Last weekend I watched a documentary that has been on my list for a while called Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. It’s about an Australian who comes to America and does a road trip across the country while doing a 60 day juice fast.

It sounds crazy, but it’s a pretty well-done documentary and does a great job of educating on basic nutrition.

The guy also loses what is, scientifically speaking, a butt-load of weight.

One of the juices that he keeps referring two throughout the movie is called the Mean Green Juice. Even though I don’t have a juicer, I wanted to make it so I figured out how to do it in a normal blender.

I found it really refreshing and delicious actually!

Mean Green Juice

3.82 from 93 votes
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 2 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 10 minutes
The classic mean green juice from the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead made in a blender!

Equipment

Ingredients 

  • 6-8 leaves kale
  • 2 green apples
  • 1 cucumber, peeled
  • 2-3 stalks celery
  • 1/2 lemon, no peel
  • 2 inches fresh ginger
  • 1 cup water

Instructions

  • Peel the cucumber and roughly dice it.
  • Optionally peel apples and cut them into pieces. Cut out core of apple.
  • Add apple and kale to a blender with water. Pulse a few times.
  • Scoop out half a lemon and add the whole thing to the blender along with cucumber, chopped celery, and ginger.
  • Blend until smooth.
  • Serve immediately or chill for later.

Notes

From the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead.

Nutrition

Serving: 1glass | Calories: 186kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 0.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 101mg | Potassium: 1071mg | Fiber: 13g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 17313IU | Vitamin C: 188mg | Calcium: 493mg | Iron: 3mg
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: American

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

Quick Movie Review

I liked a lot of things about this movie.

First, it’s fun and entertaining. The guy drives across America and basically just walks up to people and says, “Hey buddy, you’re looking a bit fat. Why do you think that is? Want to drink some juice with me?”

He doesn’t get punched in the face because A) He’s Australian so people like his accent and B) he is also fat so it’s cool.

Second, the documentary does a fantastic job of sneaking in nutrition. It has some fun animations and breaks stuff down easily. It would actually be fantastic to show teenagers to give them a quick dose of why food is important.

Third, it isn’t too preachy. The guy running the show, Joe Cross, doesn’t claim to have all the answers. He has tried a ton of diets over the years and this is the way that finally clicked for him.

To me, the most moving part of the story wasn’t actually Joe’s journey, but who he met along the way. Most importantly, a truck driver in Arizona named Phil who weighs in at a hefty 429 pounds. Phil adopts Joe’s philosophy and the whole second part of the documentary shifts from Joe’s journey to Phil’s journey.

Beyond showing the depressing state of food in our country, the movie is just entertaining and inspirational. I highly recommend it.

Let’s Talk Juice

Joe likes to juice. For his road trip, he carries around a juicer in the back of his car and makes all kinds of fun juices for people. He lives off of nothing but fresh juice for 60 days.

Some people in the movie thought that this was extreme, but I really don’t think it’s that extreme. It’s basically just a raw diet without meat or refined carbs of any sort.

You can easily get all your nutritional needs from a diet like that which is why most people can do it for a long time without issue. You should still probably check with your doc though before trying it if you are so inclined.

Me? I have no desire to drink only juice for 60 days, 10 days, or even one day.

But I did want to try one recipe from the movie: The mean green juice.  Here are the basics.

fresh stuff
That kale is from my garden!

Now, if you are lucky enough to have a juicer, you can just toss all this stuff in there and bam. DONE.

If you are like me, and only have a blender, you’ll have to do a bit more work, but it isn’t bad.

For starters, you’ll want to add some water to the blender just to get the blending started. You’ll also want to dice up the stuff into small chunks to make it easier to blend.

kale
I wasn’t sure this would work…

I blended the kale, apples, and water together for a few pulses and then added all the other stuff.

Without a doubt, my favorite ingredient is the ginger. Don’t skimp on it! It makes the final juice spicy and wonderful.

For the lemon, you can just take a spoon and scoop out the whole half of a lemon and toss it in.

veg
One packed blender.

Then just flip your blender on and let it run until everything is a nice smooth consistency.

You might have to give it a few stirs to get everything mixed in, but once it gets going, it turns out to be a great consistency.

I was actually going to strain my juice because I wasn’t sure how all the pulp would taste, but after a few sips, I ended up not doing that.

It was delicious as is!

green
Green!

This recipe makes a full blender pitcher of mean green juice (about 4-5 cups).

If you wanted to have this for breakfast, it would be a perfect amount for two people.

For me, I drank the whole thing for lunch one day. It was really tasty — light and fresh.

It also was completely filling. I had no desire to snack in the afternoon and was full until dinner time. I also feel like my energy levels were pretty high in the afternoon.

juice
Really filling.

Am I going to do a juice fast anytime soon? Probably not.

But I do think I’ll start having one of these for lunch occasionally. In the health department, this is pretty hard to beat and it ended up tasting way better than I thought it was going to!

Check out the movie or, even better, sip on some mean green juice while you watch it!