Within the past few years I've "found" smoothies.  It started when I
sampled a great mango-soy based shake in South Beach.  I continued the
experience, locally, trying assorted delicious concoctions at Joe Joe's
Raw Juice Bar.  But they are expensive and sometimes you just want to
slurp at home.  So I bought this blender a couple of days ago and I'm
looking for suggestions on making smoothies. 

Anyone have a favorite blend?

18 responses total.

Blended frozen bananas come out like ice cream, you might try adding some sort
of fruit juice to liquify them.  (Actually we use the grinder.)

I'll try the frozen bananas.  Thanks!

So far we've tried strawberries and vanilla yogurt, cranberry juice
and squirt with strawberries and ice cubes (very frosty), and
milk, banana and shredded coconut.  But my favorite is papaya,
kiwi, strawberry, coconut and orange juice.

Amazon.com delivered a "Smoothies" book the other day with loads
of ideas.

I've been using the food processor to make smoothie-type juices for a few
months now.  The idea was to get more fruit into my diet, both because it's
a good idea on general principle, and also as a pregnancy nutrition thing,
since I'm hoping to get pregnant soon.  My juice-making technique is to throw
random fruity things into the food processor, grind them up, add water as
needed, and see what it tastes like.  The hard part is restraining myself to
just a few ingredients instead of throwing in samples of every fruit in the
apartment.

Some favorites:
 * good kiwis
 * frozen blueberries
 * apples
 * oranges (not too often, but sometimes)
 * banana
 * milk

On Thursday I got curious about what an apple-date combination would taste
like.  But "kitchen sink" syndrome took hold and I ended up also adding pieces
of dried papaya and orange-pineapple juice.  The resulting combination was
a weird shade of brown and tasted good, but it had zillions of chewy pieces
of papaya in it -- definitely not recommended.

I like using frozen fruit instead of ice.
It takes only a small number of blueberries to turn the whole drink a cool
shade of purple.  Good thing, too, because frozen blueberries are expensive.

I like the concept of frozen blueberries.  

I've already found out that adding ice cubes to super-chill
and thicken is not ideal as you end up with tiny ice chunks
too big to swallow whole and too hard to easily chew.

When melon season arrives I'm anxious to try a recipe
calling for honeydew melon, kiwi, mint and frozen vanilla
yogurt.  Or was it Squirt.  (The book is downstairs.)

We picked and froze our own blueberries, I think they were about 80
cents/pound, at Zabinski's blueberry farm near Chelsea.  You can pick into
October.  Starting maybe in August.  Very easy to freeze.

Oooo, I found a good smoothie.  It's quite close to the
creamcicle taste I remember from way back.

   Orange Smoothie

2 cups 1/2% (or whatever) milk
3 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
3 ice cubes

Blend everything but the ice cubes until smooth.  Add the
ice cubes one at a time and blend until smooth and frothy.

   that sounds a lot like an orange julius, except for the powdered
sugar.  juliuses use granulated sugar.

My family says it needs more orange -- I doubled the orange & the boys still
think it would be better with more orange, though Dave & I are content.

I understand, Grace.  My son inhales orange juice and oranges.
If you are planning on letting him drink all he wants you buy him
a gallon to last about a day and a half.  It has to be Minute Maid
Plup Free.  When he's home for a stretch it's not unusual to buy
three gallons at a time to last, maybe, four or five days.

Wow... I've always viewed orange juice as some weird torture that parents
inflict on their kids, but which by adulthood the kids have been brainwashed
into thinking they like it.  (No wonder I gave myself scurvy when I was a
teenager.)

Actually our boys usually prefer apple juice, but orange is quite acceptable
fresh out of the refrigerator at meal time.  We don't encourage consumption
outside of meal times, so I don';t know how much they would go through if
they tried...   In season they like fresh oranges, too.  Jonathan's favorite
school lunch was a clementine orange.

There is a franchise called "Smoothie King" which I only go to once in a 
blue-moon because its soo expensive.

Anywho...I really like their "Acai Adventure" which is a blueberry and
acai mix. I'd like to make this at home to save money, the only problem 
is that I can't find the acai berry (frozen, fresh or dried) anywhere. 

Any help?

Try a health food store, or an organic foodstore like Whole Foods.  

I'll check the food coop next time I'm there.

I went to the local health food store and bought some frozen
acai pulp.  Its made by Sambazon, and costs $6. There are four 
100g packs to a bag. 

http://www.sambazon.com/nutrition/frozenPure.jpg

glad you found it.

Eprom, are you a tea drinker? I have some acai green tea from the
Republic  of Tea.  If you'd like to give it a try, I'll send some to you
[or anyone  else that may be interested].

yes...I've tried acai tea....Actually it was a green/acai tea, but it was 
very good, none the less. 

I see Stash has jumped on the Acai bandwagon too. According to their website
their tea "combines tart hibiscus with natural acai berry, blackberry, and 
blackcurrant flavors".  I'll have to pick some up if I see it, the next time
i'm at Meijer.

BTW, Have you tried the acai juice? I've tried a few and the best one seems 
to be made by a company called Bossa Nova. Unfortunately it costs about $3 
per tiny 10 oz. bottle.

No, I haven't tried acai juice yet; how do you like it?  I hadn't ever 
heard of acai until I saw this tea at the World Market recently.

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