Green ginger smoothie

This should be awesome:

- 6 ounces water

- 4 ounces Naked boosted green machine juice smoothie 

- 1 banana

- 1/4 nonfat plain yogurt

- 1 packet instant ginger honey crystals

- 1 scoop vanilla cream Pure Protein whey

Strawberry cheesecake smoothie

- about 2 ounces cranberry pomegranate juice

- about 1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries

- a tablespoon cream cheese

- a tablespoon chia seeds

- a scoop vanilla cream whey protein powder

- enough water to lubricate it

Tropical vanilla smoothie

I made a smoothie so incredible today I forgot to take a picture, I just drank it all.

In the blender:

- about 1/3 of a cantaloupe

- about 4 ounces very vanilla soy milk

- about 1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt

- 1 small very ripe banana

- 1 packet carnation breakfast essentials classic vanilla

Red almond smoothie

I've been making smoothies for a long time. My husband used to make them as a cold summertime treat but after I fell and broke my teeth four years ago, my blender and I became more intimate.

Now I use my smoothie skills to combat two phenomena: when I'm too lazy to eat  (drinking is easier) and when I can't motivate myself to eat fruit. 

Today's smoothie is based on the success of yesterday, but cooler and more tart.

For one big smoothie:

- about 3/4 cup plain yogurt

- 1 packet vanilla carnation breakfast essentials

- about 1 cup frozen strawberries and cherries

- about 3/4 cup unsweetened organic cranberry juice

- about two tablespoons black chia seeds 

- about 1/2 cup ground raw almonds

Kitchen sink breakfast smoothie

We had a lot of random odds and ends in the house so I made a breakfast smoothie out of all of them.

Last night I ground some soaked raw almonds in the food processor and a topping for my yogurt. When you see ground almonds as an ingredient that is what I used,

This was tasty and milder than I expected.

In the blender:

- one very ripe banana

- 1/2 cup unsweetened homemade applesauce

- 6 fresh strawberries

- 3/4 cup ground almonds 

- 1/4 cup black chia seeds 

- 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk

- 3/4 cup plain yogurt

- 1/2 cup organic unsweetened cranberry juice

- 1 packet vanilla carnation instant breakfast powder

Serves 2

Chocolate PB banana smoothie

My daughter was cleaning her room this morning and I offered her a banana as a snack. She asked if she could have a smoothie instead.

We came up with this delicious concoction.

- two ripe bananas 

- two and a half tablespoons plain yogurt

- about two tablespoons peanut butter

- about 1 cup chocolate soy milk

- about two tablespoons dark chocolate chips

Into the blender it went...

Blender day!

We finally bought a blender. A 700-watt Black and Decker with "easy pour" glass pitcher.

It was 29.99 at Target, and I was debating about a 450-watt on clearance for 19.98 or a 700-watt at a higher price. My husband kept saying not to cheap out. I just wanted the right amount of blender. My research indicated that most people and most use only require 450 watts. But lots of ice and harder to grind stuff, well, some folks get impatient with the 450.

And our old one was a Hamilton-Beach, but I have no idea what the wattage was. 

And the Hamilton-Beach models at Target were ugly and more expensive.

So, I got the Black and Decker 700-watt. It turned out to be on sale for $24 even before my employee and RedCard discount.

Made the family strawberry smoothies with coconut milk and Greek yogurt for dinner. I think my old blender was 450 watt, because I blended for the same amount of time "as usual" and they came out as strawberry milk. Delicious but milk.

Tapioca pudding

My dentist canceled my appt for today, which means no crown for my back molar until it's rescheduled and nothing crunchy any time in the foreseeable future.

So I tried my hand at tapioca pudding.

The Kraft minute tapioca recipe is as follows:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons minute tapioca
- 2 3/4 cups milk
- 1 egg, well beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients but vanilla in medium saucepan. Let stand five minutes.

Bring mixture to a rapid bowl on medium heat, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.

Cover and let stand 20 minutes. Stir and serve.

But I never follow directions. So my ingredients look like this:
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons minute tapioca
- 2 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg well beaten
Combine as directed. Let stand.
Before heating, add one cup diced strawberries.
After boiling, add 1 teaspoon almond extract instead of vanilla and a pinch of nutmeg.

Yum! Oh, this is delightful.

Afternoon cookie shake

The girl scout cookies came (daughter sold 187 boxes this year). And since I'm chewing impaired, I thought I'd crumble some and sprinkle them on pudding or yogurt.

We ran out of pudding and all the yogurts were weird fruity flavors.

And so I looked in the freezer. My father-in-law brought Friendly's individual fudge sundaes.

I got out the blender. In the blender, I threw in it:

- 1 Friendly's individual sundae, having fed my daughter the chocolate chips
- about 8 ounces very vanilla soy milk
- about 4 ounces coffee
- 2 thin mints
- 2 peanut butter patties

Sadly no fancy meals...

I had my two-week post-op follow up on my dental implant today. I've had some intense pain with this procedure so I suspected something was wrong.

The periodontist did an exam and had me screaming as soon as he stuck his hand in my mouth. Apparently I had a "super infected" area under the implant where they extracted the tooth chip that had been missed by my oral surgeon in May.

With an amazing show of bedside manner, my periodontist removed the implant, cleaned the infection, and performed a bone graft. He stitched me up, commented on my toughness, and told me to keep taking my antibiotics. (I broke down yesterday afternoon and called because I was in so much pain.)

I didn't expect to have dental surgery this morning... So it's back to pudding, yogurt and smoothies...