Customer Reviews

The Best 50 Smoothies

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a no-frills idea book. No pretty pictures, no gratuitous white-space, no full-page smoothie portraits--just a diverse yet basic collection of mostly common-ingredient smoothie suggestions.

If it's bang for the buck you want, this book is money well-spent--especially if you aren't afraid to creatively enhance some of these drinks with what's on hand to make them your own.

The simplicity of this spartan little book will set you and your blender free because this book is anything but intimidating; it begins with some helpful hints, several pages of possible garnishes, possible fruits, possible sweeteners, and an assortment of creamy bases.

The book itself is lackluster and uninteresting but it works for me. Actually, I like the nuts-and-bolts approach. You're buying recipies here, not a smoothie video. If it's important that the color of your smoothie match your tablecloth and napkins, better try a different book.

This review refers to "The Best 50 Smoothies" by Joanna White....

It's just a little book, nothing fancy, but inside you will find some terrific ideas and a real good variety for some delicious and nutritious smoothies. The recipes are simple and most of the ingrediants are readily available most any time of the year.

It starts of with an introduction, letting you know it's okay to get creative and experiment. Followed by a few pages of some really helpful hints like how to make thicker smoothies, how to frost a glass or mug, storing over ripe bananas, the best way to crush ice, etc. You'll also find some great garnishes and alternative sweetners in this section.

The book is divided into sections of the various types of smoothies. Breakfast Smoothies...here you find find such delights as "Apple-Cinnamon Deluxe" and a "Coffee Banana Smoothie"(who need Starbucks with these treats!)....Berry Smoothies..."Red Raspberry Razzler" and "Super Strawberry Slurpee" are just a couple of the treats for the taste buds here.."Tropical Smoothies includes..a "Pineapple Peach Pick-Me-Up " and a "Papaya Strawberry Tropical" to die for. There are also Citrus Smoothies,Melon Smoothies and Creamy Smoothies.

There's an alphabetical index in the back, to find your favorites(although with the size of this book, it not a big task) and a few blank "Note" Pages, where you can write any ideas that come to you or remember your favorites here.

There's something for everbody here, you can use ice cream or low fat yogurt in some recipes and I like that some of the recipes include soy and protein powders(I have a really bad relationship with dairy products).They taste great, are simple to make and can be used as a meal, snack or dessert!

The book is small enough to go in your purse or even your pocket and it a good thing to add to your cart when you need just that little bit more for the "Free Shipping!" If you love smoothies or want a good introduction to them, you can't go wrong with this little recipe book.

Enjoy......Laurie
recommended:
Soymilk, Plain, Unsweetened, Organic, 32 oz.

Firm It Up! A Dance Workout

Easy recipies that make one (1) serving. Simple to make and so good! These smoothies will appeal to everyone. I highly recommend this book. It is an inexpensive investment that will get you started enjoying smoothies.

With Spring and Summer right around the corner, I was looking for a book with delicious smoothies recipes. Smoothies make a great breakfast in the warm weather. This book is simple, but the recipes are really great, and easy to follow. A really good book for anyone looking to get started making smoothies.

Get this book...even if you don't intend to use all the recipes they
give you ideas...you can make some of them healthier, should you choose.
Worth it.

`Ultimate Smoothies' by Donna Pliner Rodnitsky and `The Best 50 Smoothies' by Joanna White are the fourth and fifth smoothies books I am reviewing and it is appropriate to review them together and not review them in the same context as the first three, `The Smoothies Bible' by Pat Crocker, `The Ultimate Smoothies Book' by Cherie Calbom, and `Smoothies for Life' by Daniella Chace and Maureen B. Keane in that these two little books do not profess to be a comprehensive work on smoothies. They just profess to be little books on `the best' recipes.

It is painfully obvious from the outset that the second of these two, `The Best 50 Smoothies' does not live up to its title. The first reason is that there is not a single recipe in the book with a vegetable ingredient. For those, in detail, you want to go to `The Smoothies Bible' or `The Ultimate Smoothies Book', especially the latter if you have a juicer and like to use it. The second reason is that this book contains no smoothies with any alcoholic ingredients. Even the smoothies with names copied from famous alcoholic drinks such as the Mint Julep contains no alcohol. I strongly believe that among the true top 50 smoothies are at least five containing alcohol and at least five with at least one vegetable ingredient such as either tomato or carrot juice. Thus, I dismiss this book from further consideration.

The `Ultimate Smoothies' is a different story altogether. While it contains no vegetable ingredients, I will forgive it, as it makes no claim to being a collection of all the best recipes. It is only claiming to have 125 from among the best recipes for smoothies, freezes, and blasts. And, the book gets extra credit for including a very nice selection of recipes that include alcohol in some form or another. Even `The Smoothies Bible', the best general book on the subject has no `adult' recipes. I anticipate reviewing at least one more book on smoothies, but for the moment, if what you really want is just a collection of good, fun recipes, then `Ultimate Smoothies' is for you!

Even if you are just into smoothies for the fun of it, this book has excellent nutritional information for each recipe, nicely located in a box at the bottom of the page, at the same place on each page so you can easily flip through the recipes with an eye on the calorie count to find ones which fit a particular calorie range or low fat recipes or low carb recipes or low sodium recipes or high beta-carotene recipes or high or low whatever the nutritional fad of the day may be. This feature justifies the otherwise annoying slim Jim book format where pages are more than twice as long as they are wide.

A not inconsiderable virtue of this book is the fun names given to all the recipes, divided up into five chapters concentrating on:

Back to Basics: Classic recipes
Smoooothies: Recipes heavy on dairy.
Rx Smoothies: Recipes focusing on especially healthy combinations.
Outrageously Decadent: Lots of chocolate and sweets.
Black Tie Only: An adult swim with rum, cordials, and other ethanolic pleasures.

A second feature of this book not found in any of the bigger volumes is a chapter on garnishes. And, this is not a five-page throwaway. There are 29 recipes including the same nutritional analysis as we get for the smoothie recipe. This is a not inconsiderable virtue as some garnishes can easily double the calories of the serving, although many, such as the fruit chips are very low in calories.

If you want only one book on smoothies, especially if you plan to use them with entertaining, this is clearly the best of the crop. It is entertainingly written and the recipes are clearly written, although I would have liked metric measurements to accompany the English units. If your primary interest is in health, get `The Smoothie Bible'. Otherwise, this book is highly recommended.

Nobody would confuse me with a good cook, but this book gets my total endorsement. Simple, straight forward ingredients that result in tasty drinks. Also includes helpful hints that were, not surprisingly, new to me.

Seems to have good easy recipes. Thought book would be bigger, but it seems to be OK. It is a gift.

It's a quick guide, very concise and easy reference. I found very helpful for me.

I was very disappointed in this book. I had expected much more. There wasn't enough variety or types of smoothie recipes for me, and the ones that were there weren't to my liking. I ended up giving the boook away.