Tropical Citrus Smoothie

T-minus one week for the 40th birthday madness! I have a girlfriend who bought a Vitamix last year and has been raving about how everyone must have one in their kitchen. She feels for her Vitamix the way I feel for my Kitchenaid mixer and Cuisinart ice cream maker. I was so going to get one until I saw how much it costs...about $500.00. Well the reason being is that the Vitamix is what many restaurants and coffee shops use. I think I am doing restaurant quality stuff in my kitchen but I don't necessarily have to have what Smoothie King and Starbucks use. The Vitamix is a high performance blender that makes hot soup, blends smoothies, makes sorbet and soft serve ice cream...even scrambles eggs. Well, it should for that price.

So I started doing research on other blenders that I might be interested in that would do all the things the Vitamix did. And I found my perfect birthday present, the Ninja 1100. I was working out on the treadmill a few Saturdays ago when I saw this infomercial for the Ninja Kitchen System. There just had to be a reason I was in the gym at that moment, looking up at the screens, which I normally don't do. The Ninja 1100 makes smoothies, dips, soft serve ice cream and sorbet, processes and dices food, makes dough...in fact, the only thing it did not do was make hot soup and scramble eggs. You can process soup in the blender and heat it up afterwards; but other than those two things, it is perfect. More importantly, it was $159.80.

I have discovered my new favorite thing.

Since it arrived on Saturday I have made cucumber mint ice cream, green smoothies, banana shakes, orange carrot slushies, strawberry/cranberry smoothies, hummus...this was just what the doctor ordered.

So today I am feeling a little under the weather and I am wondering if it is all of the smoothies and the sugar content in the fruit or if it is the sudden change of weather, from 60 to 90 degrees overnight. Either way, I have to get it together because next week I will need all the energy I can muster! I thought perhaps I needed a little Vitamin C to give my immune system a boost. So I made a tropical citrus smoothie - a cool, refreshing treat.

Tropical Citrus Smoothie

1 medium orange(s), peeled and chopped
1 small lime, peeled and chopped
1 small lemon, peeled and chopped
1/2 c coconut milk, unsweetened
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 packet stevia or 1 tsp agave nectar
1 c ice

Add ingredients to your blender. Process until well blended. Serve immediately.

All photographs are actual pictures of the recipe listed, prepared by Sweet Treats 'n Good Eats, and cannot be used without the owner’s consent.