Nutribullet – Product Review

As a certified neurotic mother, I am naturally very conscious of my toddler’s diet. As part of this food-fixation, I obsess over ensuring he consumes ‘5-a-day’. It doesn’t stop there.

Does he need to take vitamins? Is he taking too many vitamins?? Has he had enough calcium for his daily intake (cheese, yoghurt, milk etc)? Should I be supplementing his supplements?!

With this and a generally disorganised and hectic family/work life, I find it increasingly difficult to concoct new and exciting ways of getting (camouflaging) fruit and veg into my family’s diet.

It is also worth adding that, for as long as I can remember, I have suffered with stomach-related complaints. In my teens, I was told that I had IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and for the years which followed I have tried stomach relaxants, drinks, diet plans but nothing has ever controlled the ‘flair-ups’.

Over the past 6 months, my symptoms have worsened and I have also had to take time off work. Thankfully, after blood tests, consultancy appointments, scans (and a forthcoming endoscopy), I am edging closer to a REAL diagnosis.

Anyway, in a bid to improve both my health and also help (see force) my son to enjoy some nice shakes, we recently acquired a Nutribullet. I have never juiced before and, as per usual, I didn’t read the instructions (as I never have the time). I was naturally reticent and had already assigned a space in the cupboard to ‘retire’ it after the first use.

But juicing has opened up a whole new world. A pile of fruit was thrown in (roughly chopped) with some linseed, ginger, honey and ice cubes and within a few seconds these were blitzed and poured out into a glass. There’s something about the effortlessness of ‘drinking’ your 5-a-day that suddenly had the men in my house happily engaging with fruit and vegetables.

The following day I decided that I would try to make a fun milkshake for my son. Once again, I didn’t go by a recipe, I threw in a handful of fruit (blueberries and raspberries) with a tablespoon of honey, half a pint of milk, blitzed for a few seconds, poured into a cup with a ‘funky’ straw and, to my amazement, my son happily guzzled the whole lot. EUREKA!

We have now been experimenting with our veg intake, blitzing spinach, butternut squash and a whole myriad of green things which were only once of ornamental value. This has been happening for just over a week and, personally, I am definitely feeling a lot less sluggish and a lot more ‘regular’ (you didn’t want to know that information really, did you)?

Now the main reason I have a cupboard full of retired gadgets is, 1 – you usually need a Degree to figure out how to put said gadgets together and 2, I really can’t deal with the 26 components that need cleaning after their use. However, with the Nutribullet there is no hassle at all. The mixer cup and blades fix securely on the bullet in a quick second and then the same ease and simplicity applies when dissembling. When it comes to washing up, its only a quick rinse under the tap and you’re ready to get on prepping your next batch.

My hubby and I spend approx 10-15 minutes on a Sunday night and batch-prepare a veg, fruit and milkshake concoction for the following 2-3 days and then repeat halfway through the week. I have got say, this is definitely a gadget that even the hubby enjoys using, so it must be good!

How it works

My recipes

Tropical Kick

100ml of Vita Coco coconut water

2 kiwis

A generous slice of honeydew melon

A large slice of pineapple

1/2 a mango

1/4 apple

1 x pomegranate

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of ground linseed

A small grating of fresh ginger

A handful of ice cubes (we have also made another batch with a generous handful of spinach and it still tasted yummy!)

Berry Shake – ‘Quick and Easy’ Toddler Milkshake

1 handful of blueberries

1 handful of raspberries (we have previously added some strawberries too!)

1 tablespoon of honey

Half a pint of whole milk

Serve with a funky straw (my son loves his shakes with a straw)

The Nutribullet is doing a fabulous job in giving us all a great start to the day and I’m pretty sure that, without this gadget, we wouldn’t be eating half the amount of fruit and veg we are today.

I was sent this product by Nutribullet to review. All opinions are my own.