice to help my body cope with any situation. 

I don't think I would have the time or be able to afford a juice detox, you need to drink the juice fresh so it doesn't lose any nutrients (I'm not going to take my juicer to work) and buying a large variety of fresh fruit and veg can be rather expensive. A one a day approach is perfect for someone like me who is new to juicing at home and who hasn't tried vegetable juices before. 

I've used my mini juicer for over a week now and I'm very pleased with it. I've been using a mini Viva design by Philips which is super compact and takes up hardly any room in my kitchen. 

The Philips juicer has QuickClean technology which means it takes less than a minute to clean, great for someone who is allergic to cleaning like me. With other juicers a lot of pulp fibres usually get stuck in the sieve, which makes it very difficult to clean. Thanks to the innovative QuickClean technology, all surfaces of the sieve of this model are smooth, which helps you wipe away the fibres with are a regular kitchen sponge. The round design and smooth surfaces without nooks and crannies also makes it easier to clean AND all removable parts can be safely cleaned in the dishwasher.

The juicer was very easy to use and the chute that you put your vegetables and fruit in is pretty big so I barely had to prep anything before juicing. The video below is a very useful to look at before you start juicing. Top tip, do not juice bananas and peel lemons and limes thoroughly before juicing because the white peel gets stuck in the juicer (I found this out the hard way and spent 20 mins fishing it out)

I couldn't wait to use my juicer but my fruit and veg delivery hadn't arrived yet so my first juice was made using whatever I had in the house. I opted for orange, carrot, lime and grape which was very tasty and just what I needed after a long day in work.

Keep an eye out for my post next week about the 7 day juice plan I followed, lots of lovely juice recipes and my thoughts on juicing. If you want to take a look at the juices I've been making check out the #RealJuice tag on instagram & twitter.

Are you a fan of juicing? Can you recommend any good flavour combinations?