My mom gave me a juicer for an early Christmas present. She called and asked if I would be interested in getting it first, which I really appreciated since it is another “small” appliance that I would have to find cabinet space to store it.
She wanted to get me Montel’s HealthMaster. Now, my parent’s are very smart people, but they can also be suckers for infomercials. I think that it is a recessive gene actually, because I have succumb to infomercials or QVC more than once in my life. Side note: Growing up we had every AS Seen on TV gadget imaginable…we went to school with rolling rulers, had so much food dehydrated that we needed a food “rehydrator”, ginsu knives, you name it – we had it.
Anyways, I tried to be wise about the juicer opportunity and researched the juicer myself (without looking at the infomercial – b/c it would have been an automatic yes!) and decided I wanted it. It was more than just a juicer, I could replace my blender with it (solved the cabinet situation) and it was really an “emulsifier” meaning that you can put a whole apple with the peel and get the nutrients from the peel too. Make sense? – well you can look at the infomercial to learn more if it doesn’t.
The boys, and the kids I watch, love smoothies and we usually drink one as a morning snack. So I started to use my new HealthMaster to try out a few new smoothie/juicing recipes and test them on the kids for their approval rating. Three days a week I have 6 kids here, so I thought it would be a good marketing research platform. I’ll let you know the recipes I try and their vote. The boys vote everything I put on the table, regardless if I ask them or not, with a thumbs up or thumbs down – so that’s how they will be rated.
I’ll start out with our tried and true smoothie recipe. All kids love this one!
Makes 2 yummy smoothies (Modified from Leanne Ely’s Smoothie recipe)
2-3 ice cubes
1 banana, frozen
a handful of frozen berries, your choice (about 1/3 cup)
2 scoops protein powder (I use a vanilla whey protein powder)
8 ounces of yogurt
orange juice (just enough to add more liquid if you need it)
Put everything in a blender and LET HER RIP!
COOKING NOTES:
For the berries option, you could use peaches, some more banana
whatever. Smoothies are pretty forgiving–the only necessary
component is frozen fruit to make it shake-like.
November 5th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
i kind of want a juicer… someone sent us one when matt was sick, but they bought it used on Ebay & it was broken when it arrived. maybe someday i’ll actually buy a new one myself! until then i’ll do the blender- thanks for the recipes!
November 6th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
I love my juicer! I use it every day – usually three times a day. My son uses it daily too. We mainly make carrot juice (and add in some type of greens with it) and celery-apple. He makes pineapple juice quite a bit too. An easy way to get a lot of nutrients.