Wednesday, January 7, 2009

When Life Hands You Lemons...

You break out the juicer & make lemonade. Or orange carrott juice with a splash of apple.

One of the gifts we received for Christmas was the Jack Lalanne juicer. You may have seen the infomercial with Jack shoving entire oranges, apples and vegetables into the juicer and producing massive amounts of juice. Well, we now own one, and it's about as big as our kitchen. We took it for a test drive last night, and after almost a full bag of oranges & 45 minutes, we produced 2 cups of juice. The juice itself was great. The labor required- not so much.

The juicer is just another of our new tools in life. There is about 5-7 days in the chemo cycle that hit Dan really hard. Side effects make it hard for him to get food down his very sore throat. Even though you'd think milk shakes would do the trick, all the sugar isn't helpful. So now we will try the juicer and switch it up.

One of the things I have a hard time with is Dan's eating. The maternal instinct kicks in when he isn't feeling well, and my immediate solution is to try and fix him something to eat or run out for whatever indulgence I can think to offer. He has a license to eat whatever he wants, but often will pass on the bad stuff. I am amazed, because I'd eat ice cream and mashed potatoes all day long if I could. Dan claims to only have lost about 5 pounds since starting treatment, but I keep trying to fatten him up like he's a Christmas ham. I seem to only suceed in 1) wasting a lot of food that goes to waste in the fridge & 2) eating things myself that I never would (not helpful when trying to fit in a wedding dress!).

So now that I have a new BFF in Jack the Juicer, maybe we'll find a good solution. Of course, we may go bankrupt buying fruits & vegetables. And it make takes us 45 minutes to make 2 cups of juice after you peel everything (note- you actually can't put whole fruits in Jack- liars!). But there is something mentally refreshing about putting nothing put straight fruits & veggies into your system.

Oh yeah- Dan had treatment on Wednesday. Nothing unusual. Funny how quickly you slip back into a routine, no matter what it is. Hopefully we'll get to see Dan's friends someplace other than the hospital soon. But it's great to see them, and it is really a lift to the spirits to both of us when they stop by.

PS- We made our own "infomercial" if you'd like to see below. Note that the counter that Jack sits on is the total counter space in the kitchen.

PPS- Blogger won't upload my video. We should have used the Mac for this blog!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can get hooked on most any infomercial - I don't know why they just amaze me. I'm coming to visit to try some juice - I'll bring the fruit.

WWW

Sergio

Anonymous said...

I thought there was something fishy about being able to put entire pineapples into Jack and having just the juice come out.

Hope to see you both soon. The Baltimore crew misses you.

Craig

Anonymous said...

I wonder if you can put other things in the juicer, like porkroll. Wonder what a porkroll, american cheese, egg and poppyseed roll would create.

Wil Bill the Porkroll

Anonymous said...

Oh, this is all too funny! I remember watching those Jack Lalanne commercials about ten years ago--late at night or very early in the AM--and I remember dear old Jack, popping those apples and peaches and plums (and even celery and carrots and tomatoes) into that juicer that produced an impressive glass of thirst quenching nectar that he claimed would change your life. I was so tempted to buy one of those juicers (for he did make a good case about how healthy it was for our bodies), but I never did. Now, because of you two--I just might go out and buy one! Well, there you two go again-- generating a bit of inspiration in those of us who drag our feet sometimes--love it. cousin Paula

Anonymous said...

Try the porkroll idea - then you can buy the Thigh Master!
LH