Six Food Intolerance Living

Soon after my Hubby and I were married, we bought a Vita-Mix. We were roped into the sales pitch at our local Costco and we gave in. I love soup, Hubby and I both love smoothies, I could make various dips (like hummus! yum!), Hubby wanted to try making his own ice cream ... this machine seemed like a good investment! So, we plopped down nearly $400 on the Vita-Mix 5000. Yes. You read it right. $400. Probably not the best idea for our poor, newlywed, my-student-loans-are-about-kick-in budget.

But ya know, I have yet to read a bad review of the machine and in all honesty, it really does kick-ass in the blending department ... uh .... when I use actually it! So, this is what this is all about. I really need to start using this baby more. At least once a week. So, I am going to start Vita-Mix Fridays. Every Friday, I will post a new Vita-Mix recipe, some will be my own, some will be from various cookbooks or websites (always cited, of course! ;) ).

So, today, I will share my latest smoothie recipe, something I threw together based on what was in my fridge. My Hubby aptly dubbed it the "Strawberry You-Won't-Taste-the-Spinach Smoothie," which says a lot considering that he is not a fan of veggies ... especially spinach!



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Strawberry You-Won't-Taste-the-Spinach Smoothie

2 cups frozen strawberries
2 loose handfuls spinach
1 cup mango juice (I used this one)
2 tbsp vanilla rice protein powder (I used this one)
1 banana

Throw all the ingredients into the Vita-Mix, slowly speed up to variable 10, then to high and continue blending until smooth.
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I took this in to work for breakfast. It was good, but there are two changes that I would make. 1) I thought it had a tad too much protein powder in it (I could feel the powder on my tongue), so I would probably only use 1 tbsp next time, but the flavor was great. And the fact that Hubby even enjoyed it proved to me that it was yummy! 2) Ice! How could I forget the ice! I like my smoothies to be icy, chilly and cold. But, since I'm out of Vita-Mix practice, I totally forgot about ice! Oops! *Sigh* There's always next time! ;)

Oh, and if you're wondering about the container it's in, it's a Blender Bottle. It's awesome. I have a purple one and Hubby has a blue one. There is a metal wisk ball in there that shakes up all ingredients to make sure everything is all evenly dispersed and good. It's the best thing for smoothies!