Smoothie Advantages

Smoothies are the perfect food: Quick, healthy, tasty and refreshing.
Options include:  All fruits, vegetables, protein powder, wheat germ… the list is endless.
Leftovers are easy just freeze in a ziplock and remix when needed.

What blender to use

 Those advantages are some of the points I heard while my wife and I visited the Orange County fair and heard the Vita-Mix  demonstrator talk about his amazing mixer. He mixed up a great smoothie and then poured a cup for each of us in the audience. His spiel was good, his smoothies excellent, but nobody turned to buy the 400.00 + machine. It just seemed like to much money.

As soon as my wife and I got home, I checked Amazon to find a low cost replacement. The Vita-Mix seems to be the favorite, but about the same price online (too much for us).  There were some others that were also in the 300’s,  but the one we settled on was the Oster BPST02-B Professional Series a 60.00 unit. An overall strong well designed mixer with all the professional components for much less.

Well I have to say it worked flawlessly and we have been making smoothies ever since.  So here is a recipe I have found and tricks to make it come out well. You can adapt as you see fit, but you need about 2 cups of liquid or ice and fruit have a hard time getting ground up. In this recipe the liquid is 1 cup yogurt 1 cup fruit juice.

Recipe for the perfect Smoothie

1) 1 cup vanilla low fat yogurt – The recipe book  in the blender box asked for 1 cup milk and a teaspoon of sugar, and the demonstrator I think also did this; but I prefer yogurt it has some sugar in it so you save a step and its better for you.

2) 1 cup apple cherry juice – Orchard juice is about 1.00 at winco, so cheap and good :)

3) 1/4 peeled Cantaloupe with seeds – The demonstrator told us to leave the seeds as they have good antioxidants. On research I confirmed this, but many fruit seeds are dangerous so check online if they are safe first. The seeds are barely noticeable after mixing. To remove the rind, I cut the quartered melon from its side on the cutting board with a stabbing motion rather then the usual hold and peel motion, much easier with less waste.

4) 1 peeled orange – The demonstrator peeled with a knife. He was very skilled and it was quite interesting watching him. I have adapted my peeling technique to knife peel part and finger peel the rest.

5) 5-8 frozen strawberries or 4-6 slices of mango- frozen seem to be cheaper and I get 5 or so mixers full from a bag.

 6) mix on high speed.

7) Get a cereal bowl of ice about 10 cubes-add 1 at a time thru hole at the top of lid while it runs on high. Watch it thicken keep going until just before the funnel action stops. I know that’s a bad way of describing this, it’s like telling someone when you drive past the old barn you went to far, but I don’t know how else to tell you. You’ll just have to get used to knowing the right point.   The vita mix demonstrator actually stirred thru the hole a little, so even the best unit loses blending when it gets to thick, and if you did put in too much ice,  just stir a little without getting the wooden spoon ground into the blades.

Now sip and enjoy a no guilt Smoothie.