Milkshakes & Smoothies

Last night we were away on a one day trip. I made a happy mistake a few weeks ago and booked a night at the Hyatt in Arlington, VA through Priceline (love that Name Your Own Price). At first my hubby couldn’t get the night off so I wasn’t sure whether I was going to just take the kids myself or maybe give the stay to someone else. Happily he was able to take off work after all so we were all in our cozy hotel room.

We have four kids, ages 22, 20, 16, and 13. It is the oldest's 22nd birthday today!! It is so nice to see the kids laughing and talking and getting along so nicely. I pray that they continue to get along when they are grown. While on our overnight trip, we walked to a McDonald’s and ate and acted silly. All of us. And I have the pictures with which to blackmail them!

So today I was jonesing for the lovely cappuccino I have been making, but I wasn’t home for much of the day before we left on our trip. So now I’ve made sure I know where the nearest coffee-bars are near the hotel! Its not the caffeine I’m looking for, because I order decaf most of the time, but I love the comfort from the sweet sugar and coffee smell. I know, sounds crazy.

Anyway, I was thinking about what else I have made with the Magic Bullet. Yesterday we made smoothies, milkshakes, and I used it to blend the cream cheese for the frosting for my carrot cake.

For the smoothies we used some fruit I had in the fridge: cherries and blueberries. I also had bananas. Into the bullet cup I threw one banana and a handful of the frozen blueberries. Then I added 2 handfuls of ice (which looked to be about one cup). Then I added about 4 tablespoons of orange mango juice (all I had in the house). I blended them and voila! My first smoothy.

Next I used the cherries instead of blueberries and then instead of the orange mango I used cranberry juice (I was out of the orange mango) and while it sounds crazy – it was awesome! The texture was perfect, you could drink it or even use a spoon. Delicious.

For the milkshakes we still used ice, but used milk and sherbet. Basically I guess you can add anything you want to the blender and enjoy it. Hopefully. There are some things I can imagine my kids might throw together that I wouldn’t want to touch.

Fun Stuff

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I've started this because I wanted to document some of the fun things I have envisioned I will cook in my kitchen in the upcoming year. We have a lot of plans for our kitchen in 2011, from cooking and crafting to remodeling, so I'm really excited!

I was already thinking about doing this when *Surprise!* on Christmas Eve my mother-in-law gave our family The Magic Bullet. My 2 youngest children SQUEALED with delight but since I have made a commitment to turning off the television whenever an infomercial comes on, I had never seen exactly what it can do.

My Magic Bullet Christmas present.

The only blender I have ever owned was a $40 Oster that couldn't even crush ice. I swore I would not buy another blender until I could put out the money for a fancy one.


Two days later I decided to open up the box and try out a recipe or two. A friend had given me some finely ground Italian coffee, so I decided to make cappuccino. It was so simple, there was no way to mess it up.

If you're not aware, cappuccino is espresso coffee with hot milk and milk froth. The froth is what looks like soap bubbles on the coffee in the picture. While I don't have an espresso machine, using the finely ground Italian beans in my coffee maker produced an amazing flavor.

After I brewed the coffee I poured a small amount of milk into the short cup (from the Magic Bullet kit) and closed it with the Cross Blade. Following the easy directions from the Magic Bullet package I blended (pushed down on the top of the "bullet") for about 10-15 seconds and then took the Cross Blade off and put the short cup into the microwave for about 55 seconds (remember, microwaves vary).
Once hot, I poured the liquid into the coffee, then used a spoon to put all of the froth that I could onto the brew. It was delicious! And while I know that I'm a very enthusiastic person I swear I can see myself doing this in the morning before work, and saving myself my trip to Starbucks that I take one or two days each week.

Until next time...