Product Review: Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL

I feel positively healthy. About an hour ago, I drank my first veggie fruit drink made with my just-out-of-the-box (as of yesterday) Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL. My drink was made with a few handfuls of Spinach leaves, a few handfuls of shredded carrots, and two Gala Apples. You can see the photo to see what my drink and the juicer look like.

Initial Cleaning

The juicer was very well packed. I removed all parts from the box and washed and dried all parts.

Putting the Juicer together

To remind myself how to put the juicer together, I re-watched the following YouTube video.

Out of the Box: Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95XL 

Then I got in a bit of a panic as I didn’t see a froth catcher. I’m thinking, “Great! I am missing an essential part and can’t use the juicer.” So I called the Breville Customer Service line once they opened up at 8 am Pacific Standard Time. The guy was really nice who I talked with. When I told him that my froth catcher was missing, he explained that since that YouTube video was made, they had made improvements to the product. The froth catcher was now part of the pitcher cover. Sure enough, when I looked close, I saw he was correct. Phew!

The manual and one video I watched suggested you line the pulp catcher with a plastic bag for easy clean-up. I double-lined it with two plastic grocery bags since each of them had a small hole. It worked beautifully. When I removed the bags after making my drink, the pulp catcher was perfectly clean and did not require washing. Woo-hoo!

As for the pulp, it was nicely dry. This shows me that most of the juice was extracted from the food I added. Since I don’t have a compost heap and there was no recipe I was making that I thought would benefit from this particular mixture, I simply threw the bags containing the pulp away.

Making first Veggie-Fruit Drink

For my first veggie-fruit drink, I decided to use three things I had on hand: spinach leaves, shredded carrots, and Gala apples. In the directions, it was suggested that I do not place the spinach leaves in alone as they needed some other veggie to help get the juice extracted from it better. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything that I thought would work. I decided to go ahead and use it anyway.

I turned the motor on to the low setting and added several handfuls of spinach leaves. I did not get a huge amount of juice. Next time, I will find something to add with it.

At one point, the motor got extra loud and I panicked and thought I had overheated the unit. But when I realized that the overheating light had not come on, I realized that perhaps it gets loud on its own. So warning: Don’t make this drink if somebody in your house is trying to sleep.

Next step, I added several handfuls of shredded carrots.

Last, I added two Gala apples that were washed but still had a stem, core, skin, etc.

My juice mixture was green – as you can see in the photo.

I placed some ice cubes in a glass and poured the juice in the glass. I smelled it. It smelled like apple juice. I must admit that I was a bit nervous to try it at first. Of course for me, the litmus test is the smell factor. If I don’t like the smell of something, I refuse to put it in my mouth. Since the smell was good, I was willing to take the risk. I actually took several sips before snapping the photo as this drink was tasty. Yum!

I enjoyed drinking the entire glassful. I would definitely make this combination of fruit and veggies again.

Final Clean-Up

Clean-up was a cinch. I took the juicer apart and rinsed off all parts. Then I used the special hard-bristle brush that comes with the juicer to wash the filter. Then I washed all parts with warm, soapy water. It took very little time to clean-up. That is another litmus test of mine.

Final Conclusion

I think this juicer was a real bargain. I can easily visualize myself using it every day.

Since I am now cancer-free aka in remission from breast cancer, I am extra motivated to make certain I stay that way. So making healthy drinks that actually taste good is going to be part of my strategy to look and feel healthy.

My final litmus test is aftertaste. That juice drink has left a very nice aftertaste in my mouth. I actually look forward to being able to partake of this drink again.

I'm excited about a juicer I've ordered for health reasons

Now that I am in full remission from breast cancer aka cancer-free, I am very involved in taking active steps to keep it that way permanently. I am working out some; however, I could and should do a lot more of that. I am also finding more and more ways to eat healthy-type foods.

I bought one juicer from Wal-Mart that worked fairly well. It was called a Ninja Master Prep. You can watch these two Associated Content.com videos watching how to make snow and how to make one particular juice drink I like.

How to Make Snow Using Ninja Master Prep 
Mixed Berry Slush Drink Using Ninja Master Prep 

The juicer works fairly well; however, it does not make the juice as fine as I would like. I end up almost eating my drink rather than drinking to some extent. So I made up my mind that I would like to order a juicer that has more bells and whistles.

After doing a lot of research, I decided to order a Breville Juicer Fountain Plus. It has an 850 watts motor. The juicer sells for $149.95. My husband isn't totally thrilled that I bought one that is rather on the expensive side; however, when you take into account what I have been through and never wish to go through again, than the price is much more worth it.

Out of the Box: Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95XL 

I found this YouTube video that describes how you put the juicer together. It looks relatively easy to do. Ease-of-use was one of my considerations. I also read a lot of reviews on-line of this juicer and several others. This one seemed to have the most positive reviews. That was really important to me as well. It also sounds like clean-up won't be too bad.

I found this video to be helpful as well:

Breville - Juice Fountain Plus Electric Juicer - Silver 

One site suggested that I put a plastic produce bag inside the pulp catcher. That sounds like a great idea.

My current thoughts is that I may use the Ninja to make the snow. I use the Breville Juicer Fountain Plus to make the juice. Then I pour the juice over the slush and have a really healthy slushy to drink. I may find, however, that I enjoy the juice without having to have a bunch of ice mixed in. I will have to wait and see.

Now the countdown begins. I ordered the juicer the evening of December 6th. The expected arrival date is either December 13 or 14. I am hoping, of course, that it will arrive sooner than that. I will keep you posted.

I wish all of you good health and a very happy day!

With love,
Healing Seeker aka Debbie

A Dancing Bear for a Dancing Niece

I just saw the cutest set of kids backpacks. The one I pictured is the cutest one of them all. As a woman who had breast cancer – notice the past tense – woohoo! – I was looking through pink totes. For one thing, I was kind of contemplating buying some kind of tote bag for when I work out at the YMCA. After having a double mastectomy plus ten lymph nodes removed, I need to regain full strength. Additionally, I wish to lose sixty pounds before getting reconstruction surgery the late fall of 2011.

So as I was looking through pink totes in honor of breast cancer, I saw this adorable backpack. My second to youngest niece took ballet for a while. Now she has started gymnastics. She is in kindergarten, by the way. She already has a Tinker Bell backpack that she really likes; however, her little sister is aching to take either a dance class or gymnastics class just like her big sister. So when she finally comes of age, she is not quite 2 ½ currently, perhaps this will be a backpack that I will purchase for her. For one thing, it has wheels. That means the backpack will not strain her back. For another thing, it is absolutely adorable. For a third thing, she loves pink.

When I went to school, using a backpack was not in vogue until I got to college. My college backpack was green and rather plain and unexciting. It is so fun to see what fun options there are for young people today. It almost makes you wish you could be extra young again. Almost! Though actually, you couldn’t pay me to wish to repeat high school or junior high again.

But for those of you with young people in your life, it’s nice to know that you can bring color and pleasure to their lives with some really fun gifts.

In any case, have a wonderful holiday season with the people you love. I am more grateful than ever to have my newly acquired good health – I am now cancer-free – so that I can spend this Christmas and many holidays to come with my beloved husband and my other family members who  I love so very much. Happy holidays and a very happy new year!