Green Smoothie - Reloaded

First of all, I have a few people to apologize to... you know who you are.

Second of all, remember, the right tool for the right job.

When I started doing my green smoothies I would have people tell me about their blender and how it would liquefy the food... I was like, sure.  I finally caved in a bought a BlendTec Blender from Bed Bath and Beyond because they said if I didn't like it I could return it at any time... no time limit!

Last night was the sound test (to be sure I wouldn't wake up the house) and found that it is totally doable if you close the thing in a cupboard.  I opted for under the sink since there is already an outlet for power thanks to the insinkerator and I might gain super powers from all the chemicals down there... well 50% isn't bad right.

I went with the more expensive BlendTec, not because of the fancy tough screen, but because it comes with the larger container.  The larger container costs $90 so I thought it would be worth the extra $50 to get the big container and fancy touch screen.

I put all the ingredients into this thing and was VERY glad I bought the bigger one.  I didn't have enough room for everything so I was planning on running it all twice.  Good thing too because the kale got all stuck at the top of the container.

Contents for Round One:

• 2 medium carrots
• 4 stocks of kale (two dino and two regular)
• a few oz lemonade
• an orange peeled with a potato peeler and quartered
• some strawberries with tops on (the green bits left on)

I could tell it kinda spun up and was not hitting the rest of the food so I stopped it early and packed the kale down a little and added some ice.  That ran a full cycle of "Whole Juice" setting... by then end of the cycle it had killed most of it but there were still some big pieces that had been on the top.

Contents for Round two:

• mostly blended stuff from round one
• ice
• a banana

I hit the same setting and shut the door.  After a it was over I kinda thought I would have to run it again since it sounded like it was gonna topple over as if there were a baseball bouncing around in there (remember, its behind a closed cupboard door so all I get is the sound and my minds eye.)

When I opened the lid it was liquefied... my jaw hit the floor.  And why I say liquid I mean almost watery.  I drank some to see if I should add more fruit or something.  The taste was not that great, a little bitter, but the texture was silky and smooth.  I was dumbfounded.

I pored the contents into a Nalgene bottle and was happy to see it filled with extra left over (32+oz).  I was a little annoyed I did not have a straw to drink it from.

I assume the order of how I fill the blender container will make the difference.  I will experiment and maybe update things.

Now that I have jumped back in with both feet I need to find more recipes to try... thanks to google I found the following posts:

• http://www.healthysmoothiehq.com/category/green-smoothies
• http://www.oatmealinmybowl.com/the-kitchen/30-delicious-green-smoothie-recipes/
• http://www.blenderbabes.com/

to be continued...