Smoothie Adventures - Ninja Mega Kitchen System Style

Smoothies - 

The hunt for a healthy life, and discovering mango-raspberry frosties!

It all started with two texts from the kid 

For those who know me, and most of you do, ya know I take that as an idea on improvement more than a road trip to Jamba Juice.

This idea kicked around in my head for a week or two - kale is not my favorite thing, but I can get behind a smoothie.

So I did what I always do ... yup, research into smoothies, kale, and all that is green (ick).  What I quickly found out was this green stuff is not only good on the side of your plate with spices and butter or drenched in salad dressing (though I do like green stuff that way) you can add it to smoothies - and SHOULD.

I always thought I ate pretty healthy, I eat my veggies and my meat and my carbs (maybe a bit too many carbs).  I hit my daily dairy and sugar allowance in my cappuccinos, plus the caffeine keeps me active. I drink green matcha tea, and enjoy it.  So what more could I need?

Well since I started exercising, I'll get into that separately sometime (or not you never know), I apparently need more fruit and greens. ... so smoothies it is.

After a ton of research, and hemming and hawing and more hemming and hawing I went with QVC (30 day returns even after using) and the Ninja 72oz, Mega Kitchen System
for $164.  I could use a food processor and a new blender and I like snow cones (our snow cone maker sucks) and Rita's never has watermelon ice. 

So after deciding on this, I did what anyone would do I looked at the fruit cut it up and shoved it in the freezer and waited.

Well today it came!  

The unboxing went well - man it has a lot of stuff!
(that's a 9 cup blender, 7 cup food processor, a smaller inner bowl for the food processor, a dough thing (don't worry I won't use it to make my famous cardboard cookies), and 

TWO smoothie maker tumblers (one blade, two cups and lids), and this thing called a recipe book (I hear they can be handy) 

and apparently the blades are sharp!

The "does it work test"

So being the smart person I am I started with a simple chop test, not jumping right in on that smoothie (but you can by clicking here)  ... can it really chop a few cloves of garlic (without fluid) all even and nice so I can add oil and store it in the fridge (as the video says it can) 

As you can see the inner bowl really sits in the outer bowl and I just put in about 1/2 a bulb of garlic no more then that)

 Make sure the inner bowl is all the way in (twist it to get it to sit at the very bottom) line up the arrows and the lid "snaps" on with minimal effort (do not push hard)

As you can see the garlic came out perfectly chopped!  I normally chop everything by hand because I just don't like the way food processors chop stuff. 

Now for the Smoothie Test

I grabbed some frozen mango (remember I cut that up during the week and shoved it in my subzero) and some frozen raspberries (I found those in the freezer, apparently my other half bought them for some reason -- thanks honey!)

Now the mango chunks are REALLY frozen (sub-zero remember) 

I tossed them into the 'single serve smoothie maker' container 

added some frozen organic raspberries (also VERY frozen) and mashed on the lid and twisted it shut.

I put it on the base, and pressed "single serve" didn't quite do what i hoped it would!

sort of just a frozen chunk ... hmm.. maybe some liquid... if only I could manage to READ a recipe or something (but that might be like reading the directions, and you know I don't do that)

So I added a tiny bit of milk (sounded like something you'd find in a smoothie) ... I DID say a little bit ... see

Still not quite right ... hmm.. more of a sorbet, and still mango chunks at the bottom 

but VERY tasty! 

Not wanting too much milk as it's not my beverage of choice, I added a tad of water and tried again.  

This was more of a frosty consistency... YUM!  

do not lick the blades or remove from blades with fingers, 

no matter how much you want to  - blade is sharp!

I stopped there and put it in the freezer for desert... still not sure of it's use as a smoothie maker, but either way I will be eating a raspberry-mango frosty tonight after dinner and that makes me happy! 

Okay, I was good and actually put it into 2 containers in the freezer ... am am trying to loose weight.

So while I still don't know about smoothies, and must shop for that green stuff, I do know it can make them.... the question is can I drink them! 

For Mom - can it really crush ice?

Threw in some ice cubes 10 mabe (used the big 9 cup blender top) .. pressed crush, let out a 'little' yelp of fear and jumped back 5' (sorry I screamed in your ear mom) 

Yes!  It does crush ice, so snow cones here I come (or frozen drinks for those who do that sort of thing (you know who you are)