Thursday, July 14, 2011

A Date with a Ninja

A few weeks ago @joshmalina (aka Will Bailey) posted a recipe for a Banana Date Smoothie or more.  Unfortunately I burned out my blender making hummus - which I will not be posting a recipe for, because making hummus yourself is a little like bedazzling a jean jacket.  A tasteless waste of time.

So I kept thinking about this delicious banana date smoothie until I finally forced myself to head to my least favorite store (hint: it ryhmes with Ted, Cath and Score) to get the Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004 which according to the internets "delivered smooth and consistently icy drinks and topped the Consumer Reports Ratings of food choppers"

It seemed a bit more than I needed for a simple smoothie, being a food processor and a blender, and having multiple bowls and pitchers and whatnots.  But the second I cut my finger on the super sharp blades of the Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004 display model I was sold. Dang if it doesn't live up to it's Ninja name, it's like 500 Ninjas throwing 500 throwing stars directly at an iceberg until it turns into hawaiian shave ice. 

I am in no way getting paid by Ninja® or getting compensated for my injury, I really just wanted to share my recipe.  Because by the time I bought my blender I had forgotten where I had seen the original Will Bailey recipe and I had to make it up. 

Ninja Banana Date Smoothie Recipe
  • 1/2 cup nonfat milk
  • 6 or so dates
  • 1/2 cup vanilla or honey nonfat yogurt (my favorite is Chobani greek yogurt)
  • Tablespoon or two of peanut butter
  • 1 cup of ice or 2 cups of ice if you like your smoothie slushy
  • 1/2 a banana - even better if it's frozen
Blend the peanut butter, milk and dates together for a minute or so, I mean really blend them, a chunky date smoothie is not so good.  Some recipes say to soak the dates in milk for 15 minutes to soften them, this would mean you would have to actually plan to make your smoothie a full 15 minutes before you want to drink it. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and blend for a couple minutes more.  With my Ninja I swear this is maybe a few pulses, and the ice turns to a tasty snowconey consistency. 

And...as always, if you want more, make it a double. 

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