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.