Thursday, March 18, 2010

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve



Oh Vitamix how do I love you? Let me count the ways. Okay so that was a tad dramatic, but that machine is amazing. Who wouldn’t love a two minute fruit soft serve?

Today I wasn’t much in the mood for food. Salad wasn’t appealing to me, I didn’t want soup so ……. I decided to break out the Vitamix. This is something I make a lot in the summer since it cools me down instantly. It works with any frozen fruit. I like to use berries for their ellagic acid since they are linked to cancer cell death (apoptosis), and they taste good. I add cinnamon to assist the body in processing the natural sugar more efficiently. Orange extract was added for flavor and aroma. Here is what I did.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve
Serves 1 as a meal

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup soymilk, unsweetened
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon orange extract

Directions:

Put everything in your high powered blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 241.76
Calories From Fat (17%) - 41.17

Total Fat - 4.6g
Saturated Fat - 0.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 130.11mg
Potassium - 734.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.65g
Fiber - 8.41g
Sugar - 23.45g
Protein - 9.28g

Comments:

If you still use sweeteners you may need to add a little agave or stevia to this. In the past I had to add additional sweetener. Now that we have been off sweeteners for many months (sorry I lost track of how many) this tastes sweet enough to me. It tastes mostly of strawberries with a subtle hint of orange. You can leave out the orange extract but I think it adds a lot. Sometimes I make this with fresh mint in place of the orange extract.

Unrelated Note:

The weather is beautiful here today. The sky is blue and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It is so nice to have temperatures in the upper 60’s. It is one of those days where you want to be outside as much as possible. On that note I am going to hit post and head back outside. I hope the weather where you are is lovely too. Talk to you all later.

16 comments:

  1. hey just logged on for the day and this is what i was greeted with! a vitamix has been on my wish list for forever! theres so much you can do with it!

    yay for good weather, i think its going to be a nice one here also!!

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  2. Michelle,

    I highly recommend Vitamix blenders. I use mine everyday no matter what the season.

    I am pretty psyched by the nice weather too. The sun is so bright I had to get under a tree to see my cell phone screen so I could reply.

    Alicia

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  3. Looks good enough to eat!! I've been wanting some ice cream lately. This could be a great evening snack tonight. My poor blender won't handle completely frozen fruit very well so I'll have to make and let it freeze up.

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  4. Heather,

    Trying to do this in other blenders in how we burned out 5 machines before we got the Vitamix. Your idea makes a lot of sense to make it and then freeze it. Thanks for including that in your comment so others know.

    Alicia

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  5. oh my, this looks absolutely refreshing! i'm a strawberry and cinnamon fan so you've defnitely captured my heart. how does the vita mix make it so ice cream-like? is it the frozen strawberries?

    oh, and i really like the mint idea :).

    have a lovely day!
    xox

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  6. Mandiee,

    The Vitamix is a high powered and high speed blender. It pulverizes the frozen fruit which chills the soy milk and this is the consistency you get after a very short time. I make many different versions of frozen fruit concoctions. It is like having ice cream but without the guilt. Gotta love that!

    I hope you have a great day too!
    Alicia

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  7. It's not like I had any doubt before, Alicia, but now...I am SOOOO getting a Vitamix!

    "Well, hello there tax refund, guess what you're doing!" Heehee!

    LJ

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  8. LJ,

    You aren't going to believe this but I thought of you when I was making this. Something told me this might be the last nudge you needed. Sorry for spending your tax refund. ;-) You will love the machine. I use it all the time. I have told Dan many times that if it ever breaks we are getting a replacement immediately. I would be lost without it. It still amazes me that we have had it for years (not certain how many but at least 4) and it just keeps going. No other blender has done that. I used to burn through them in under one year, and I use this one much more often.

    Alicia

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  9. I have a similar treat on my blog, except mine uses agave and no soymilk (more like a sorbet, I guess). But I LOVE that you have no sweetener added here! I've got a 2kg bag of mixed frozen berries in the freezer. . . it's warm out. . .I am going to make this NOW. :D

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  10. Ricki,

    I make a lot of variations of this. I used to always put a sweetener in them. But we have been away from sweeteners for so long now that my tastes have changed.

    Glad I could inspire you to break out the berries. I love getting food inspirations reading blogs too. Yours always makes me want to run to the kitchen.

    Alicia

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  11. I absolutely adore my vitamix. It has been one of the smartest investments I have ever made for kitchen. I use it nearly every single day. In fact, I made a berry soft serve for breakfast very similar to yours just the other day. My brother's wife just bought a vitamix and she is loving it for pureeing food for their baby and she is loving it, too. Such an awesome machine!!

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  12. Melissa,

    We love ours too! It definitely is my favorite kitchen tool. I bet it is great for making baby food.

    Alicia

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  13. This sounds awesome, so creative! I never now what I'm having to eat until at least 8 pm!

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  14. Jenna,

    Thanks for letting me know I am not alone! So many bloggers plan their meals a week in advance I tend to think I am the only one that doesn't.

    Alicia

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  15. Looks gorgeous, sounds delicious, and adding cinnamon? I would never have thunk of it! :-)

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  16. Lalo,

    Cinnamon is something that I add to most fruit dishes to assist the body to process the fruit sugar more effectively. It is one of those autopilot things with me now. I bet you could make this in the food processor too like the banana soft serve you make.

    talk to you later,
    Ali

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