Fruit smoothies

[amirm]

I am a frugal kind of guy . So when I see fruit getting to the end of its useful life, I quickly make a smoothie out of it.

My mixtures are all pretty simple. Slice up the fruit into blender. Today, I did that with half a melon that was going bad. I always then add a couple of bananas as we usually have a few of those going bad too! I then add some honey or in case of today, maple syrup. Then a cup or two of ice. Run the thing until smooth and it tastes amazing!

Other times, I use frozen juice cans for flavor if my fruit doesn't have enough. I don't use as much ice then.

Anyone else being creative and frugal this way?

 

[jazdoc]

Amir I have a few questions for you:

Do you prefer a digital or analog blender? If you use both, which smoothie tastes better? Can you prove it?

Is your blender cryo'd?

Do you use two blenders for stereo or do you prefer mono?

 

[amirm]

Do you prefer a digital or analog blender?

I am a digital man so that answer is easy. Now, being always worried about jitter, I had to put a new motor drive in my blender. It uses a dual-stage PLL to make sure jitter is negligible.

If you use both, which smoothie tastes better? Can you prove it?

Per above, I have settled on digital. But prior to that I tried both in a blind test. While the analog one was smoother, I liked the coarse ice in the digital version.

Is your blender cryo'd?

Funny you should ask as I just got brain freeze slurping up my watermelon smoothie. So while my blender is not cryo'd, my brain is.

Do you use two blenders for stereo or do you prefer mono?

It is actually less than one channel. You know how surround sound has a ".1" channel? Mine is a 0.5.

 

[jazdoc]

Amir,

You simply must begin a thread about brain cryo -- the next frontier in audio!!

 

[amirm]

Will do, as soon as my brain thaws out.....

 

[naturephoto1]

I think that Carol stopped adding ice to the "blend". She will use fresh fruit and often frozen fruit to the mix. We like to get Strawberries at a good price and use them heavily. As the Strawberries, other berries, and Bananas get to the end of their useful (or for our taste) we freeze the fruit to be used later. We also will frequently get frozen fruit that we can use or ad to the mix. Carol also uses a fair amount of either plain or vanilla flavored no (or low fat) yogurt to the mix. We usually (or at least frequently) have these after we do our workouts. Carol uses the yogurt as a thickening agent as well as to give us extra protein after our workouts.

Rich

 

[Peter Breuninger]

We are dedicated juicers (no, not boozers or PED users). We juice 4 times a week, usually 10 pounds of organic carrots, one bunch of organic celery, five apples, 4 beats with their greens, a bunch of kale, a lemon. Sometimes we throw in an unwaxed cucumber. We also drink three quarts of organic fresh squeezed grapefruit juice per week.

This forms our baseline fruits and veggie diet. Then its two days week sushi, two days pasta, one day Chinese. We fill in with Whole Foods deli case dinner/lunch specials. I do more carbs then Terry. She’s into one steak per week, I do tons of peanut butter and jelly. I’m a competitive cyclist.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I am not too far from a smoothie addict .. I have one every morning and I think I would get one at night .. I can see a diet full of smoothie . This
http://www.smoothieweb.com/ is a very interesting website dedicated for smoothies and some of their recipes are surprisingly good ...
The spinach, Blueberry, mango, banana and strawberries will surprised many ... it is that kind of good ...

 

[audioguy]

Fruit smoothies about 5 days per week.

Non fat organic yogurt; agavae nectar; sometimes of touch of vanilla extract; a touch of non fat organic milk and whatever fruit is available - usually lots of blue berries and strawberries and other mixed berries. And they always include a big scoop of Juice Plus vanilla flavored protein powder. (Without the protein, I usually have a sugar crash).

Blend (Blendtec) until very liquidy and then add ice!!

I used to use lots of bananas and pineapple but found out I was allergic to both

 

[audioguy]

Frantz: thanks for the web site. Looks interesting.

 

[FrantzM]

One more thing to all the smoothies fanatics. There are techniques .. Don't drop everything in the blender however powerful it is an expect to have apefect smoothie ...

One IMPORTANT thing to remember is that the blade friction on the ingredients create heat and it may cook certain ingredients that are sensitive to heat .

For example the better Why Protein Isolates (NOW, BioChem, etc) are obtained through a process of cold microfiltration to preserve all the things (too long to explain here) .. these things are destroyed if you heat them .. Thus the best way to incorporate the whey (no pun here ) is to first make the smoothie WITHOUT the whey isolate and add it after. The mixing process is the following: Put the amount of whey you will take in the blender and PULSE, a few pulses less than 4 and for less than ONE second each pulse ... then let it rest for a while.. The better whey isolates dissolve well this way, no lumps. They are almost tasteless; however if you pass them in a blender in a cycle for say 10 sec or more they impart a "chalky" taste to the smoothie ... which means several important nutrients have been destroyed .. Fact.

P.S. You're welcome Audioguy.

 

[amirm]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Here is another frugal ideas. I usually make a full blender but not sure who all in the family will come and drink it. So I take as much of as I can until I can't anymore. Then I take the rest and put them in disposable cups and stick them in the freezer. They become this nice frozen desert that is a wonderful snack that again is healthy. Depending on the fruit ratio to water, it can be smooth or crystalline. We use a desert spoon and scrape it byte by byte. My youngest son loves it and is a good way to get him to eat things that are good for him. In summer, after a day of working in the yard, it is extremely refreshing.

BTW, for that above reasons, I make the smoothie sweet as when things freeze, they tend to taste less so.

 

[Husk]

Peter, What juicer are you using?

 

[RBFC]

One more thing to all the smoothies fanatics. There are techniques .. Don't drop everything in the blender however powerful it is an expect to have apefect smoothie ...

One IMPORTANT thing to remember is that the blade friction on the ingredients create heat and it may cook certain ingredients that are sensitive to heat .

For example the better Why Protein Isolates (NOW, BioChem, etc) are obtained through a process of cold microfiltration to preserve all the things (too long to explain here) .. these things are destroyed if you heat them .. Thus the best way to incorporate the whey (no pun here ) is to first make the smoothie WITHOUT the whey isolate and add it after. The mixing process is the following: Put the amount of whey you will take in the blender and PULSE, a few pulses less than 4 and for less than ONE second each pulse ... then let it rest for a while.. The better whey isolates dissolve well this way, no lumps. They are almost tasteless; however if you pass them in a blender in a cycle for say 10 sec or more they impart a "chalky" taste to the smoothie ... which means several important nutrients have been destroyed .. Fact.

P.S. You're welcome Audioguy.

Frantz,

Glad to see you're finding tasty ways to increase your protein intake per our discussion!

Lee

 

[FrantzM]

RBFC

Thanks for the advices.. It is working. Let me thank you again on record ...

@everybody
Another thing for all. ... If at all [possible drop the sugar. Sugar is bad news for health and if you are going the smoothie road I am assuming that it is toward an healthier state. Drop it.. For smoothies there exist a sweetener with ZER0 G.I (Glycemic Index) and Zero calorie .. It is not metabolized and simply eliminated by the body; there is no known side effects... A few drops add serious sweetness to cold drinks and in a smoothie it has no aftertaste ... Stevia become bitter in warm beverages however but in smoothie ... as sweet as you want it ...

 

[steve williams]

The NuStevia is not bitter

BTW, I also use Agave nectar which also does not affect the glycemic index

I prefer the unfiltered raw Agave

 

[JackD201]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Here is another frugal ideas. I usually make a full blender but not sure who all in the family will come and drink it. So I take as much of as I can until I can't anymore. Then I take the rest and put them in disposable cups and stick them in the freezer. They become this nice frozen desert that is a wonderful snack that again is healthy. Depending on the fruit ratio to water, it can be smooth or crystalline. We use a desert spoon and scrape it byte by byte. My youngest son loves it and is a good way to get him to eat things that are good for him. In summer, after a day of working in the yard, it is extremely refreshing.

BTW, for that above reasons, I make the smoothie sweet as when things freeze, they tend to taste less so.

What is the programmer equivalent of a Freudian Slip?

 

[amirm]

That it was Jack.

 

[Peter Breuninger]

Peter, What juicer are you using?

this one:
http://www1.macys.com/catalog/produ...&CategoryID=7583#fn=BRAND=Breville&sp=1&spc=6