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Smoothie Obsessed

I missed Fitness Friday last week because I was busy taking part in a pool tournament with the office. I’m terrible at pool but this time I managed to actually get a ball in a pocket! A correct ball that belonged to my team! It was the best game of pool I’ve ever played. People who have skillz at pool would laugh at my attempts, but I managed to hit the the cue ball each time and all in all wasn’t totally terrible. I was, it shall be confessed, fairly, erm, inebriated. (*ahem*)

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about getting a smoothie maker. One of my coworkers has the Nutribullet (as seen on TV!) and loves it. I looked at the reviews and it seemed okay… just kind of expensive. But I figured with a coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond it would be around $85 which is doable.

Except that I was at Walmart on Saturday buying an extraordinary amount of boring-yet-necessary things (toothpaste, toilet paper, kitchen trash bags, etc.) and I thought I’d look and see if they had Nutribullets since another coworker mentioned they had them there. I wasn’t going to get it because of the whole use-a-coupon-at-BBB thing but I wanted to look at them.

Anyway, I didn’t see it, but that’s only because I was distracted by the same sort of machine (single serve smoothie maker) that was only $20, the Farberware 17-piece Rocket Blender. smoothieblender

It comes with five big cups and one little one, plus lids and lip guards, two different blades, etc. It’s only one speed but I have to tell you, I’ve made a couple of different smoothies using different ingredients that came out nice and smooth! My biggest concern, since I’m sensitive to food textures, was that it blend everything up so it’s not chunky. This worked great.

It didn’t take me very long to make one this morning before work, so that’s nice. It helps that I have everything ready to go and I stopped at the farmer’s market yesterday and picked up some spinach, nectarines and blackberries (and a cheese zombie). I also picked up some frozen mixed berries and strawberries. I actually dislike strawberries and berries in their berry form due to their texture, but I like jam and other berry-by-products, so I figured I wouldn’t mind them blended out. And – it’s true. I made a smoothie with blackberries this morning and it was really good.

Here’s the recipes I’ve done so far. None of these contain banana, as I hate banana (in every iteration):

Spinach/Nectarine/Grape/Yogurt Smoothie

Handful of spinach (probably about a cup)
Half a bunch of red grapes
1 yellow nectarine
1 vanilla Yoplait
Little bit of water

Cut up the nectarine into smaller pieces. Blend, enjoy.

Spinach/Nectarine/Blackberry/Yogurt Smoothie

Handful of spinach (probably about a cup)
1 white nectarine
Blackberries (I dunno, probably about 20)
1 blueberry Yoplait
Little bit of water

Cut up the nectarine into smaller pieces. Blend, enjoy
This one I had kind of a lot of stuff to blend so I put the spinach, blackberries, and part of the cut-up nectarine into the cup and blended that first, then added the rest of the stuff (including the yogurt) after, making sure it didn’t exceed the max-fill line.

Tonight I plan on making a tropical smoothie – I got some fresh pineapple, oranges, and coconut milk! I also got some almond milk to use for liquid in berry based smoothies… I’ve never tried it so I hope I like it. :/

So far I’ve just been making spinach based smoothies so I get some good healthy stuff in me. Eventually I’ll probably branch out to kale and other greens, but for now, spinach it is. I’m also interested in berry-only drinks and mixing up the ingredients. I don’t have any peaches right now, but peaches, pears, and raspberries are on my list of fruits to squish. I’m not really interested in apples.

The yogurt really helps add to the consistency of the smoothies. Right now I only have Yoplaits because that’s my yogurt of choice, but I will eventually branch out to Greek yogurt, which I also like for the most part. It’s nice and thick, though I’m not sure if it comes in a big tub, which I would prefer, and I’ll have to look for. I’ll probably branch out to Safeway brand yogurt, which I know comes in a tub and tastes okay. I hate Trader Joe’s yogurt, but they’re good for fresh and frozen fruit, not to mention spinach, etc.

And thus begins the smoothie adventure!

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Beaded Earrings

Back when I first started making jewelry, lo these 23 years ago, I mostly used seed beads. I stitched daisy chain necklaces, loomed barrettes, and had a booklet that has long since gone missing on how to make beaded earrings. Over the last eighteen months I’ve gone back to my roots and started stitching earrings again. Here’s some of my favorites.

It’s fun creating the color combos. Sometimes they don’t work, but when they do, I can’t stop! You can see that I am partial to the gunmetal/turquoise/yellow combo. I wish they made more bugle beads in more colors – while I have a fair amount, so many other colors beckon! I’d also like them to come in different finishes too.

My rule of thumb when I’m choosing colors for the earrings with multiple colors is to select three colors that each have a different finish. This way the colors are distinguishable from each other. So you would select a plain solid color, a sparkle or clear color, and/or a metallic color. There are also other finishes that you could sub in. I also try to match the bugles with one of the bead colors. It’s not a hard and fast rule but it does work for me!

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Take Us Out to the Ballgame

So yesterday my company was invited out to AT&T Park in San Francisco to enjoy a Giants (2012 World Series Champs!) game in the Tony Bennett suite on the Oracle suite level.

We had an awesome time! I even remembered to take my camera to commemorate the event.

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The suite was at the very end of the first base line over the water – really nice and everything was catered. We enjoyed hot dogs, sausages, fajitas, beef and pork sliders, chocolate chip cookies, rice krispy treats, chips and salsa and guac, potato salad, a bottle of Crown, beer, soda, wine, and a lovely waiter named Robert! It was really fun, even if the game was super boring – nothing even HAPPENED until the bottom of the 8th when the Giants had the bases loaded and then screwed that up, then the Cubs hit a home run at the top of the 9th (the only score!) and the Giants got the bases loaded again, and then didn’t manage to score. Still, just being at the stadium is whole different level of fun than watching at home.

(I am actually an A’s fan.) 😉