2 Unusual Ways to Use Your Blender – Ice Cream & Soup

by

I’ve always loved blenders. As a kid in the kitchen I would make milk shakes and smoothies with all kinds of ingredients. I remember one day I was on a mission to blend almost every fruit/vegetable that we had in the kitchen in a variety of different health elixirs. I was so excited by this blending adventure that by my 4th concoction (some sort of carrot/celery mixture) I forgot the most important step…the lid! Carrot juice/puree all over the kitchen!

My love for smoothies and blending has continued throughout my nutrition career as well, and as a result I’ve burned through a lot of blenders. An Oster, which lasted less than a year. A KitchenAid, which I replaced a gear on to squeeze some more life out of it. By the time my Magic Bullet was blended to death, the blend cups had only one prong left to keep them secured while it blended. I can put a blender through its paces. Recently, I received a blender from Blendtec – the Blendtec 725. This is the Bugatti of blenders or more like the Knight Rider of blenders, as it sends you motivational messages as you use it (seriously, I’m not kidding).

This Blendtec makes a heck of a smoothie and can be operated by a 6 year old due to its preset buttons (she’s making a peanut butter & banana chocolate smoothie for her brother).

Recruited Grace to help make the first smoothie. #soeasya6yocandoit #blendtecfit #wheydna #fitfluential #fitfam

A photo posted by Dr. Mike Roussell (@mikeroussell) on

 Here is one of my current favorite shakes: Strawberry/Banana & Chia smoothie. But anyone can make shakes with a blender. I’ve been experimenting with some nontraditional blender uses with huge success. Today I wanted to share with you two extremely simple recipes, one for mango ice cream and one for pumpkin chipolte soup, both made with a blender.

Mango Ice Cream

This is my daughter Grace’s favorite dish in the world. I think I make it for her every single day. It is so simple, just milk and mango. I’ve been wanting to try it with kefir instead of milk (so if you do try this combo let me know how it goes). Add Milk   Ingredients

  • 2 cups frozen mango
  • 1/4 whole milk (you could use 2% if you would like)

  Instructions: Pour milk into the blender (using the Twister Jar). Then add the frozen mango.  Servings: 2Frozen Mango Place the twister lid on the blender jar. The twister jar helps you keep the ice cream moving around when blended so you don’t get random chunks of mango but a uniform smooth treat. Once everything is assembled, press the ice cream button.

Hit the Ice Cream Button

Hit the Ice Cream Button

  As the Blendtec does its magic, slowly turn the twister lid allowing all of the chunks to get blended up. The Blendtec will stop automatically when your mango ice cream is ready. Scoop it out into two small bowls and eat with someone who loves awesome food. Mango Ice Cream  Notes: I recommend that you play around with the amount of milk that you use. It really changes the consistency of the ice cream. 1/4 cup of milk per 2 cups of frozen mango is the consistency that my resident mango ice cream fanatic likes the most, but your taste and texture preferences may be different from those of a 6 year old. 🙂 

Pumpkin Chipotle Soup

Pumpkin is one of my favorite power foods. My first YouTube video was a pumpkin pudding recipe. Canned pumpkin is just pumpkin, loaded with beta-carotene and fiber.  It is available all year round and you can use it for a lot more than just pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. This simple recipe should get you switched on to the variety of other ways that you can get this power food into your diet. This soup is really simple because you can just do it in your blender. How? The blade of the Blendtec spins so fast that the friction from their spinning generates enough heat to heat the soup, that’s a lot of friction. Here’s the (easy to share) recipe: Instagram Pumpkin Chipotle Soup     Servings: 2 (~2 cups each) Instructions: Add the olive oil to a small non-stick pan over medium heat. Add onions and saute until the onions become translucent. You can skip this step but I think that it is essential as it takes the edge off the onions and improves the overall flavor profile of the soup. If you use raw onions, their bite takes over the dish. Add the ingredients to the blender jar in the order listed above (top-down). Press the soup button on your Blendtec, then sit back and relax (If you want your soup hotter, like I do, run through the soup setting twice). When the blender stops, the soup will be steaming so remove the lid, pour into two bowls, and enjoy with someone that loves delicious calorie controlled comfort foods. Pumpkin Chipolte Soup    This post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Blendtec.

Recommended Posts

Anti-Resolutions

Anti-Resolutions

Celebrating the new year often comes with making new year’s resolutions, and for decades the most popular resolution is weight loss. Since it’s the number one resolution, you can bet it’s also among the resolutions that get broken year after year. Why do people struggle with weight loss and, more importantly, their nutrition?