Introduction: Super Strawberry Smoothie Shake

A real strawberry milkshake when the fast food drive through one just doesn't satisfy. You can do better than the 40 or 50 unpronounceable chemicals that are used to make an industrial milkshake. Because this is blended with real frozen fruit, it qualifies as a smoothie too.

CAUTION: Drinking a frozen smoothie milkshake quickly may induce "brain freeze." There is no known cure. Do so at your own risk.

Step 1: Eat Fresh...and Frozen...

You need some fresh berries. Any kinds of fruit will do. Try something exotic like dragonfruit, kiwis or mangoes.

You need some prepared ice cream. Vanilla seems to go well with all kinds of fruit. You can even use some frozen sherbert, icemilk, yogurt or similar.

Some milk, 10W30 or 20W50 weight, whatever your preference, you mileage may vary.

A shot of good quality fruit syrup. You could probably do without but it rounds out the flavor if your fruit is not in season or not at peak.

And last, you need a blender capable of chopping hard things like ice cubes. I have one of those AsSeenOnTV magic bullet blenders. Yes, I was sold on it's capabilities to make a good milkshake or smoothie.

And optional but essential for the experience is a good bendy straw. Used to test the thickness of the shake if it can stand up on its own and to see if it is too thick to drink with a straw. Can also be used to blow bubbles in any melted remainder of the milkshake.

Step 2: Slice and Dice...

You have to do a little prep work on your strawberries or fruit.

Here in my neighborhood we have several fruit and vegetable stands where we can get bulk quantities of fresh fruit. They seem to liquidate the excess stock of the wholesale suppliers and thus the bargain prices. I got this box from one of the street stands on a visit to Chinatown. Asian markets will always have fresh fruit at good prices.

The fruit will be frozen and then added to the blender for our smoothie shake.

Hard chunky objects will just bounce off of the blender blades. Pulsing several times will not catch the big chunks floating around the liquid. You can burn out the motor of your blender if you just let it run hoping to puree everything.

We need to make small chunks out of the fruit. Rinse off the fruit. Pick the stems off and remove any bad sections of fruit. What is good about using fruit in a smoothie milkshake is that fruit gone too soft or ripe to eat will freeze up fine to be added to the mix.

With the fruit already frozen, there is no need to add ice to the mix or have the melted water dilute the drink.

Slice the fruit into 1/4 to 3/8th inch pieces. Small but not too small. Put the whole batch into a ziplock or heavy plastic bag.

Stick in the freezer, preferably overnight to get really frozen.

When ready to use, take a smooth meat mallet or a heavy pot to hammer the bag of frozen fruit pieces. This will break apart the pieces that have stuck together.

Store any extra fruit back in the freezer for next time. The original plastic bag probably will have tears from getting beat up with the meat mallet. Just put the whole thing in another plastic bag.

Step 3: Work It...

These are my proportions for a nice smoothie milkshake. You can vary the amount of any ingredient to your liking. Just go by eye and don't bother to actually measure anything. It's all good.

Fill up your blender container, which also happens to be one serving size, halfway with your frozen strawberry chunks.

Give it a good squirt of strawberry syrup.

Fill up the half with milk.

Fill the rest up with vanilla ice cream. Don't pack it in too hard as the milk will squirt up making a mess. Also, that is where the blades will dig in first so it needs to be able to stir things around.

Cap it off with your blade assembly top.

Will it blend?

Give it a shake to get some liquid to the bottom/top to get the ice cream off the container wall.

Pulse and blend till smooth.

I can tell by the sound the machine makes and watching the contents swirl to the top that it is completely pulverized and pureed.

When done, remove blade top and serve with a straw.

Enjoy!

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