I’ve been thinking about it for a long time now and I finally did it. I got two strand starter locs installed today . I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I’m sure I could have done it myself but I decided to go to a professional hairstylist. There are many ways to start locs but since my hair is so long, two strand twists was the best option. I know a lot people are going to ask me, “but why?” because I know a lot of people loved my loose coils. Here are a few reasons why I did it…

– I’m pretty sure I’m developing carpal tunnel from an excessive amount of typing at work so it’s becoming harder and harder for me to do different styles with my hair.

- My hair is long, thick, and kinky and so my hands end up cramping really bad when I’m styling it myself.

- Puffs always give my a headache so I don’t want to have to them again but sometimes it’s hard to avoid when I’m short on time.

- I don’t like other people tugging at my loose coils.

- A relaxer is not an option for me.

- I love how I look in yarn braids and would wear them every single day if I had the time or patience and since everyone thinks they are dreads anyway, why not just dread it.

- Finally, (the only reason I need) it’s my hair and this is what I wanted to do so I did it .

This is day one of a long journey. So, your support is appreciated.

Big thanks to my stylist, Paris, I know it was a whole lot of work and took a lot of patience.

Ingredients

handfuls of organic spinach

handful of organic carrots

1 organic beet (peeled)

2 organic oranges

1/2 inch piece of ginger root

1 organic cucumber

Verdict - I made this juice a few days ago and I honesty can’t remember what it tasted like.  I’m having a hard time lately getting the beets down and I remember the flavor of the beets being very strong.  I mention before I prefer beet juices on ice and I didn’t add ice this time.  Next time, I think I’ll try this recipe with half of a beet.

Ingredients

2 organic Gala apples

1 organic cucumber

1 medium lemon

3 handfuls of organic spinach

 I was going for a green lemonade, but realized that I didn’t have everything I needed, so I modified it with the ingredients above.  As I said before – nothing goes to waste!

Blueberries and almond milk are my new best friends  .  I recently purchased a bag of frozen organic blueberries from Costco to make smoothies to alternate with the juicing.  Originally, My goal was to use the pulp from my juices in the smoothies, but that didn’t go over so well.  So for now I’ve been leaving that out.  I ran across a recipe on facebook calling for 3/4 cups of almond milk and 2 cups of frozen blueberries.  I tried it out, but found that I had to triple the amount of almond milk that the recipe called for.  I ended up adding 2 1/4 cups of milk before the smoothie was thin enough to drink.

It came out good, but if you want a delicious desert alternative, use chocolate almond milk instead and about 2 tablespoons of Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder!  Better yet, try chocolate almond milk, unsweetened cocoa powder and bananas!  Yummy!!

Ingredients

4 organic navel oranges

9 organic carrots

1 small lemon

3 sprigs of mint

Verdict- I was going for a carrot juice without the carrot taste being overwhelming for the children.  The oranges added just the right amount of sweetness. I wish I could taste the mint a little more.  I am seriously considering growing my own this year so that the mint is as fresh as possible!

Yesterday’s juice Ingredients:

4 organic oranges

1 large organic beet

1/2 head of organic cabbage

1/2 – 1/3 inch piece of organic Ginger Root

The Verdict:  My daughter runs away from any juice with cabbage in it…noted, I’ll avoid cabbage juice in the future.  The rest of us enjoyed this juice and I love how the beets always give it a rich red color.  I’ve started added my left over juicing pulp to our smoothies and so far…well…let’s just say that I haven’t perfected our fruit/veggie pulp smoothies yet.  I’ve been trying to use coconut water, which I’ve decided that I do not like at all.  I’m in search of a better liquid to help our smoothies become delicious!  I may just have to go back to using regular juice.  We’ll see!

Today’s juice is a yummy fruit treat!

Ingredients

2 organic Gala Apples

4 organic Kiwi

1 Lemon

1/2 – 3/4 inch organic Ginger Root

5 oz container of organic Spinach

The Verdict:  In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with apples and kiwi!  This was an old favorite that I decided to revisit; substituting the celery that the original recipe called for with spinach and adding lemon and ginger root.

I decided to buy a head of cabbage the last time I went shopping (just to vary the juices that we drink).  So, I once again did a Google search for recipes.  It was a little hard to find one, but I eventually ran across one for carrots, cabbage and lemon juice.  I modified it a bit to the following…

Ingredients

1/2 of a small head of organic cabbage

5 small/medium size organic carrots

1 lemon (peeled)

The Verdict:  This juicing recipe is no joke!  I never expected it, but juiced cabbage is very spicy.  Combined with the other ingredients, there was also the slightest touch of sweetness, perhaps from the lemons.  My 11-year-old and husband liked it and said they would drink it again.  My 5-year-old drank a little and then proceeded to spill it all over the living room carpet…not fun.  I don’t think she liked it very much.  Would I try to juice a cabbage again?  Well…I still have the other half of the cabbage, so I’ll be on the look-out for a combination of ingredients with a slightly more appealing taste (for my 5-year-old).  If I can’t find one, then I guess I’ll try modifying this one.

On a side note, I’m still continuing my search for a new juicer.  There is so much info out about different kinds that it’s a little hard to settle on any particular one.  Based on the reviews, I’m leaning toward the following…

Today’s juice is surprisingly sweet and loaded with vitamins!  I went to the net to search for a recipe that required mint and came across this one – 1 small beet, 5 carrots, 1 apple and 1/4 cup of  fresh mint.  I modified it to the following (to make enough for 4 people)…

Ingredients

1 large organic beet

10 small/medium carrots

2 organic gala apples

4 sprigs of  fresh organic mint

The Verdict:  So far, the kids have enjoyed every recipe I’ve tried with beets, which is great because I have absolutely no idea how to cook them…I’ll just stick to juicing them.  I prefer my beet juices chilled, but I was very short on time so I just drank it as it was. It wasn’t bad, but next time I’ll add ice!