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By Emily

April 17th, 2014

*I was provided with a Black & Decker Blender. All opinions are my own.

black and decker 10 speed blender

With spring, many of us get back into lighter eating. I know that I crave lighter foods during the summer months when I am more active. I recently got the Black & Decker 10-Speed die-cast blender which is available at Wal-mart for $29.92. I had never owned a blender before so I have been exploring some of the ways that I can use it to create foods that are healthier.

strawberry banana smoothie recipe

More so than the other food categories, I struggle to consume enough fruit. I am not a fan of sweets in general, so it’s hard for me to sit down and eat a cup of fruit. I rely on apples and bananas a lot because berries, pineapples, etc are just too sweet for me to want to eat many of. I thought that using a blender to make smoothies would be a great way to get more fruit into my diet. I recently tried making a really simple strawberry-banana smoothie and it was perfect. I used:

1 banana

1/2 cup of strawberries

1/2 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of peanut-butter.

I love the combination of peanut butter and banana, and the peanut butter helped to mellow out the sweetness from the strawberries. My blender has a pulse button on it which can be used to start mixing when your mixture is a bit thicker like mine was. I hit the pulse button for 1-2 seconds at a time for about 3 times and then pushed the liquifiy button. It was really quick & easy to make and was a yummy way to get more fruit into my day than I otherwise would have.

I’ve been reading online about how you can use blenders to make homemade sauces like pizza sauce or salsa. I am really eager to try them out. I don’t like the flavor of straight tomatoes, so I can be really picky about my pizza sauces and salsas. I can’t wait to customize my own, and probably save money in the process. I’ve even heard moms say that they blend veggies into their sauces really fine to ‘hide’ the healthy ingredients from their kids.

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about making one of those fruit-blending machines that turns bananas (and other fruits or ingredients) into an ice-cream like texture. I actually own one, and I realized after I got it that it really just takes frozen fruit and blends it, so you can create the same thing with a pretty basic blender like the Black & Decker 10-speed blender. To make plain banana “ice cream” you just freeze 2 bananas per person. Once they are completely frozen, leave them out on the counter for a few minutes and then pull (or cut) the peel off. Stick it in the blender and blend until it’s at a consistency you like. That’s it! I’ve found the plain banana to be a bit bland, but adding a few strawberries, kiwi, etc make it a really yummy, healthy treat. It’s a great way to use up bananas that are just a tad over ripe or slightly soft. We don’t like eating them once they get soft but when blended into “ice cream” you don’t notice the texture at all.

Homemade strawberry banana ice pop

My personal favorite has been making homemade ice pops! I love the real-fruit ice pops that are in stores but they are about $6 a box for a pack of 4 – SO expensive. I didn’t have any ice pop molds so I just took to bananas and half a cup of strawberries and blended them by hitting the pulse button and then the liquify button until smooth. I poured the mixture into a disposable paper cup and put a plastic disposable spoon in the center and left it to freeze in my freezer. Of course, a craft stick would work better but I didn’t have one. It took a few hours to freeze and then I cut the cup away and had a really yummy strawberry-banana ice pop, for a lot less than $1.50 per bar like they are in stores.

Do you use your blender to get more fruit into your diet? What recipes have you recently used your blender for?

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