Gift Idea: Cooks 5-in-1 Power Blender

It's hard to believe, but I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. It's amazing how creative one can be with a limited gift buying budget. I always want to give gifts that the recipient will enjoy...and maybe something just a bit unexpected or kind of cool.  And who doesn't have someone on their list that is hard to buy for.   I do have a gift idea for you that meets the "kind of cool" and "unexpected" criteria. This past Mother's Day my two favorite guys bought me a Cooks 5-in-1 Power Blender. Given my love of Smoothies and Speciality health conscience drinks, it was inspired gift choice for me. I grabbed this image from Google, but you can see all the cool and funky colors it comes in.

 

 Mine looks like this.The blender comes with 2 blades, one for grinding and one for blending. This little blender can chop, grind, mix, whip and blend.  I primarily use it to make Smoothies. In fact, the Power Blender is so easy to use my 10-year-old son can make a smoothie. What you see here is the blender itself, a tall blending up, the grinding blade and a comfort lip ring that screws on the cup.  I kind of giggled just a bit when I saw that the called the ring a "comfort lip ring." Sounded like something out of "Piercings 'R Us." But I digress.

You can make a Smoothie with almost anything. During the summer I used squash and zucchini straight from the garden. I've even used carrots. The little baggie is filled with frozen banana slices. You can get a bag of nearly overripe bananas next to nothing. Just take them home right away, slice them and stick them in the freezer. I also use tofu on occasion to add extra protein. Basically, I use what I have. Except melon. Never met a melon I liked to put in a smoothie. I'm not sure if it is the texture or what. I find that a cucumber adds a good melon-like flavor...without the melon.

Remember how I told you that it is so easy to use that my 10-year-old can do it? This morning Josiah made me my morning Smoothie. Here's how he did it.

Josiah first added a couple of large spoonfuls of the plain yogurt. You can use any flavor. I usually use the plain. The Cooks Blender also comes with a smaller cup, but I like a big smoothie. I also find it works better if to put the frozen items towards the top. It blends better. The manufactor's directions tells you to leave a little bit of space at the top. This particular smoothie I had to smoosh down a bit.

The nice thing about smoothie making is that you can't really mess it up. Even canned peaches make a good smoothie. We just drained the juice.  Josiah also added a few teaspoons of orange juice concentrate and a little milk to this smoothie.  He then topped it off with a few ice cubes.

 The blade that Josiah is using here is the grinding blade. It helps grind the ice or frozen fruit I often use in my smoothie making. In a pinch I have used the blending blade and it does fine. You have to just let it "whirl" a little longer.

 

 

Speaking of "whirling"... You can already see the smoothie coming together. Just be sure to let it "whirl" long enough, especially when using vegetables. Nothing like finding a hunk of zucchini in your Smoothie. Is that a face or what? Actually, he is asking about when we can make a milkshake. Which is another delicious possibility for the Power Blender.

All done!

After it's all "smoothed" up you just place the comfort lip ring on the blending cup, add a straw and you have a smoothie ready to enjoy! I found a few packages of these big straws on sale. They are really great for our smoothie habit.

This is the owner's manual for the Power Blender. Mine actually came with 5 cups. I didn't pay anymore for the 3 extra cups because of a wonderful salesperson. In all honesty, you really don't need the extra cups. I find they just take up space in my cabinet. Even if you have a large family you could use the same cup to blend and pour the smoothies in a drinking glass. The owner's manual describes all the items that come with the product and how to use them. I think it would have been nice to include some recipes as well. The Power Blender can do more than make smoothies and it would have been nice to have had some more specific instructions or recipes for other things.

According to the product website the Power Blender does come with the following; high-power base, stainless steel grinding blade, stainless steel blending blade, 2 tall blending cups, 1 small grinding cup, 2 shaker tops, 2 resealable lids and 2 comfort lip rings (here is the question...are lip rings really comfortable? :<) sorry). 

 

This product has been such a hit in our house. I bought my Mom for Mother's Day and after I toted it with me on vacation to my in-law's house, my Mother-in-law went out and bought herself one. My mom's Power Blender did burn itself out after one use. But I returned it without any hassle and her new one hasn't had any problems.

I am not familiar with the Magic Bullet, which I am sure this product is modeled after. It might be a superior product, but it also has a hefty price tag and this Power Blender was more in our budget. I also recognize that a regular blender could do the same, but I was able to stick the Power Blender in my suitcase and take it with me on vacation.

You can find the Power Blender online here or at your local JC Penney's Home Store. The original price is 59.99, but I have never seen one for over $30.00. In fact, I sneaked a peek at the Black Friday sale going on at JC Penney's and the Power Blender will be $14.88 with a $10.00 rebate (Nov 25, 2011 - 4am-1pm). What a great deal! When I purchased my mom's Power Blender I had a $10.00 off coupon. Penney's will often have a printable coupon on their website. A really neat gift idea would be to pair your Power Blender with a basket of fruit and some smoothie recipes.

(By the way, I am in no way connected with JC Penneys. A few of the sales people at my local store know me by name, but it has nothing to do with any sort of affiliation...it could be because of those $10.00 off coupons they keep sending me!)

I'll leave you with a Smoothie recipe to try. There are thousands upon thousands of smoothie recipes available online. This is my go-to recipe.

1/4-1/3 cup of yogurt (any flavor)
1 cup of fruit or vegetables (any combination...except melon...remember that!)
2 tsp. frozen juice concentrate or you can use a little bit of already prepared juice
1/4 (or so) milk
3 or 4 ice cubes

Place ingredients in Power Blender cup. Attach Power Blender blade and whirl! Be sure to whirl long enough to blend everything together. You can even do other things while "whirling." Answer an email, put on a load of laundry...put on a load of laundry for a friend.

Enjoy!

Rebekah