Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Smoothie Book: 101 Delicious Recipes for Blender Drinks, Frozen Desserts, Shakes, and More!

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My husband and I have been trying to switch from our unhealthy, sugar-laden, fast-food ridden eating habits to a more organic, whole-food way of eating for a few years now, but it is not an easy thing to do. One of the hardest parts for us was eating 5-8 servings of fruits and veggies everyday, especially when we were trying not to add any processed food to the mix.

Well, this book makes it easy to get all of your vitamins, minerals, protein, and more, with recipes that are really easy to prepare, and if you follow the instructions, really, really delicious. It really only takes a few minutes to throw together a smoothie. Especially if you follow her tips on things you can prepare the night before (for a morning smoothie). Plus, she has tips on freezing smoothies for future enjoyment.

The ingredients are not hard to find, if you actually try. There are things like organic protein powder, flax-seed oil, and rose water in some of the recipes, but if you go into a health food store, or look online (if you don't have a local health food store), they are not difficult to find at all. The author tells you where to find most of the ingredients, anyway. The first time I went out to look for them, I just wrote them all down, and found them all, without any help. It did cost a little money up front to stock up on everything, but it all lasted me quite a while (I still have about half a can of protein powder that I bought a few months ago.) It's kind of like when you run out of all your condiments all at once, and you have to go stock up, but then you have them for a long time.

Not all of the recipes include "exotic" ingredients, though. Some are just strawberries, oranges, yogurt and ice (or something like that). I think there's one that has only grapes and blueberries.

The book has a section that tells you briefly about the different health benefits of many fruits, vegetables, herbs, and supplements, as well as when they are in season, and how to wash/prepare/measure them. This section is very, very useful.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to better their health, or who just loves smoothies. However, I would recommend buying a juicer. Many things, like ginger root, taste much better juiced than grated, so you don't have to have all the little pieces in your drink. I love this book!!

I was so excited when my Smoothie book came in the mail. To my surprize it wasnt what I expected. Some of the ingredients are exotic. Some of the recipes the average person will NOT make. My suggestion is to go to dannon.com or kraft.com and get their recipes they are practical and best of all FREE!

This is my favorite smoothie book. I use it at least three times a week. Cherie Calbom's smoothie recipes are chock filled with healty ingredients and are delicious. She prefaces her recipes with chapters full of information on juicing, fruits and vegetables, and other ingredients. Then it's on to a plethora of smoothie creations bound to please every family member. The only reason I do not rate this book 5 stars is the added cost of purchasing a juicer if you desire to get optimal nutritional value from fruit juices and the cost of some of the suggested supplements. It would also be helpful to have access to a natural foods grocery store. That being said, this smoothie book is a must for those seeking tasty, nutitious drinks.

I actually bought this for my mom about a year ago and she's still whirling up those smoothies. She loves the recipes and has been inspired to try out other concoctions as well. I've tried a few of the drinks and all have been delicious. I really like how they have the different sections like immune booster and the like because it shows you not only a good recipe in that sort of category but also helps you to learn about what foods are particularly helpful in certain ways. Four thumbs up from me and my mom.

This book is an easy and great way to eat healthy. If the idea of starting your day with a powerhouse of health is a smoothie made with, just for example almonds, soy milk,frozen bannana ( peel prior to freezing) and icecubes or prunes, yogurt, oat bran, flaxseed and frozen strawberries appeal to you than this is the book for you. Unbelievably they taste great. No added sugar. We use this book all the time and we find the recipies delicious and easy to make. The beginnning of the book has info on ingredients, supplements and making exhanges. If it is cranberry season or blueberry season or if you have almonds, oatmeal, oatbran, ,soymilk, yogurt, cashews, all kinds of foods, you will find something delicious to make. We always feel so healthy starting our day with these smoothies that lots could be easily considered a cold smooth meal in a glass. The book is packed with information, no glossy pictures and so easy to use. I have to say I think it is the best way to starting your day with a healthy, delicious diet. Shockingly easy and great tasting. Thank-you author. I toast you to for doing this book and to your and our good heath.

This is the BEST Smoothie book I've come across so far! Drinks are quick and easy- with ingredients you can easily find at a Local Supermarket! Calbom breaks all the recipes up into groups: Terrific Health & Healing Smoothies, Workout and Bodybuilding Smoothies, No Fat Weight Loss Smoothies...even Pregnancy Smoothies!

Plenty of variation in the Drinks for a Nice Variety of Drinks. Even the Kids love these drinks!

If you buy only ONE Smoothie Book...Let this be it!

I agree with the other reviewer.There are alot of recipes with stuff I haven't even heard of.I have tried a couple of these with what ingredients I could find and it wasn't that bad or great either,Maybe tolerable would be the word.I would say if you can find the ingredients good but the book is average.

This book accomplished what any good cookbook should: It got ideas flowing, which was followed by action in the kitchen. I don't follow the recipes exactly, but this is a good reference guide on smoothie making. It includes ingredients I normally wouldn't think to add to smoothies, like applesauce or chai and chamomile teas. This smoothie book made me dust off my blender and really get going. Me and my boyfriend have been making smoothies for breakfast or a snack nearly every day. I also like the chapters on smoothie boosters, with explanations of their function. I bought bee pollen and flaxseed oil the other day -- stuff I normally wound't have considered before reading this book. Thanks!

When my daughter brought this book home, I admit I was skeptical. Many of the recipes do call for ingredients available from your local health food store; many others use ingredients from the general grocery. Our baby of the family absolutely refused to drink anything from a sippy cup -- until, in desperation, I made him "Baby's First Smoothie" from Cherie Calbom's book. He drank three glasses of the pear-and-banana concoction, straight from the sippy cup. After three months of frustration over mealtimes, that alone is worth my keeping this book on the shelf.

`The Smoothies Bible' by Pat Crocker and `The Ultimate Smoothies Book' by Cherie Calbom both profess to be a complete guide to making all sorts of smoothies. In many ways, both are better than the book, `Smoothies for Life' by Daniella Chace and Maureen B. Keane which I reviewed recently. All three focus on making smoothies for good health, but `Smoothies for Life' does little else and depends heavily on ingredients available only in some health food stores.

Of the two subjects of this review, the first, `The Smoothies Bible' is clearly the better book. In fact, it is also clearly superior to a similar book by the same publisher, `The Blender Bible' which has many fine attributes, but which simply does not stack up to the `Bible' title.

`The Smoothies Bible' includes everything that makes it deserve its honorific title. The most important aspect of the book's organization is that it looks at all sides of smoothie making and even gives us a lot more information on blender use than `The Blender Bible'.

The book begins with an excellent two page `Guidelines to Good Health' with a brief on what one should eat and especially what we should avoid such as white sugar and flour, red meat, shellfish, excess salt, coffee and strong tea, and excess alcohol. I simply do not agree with the bans on flour, shellfish, red meat, coffee and strong tea.

I believe unbleached flour is simply too important an ingredient, in reasonable amounts, as a source of gluten in yeast breads to ban entirely. The stricture against shellfish is not based on the animal but on contaminants it may pick up. This is something that may not be true of all shellfish and it may improve as time goes on. I suspect the benefits of carefully selected shellfish outweigh the dangers. I feel one or two four ounce portions of red meat a week, especially for women (source of iron), is a good thing (I am especially wary of soy as a substitute for meat on seeing some warnings on soy products for some eaters in Ms. Calbom's book. It seems that there is simply no concoction on the face of this earth that has not dangers for anyone.) On coffee and tea, I believe the final jury is still out and the weight of informed opinion on something as simple as caffeine is still flipping back and forth with each new study.

I am not an expert nutritionist, but I always wonder about certain health claims for some regimens since I have never once heard from a family doctor that I should burn all my beef recipes, eat lots of seaweed, and drink pureed, cooked rhubarb, as the authors of these books seem to suggest. I am a strong believer in the value of moderation and variety. If you avoid eating a lot of any one thing and eat a wide variety of all sorts of foods, I believe you simply cannot go wrong.

But, If you buy into the superior properties of certain foods, `The Blender Bible' gives you the very best rundown of how to make the best of these foods. It continues with an `The A to Z of Smoothies' which advises us on all the different types of smoothies and how they fit into a healthy diet.

The second major section on `Health Conditions' offers us an index to the smoothies that are best suited as an adjunct to the treatment of 63 different common conditions. And, most of these conditions are pretty common and some, such as Anemia, Constipation, Diarrhea, Flatulence, Hangover, Heartburn, Hypoglycemia, Indigestion, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Overweight, Peptic Ulcers, and Water Retention may even be effectively aided by this book's recommendations. I single these out because most are directly or indirectly related to our gastrointestinal or circulatory systems, which can be quickly influenced by what we eat. Each of these 63 sections contains a brief description of the problem, general food recommendations for the problem, general suggestions on how much to eat and drink of selected items, and one or more, usually several, smoothie recipes for relieving the condition or its symptoms. From what I can see, the book is pretty careful about recommending that one rely heavily on a doctor's advice for most of the conditions.

The next section is `Ingredient Profiles' which I find interesting, but just a bit more doctrinaire than the rest of the book. Of the 76 herbs, I commonly stock or use 24, and I have no interest whatsoever in tracking down sources for the other 52 to put into my smoothies. I also disagree with a few of the health claims for some ingredients, such as when the author states that carob is healthier than chocolate, which is another of those things whose nutritional reputation is on the rise.

I really like the smoothie recipes in this book, as they are simple and contain both English and Metric units. Important since many smoothie ingredients are liquid and metric liquid measurement is far easier to double or half than English units.

`The Ultimate Smoothie Book' simply does not deserve its title when compared to Crocker's `Bible'. Three things were especially annoying. The first was that the author used the book to push her juicing products and slant the smoothie recipes toward using output from a juicer. The second was that there were several simple grammatical errors in the text. Not acceptable from a major house such as Warner Books. The third suspicious content was the fact that potassium and some other nutrients was given as a major benefit for practically every other ingredient. While this may be true, it is unhelpful when you are looking for the very best food for potassium (probably bananas). Ms. Calbom's smoothie recipes are good with elaborate nutritional analyses, but not as clearly written as Ms. Crocker's `Bible'. I recommend Calbom's `Ultimate' book only if you have a good juicer and like using it.