apple pie

Green Blender: Blend it Your Way

Published on December 11, 2016December 11, 2016 by The Crimson CraveLeave a comment

By Joseph Winters ’20

I love smoothies. Smoothies in the morning, smoothies for snacks, smoothies before bed—there’s no bad time for a smoothie. At home, they served two main functions: 1) they were a good way to eat more greens without even realizing it, and 2) they helped my family reduce waste by allowing us to use whatever fruits and veggies were lying around in the fridge, a little past their prime but still edible.

The ultimate dream would be for Annenberg to have a smoothie station, where students have anytime access to a fridge full of fresh ingredients and a quality blender. Unfortunately, that isn’t quite the case. As freshmen, we’re pretty much stuck with using whatever blender we can find in the dorm kitchens, or renting from the FDO.

Not to mention, the ingredients! I’ve swiped my share of bananas from Annenberg, but most smoothie recipes call for teeny amounts of things like chia or hemp seeds, apple pie spice, fresh ginger… Without frequent trips to Whole Foods, it’s hard to imagine being able to stock the right smoothie ingredients all the time.

That’s what GreenBlender can help with: they deliver weekly smoothie boxes, complete with prepackaged and portioned ingredients that go with five recipes (two servings per recipe—so ten smoothies per week). I was intrigued, so I emailed GreenBlender, and they agreed to send me a box in exchange for this review!

Here are the ways you can subscribe to GreenBlender:

Fresh Start: a week-to-week subscription for $49/box
- $4.90 per serving
Monthly Challenge: a monthly subscription for $176
- $4.40 per serving
Healthy Habit: a one-year subscription for $468
- $3.90 per serving

My box arrived just before Thanksgiving Break, so the recipes were all Thanksgiving-themed. The ingredients were meticulously packaged in plastic baggies, with convenient labels for things I might not recognize, like maqui powder. Plus, I really appreciated that they weren’t the stereotypical smoothie recipes that you might find at some pseudo-health smoothie place, laden with just fruit and yogurt and honey or syrup; three of the recipes had greens, one had a summer squash, and one used sweet potato. No nauseatingly sweet stuff here! Also, everything GreenBlender sent was organic, which I thought was a great feature of their service.

Here are the five smoothies, with my comments:

Maqui Apple Cleanse

This smoothie was surprisingly delicious. It wasn’t too sweet, but very refreshing. I mostly tasted the applesauce, but the grapes gave it some tartness. The squash made the consistency a little fibrous, but that would have been remedied if I’d just blended it for a minute or so more.

1 yellow squash, chopped

5 oz grapes

1/2 cup applesauce

1 tbsp hemp seeds

1 tsp maqui berry powder

1 cup water

1 cup ice

Maple Almond Apple Pie

Many health foodies are familiar with the concept of the “açai bowl”, which is basically a really thick berry smoothie. But I don’t think the açai bowl needs to limit itself to açai berries as a base; I like to make “smoothie bowls,” which are basically smoothies with less liquid. That’s what I decided to do with the Maple Almond Apple Pie recipe that GreenBlender sent. I put all the ingredients into the blender as normal but omitted the cup of water. Into the blender went:

1.5 oz baby kale

1 tsp apple pie spice

2 apples, chopped

1 tbsp maple almond butter

1 cup ice

If you don’t have a powerful blender, I’m not sure this would work, but Vitamixes and Blendtecs should do the job handily! The consistency was a little meltier than frozen yogurt, and while it didn’t taste like a real pie, the apple pie spice definitely gave the smoothie bowl some holiday flavor, and—of course—the kale was undetectable.

I like this smoothie-eating method particularly because I could never drink only a liquid smoothie for breakfast—I’d be hungry within an hour. This way, I get some more carbs from toppings like granola (and a scone on this particular morning!), and a healthy schmear of peanut butter makes it a little more like an actual meal.

Cranberry Ginger

While it wasn’t bad, this smoothie was probably my least favorite of the smoothies I sampled. It was the kind of smoothie someone might accuse of tasting “healthy” in a derogatory way. “Healthy” is a taste I’ve acquired and come to like, but it’s definitely not for everybody. That being said, it still made for a nice smoothie bowl breakfast. I would have added more ginger than the tiny slice that came with the ingredients, though, since I could barely tell that it was there.

1.5 oz spinach

2 oz cranberries

2 dates

1 pear, chopped

1/2 inch ginger

3 tbsp walnuts

1 cup ice

Pineapple Kumquat Passion

When I think of classic smoothies, this is what I think of. Super citrusy, pleasantly sweet, and deceptively green-colored. It was the first smoothie I made, and I shared it with one of my friends. She even woke up for a nap just to share in the smoothie-making. Both of us agreed that it was a quality sip of Vitamin C.

I also commented that GreenBlender helped me control my tendency to shove about five fistfuls of greens into the smoothie in the name of health. Doing this usually makes the smoothie extremely fibrous and completely unsatisfactory—with the recipe they provided, the smoothie had just the right amount of greens: still tasty, but with a healthy boost.

1.5 oz swiss chard

3 oz kumquats

1 orange, peeled

4 oz pineapple

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 cup coconut water

Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes

This was the smoothie I was most excited to make. I love sweet potatoes, I love smoothies—what could go wrong?

4 oz raw sweet potatoes

1 banana

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp cashews

1 cup water

1 cup ice

The outcome was amazing—sweetness from the banana, spice from the cinnamon, sweet potato-y goodness from the sweet potatoes. As with many banana smoothies, this kind of tasted like a milkshake. In fact, it was so good that, after my GreenBlender trial, I looked up the recipe and bought all the ingredients at Whole Foods so I could make it again. The second time, I had some extra coconut milk on hand, so I subbed it for the water and got a super dessert-like, creamy consistency.

After my week of smoothies, I was pretty sold on GreenBlender. I recently did a review of the meal delivery service Plated, but my conclusion was that it didn’t make sense for undergraduates on an unlimited, mandatory meal plan. GreenBlender, however, might make sense for those who are already devout smoothie lovers. They ease the difficulty of having to find quality smoothie recipes, go to the grocery store to find the ingredients (where you might have to buy a huge container of maple syrup even if you only need a tablespoon), and haul them back to your dorm kitchen.

Also of note is the fact that GreenBlender publishes all its smoothie recipes to its website! It’s definitely worth checking out, especially some of the candy bar-themed smoothies. Even if you don’t purchase your own subscription to GreenBlender, you can still make some killer smoothies from their enormous recipe index!

Website: https://greenblender.com/

Use the coupon code CRIMSONCRAVE when paying for a 20% discount from Green Blender!

“Fall” In Love: With Sweet Apple Cupcakes

Published on October 26, 2015 by The Crimson Crave1 Comment

by Angela Yi ’19

Today, I was feeling a little under the weather because of the colds going around campus. I needed some good comfort food, and the first place that came into mind was Sweet. I mentioned them last week in my tribute to my love for pumpkin – But this time, I decided to try something new.

Located in Brattle St., in between the Curious George store and Tealuxe.

I dragged my friend out of bed to join me in my excursion to gorge myself on delicious cupcakes with promises of free pastries. We took the long, exhaustive walk on the Square; and three minutes later, the much-beloved sign appeared.

The décor of Sweet never fails to make me feel happy. I love the cute little boxes stacked on top of each other, and their new pink Jack-o’-lantern makes an adorable finish to the cozy little bakery.

The Jack-o’-lantern is the highlight of this pic.

But most of all, the sheer number of options to choose from is what makes Sweet my favorite cupcake store. From dark chocolate to french toast, Sweet has a very interesting variety of flavors that I haven’t seen anywhere else. They even have a flavor called “pupcakes”, which Sweet calls a “yummy treat for our canine friends.”

Choosing which flavors to try is stressful, but the stress is certainly a good one.

So today, prior to walking into the bakery, I relied on Sweet’s varied flavors to find some cupcakes that I’ve never tried before. Forget vanilla and chocolate – I wanted to try something new and unique.

From left to right: Caramel Apple, Apple Cider Doughnut, Apple Pie.

Sweet certainly did not disappoint. So today, for lunch, I got to have Apple Pie, Caramel Apple, and Apple Cider Doughnut cupcakes. It was certainly one of the best lunches I’ve ever had. The apple fillings in Apple Pie and Caramel Apple was just simply delicious, and eating all those cupcakes with Sweet’s coffee ended my afternoon on a very high note.

The Proof Is In The Pie

Published on October 19, 2015January 25, 2016 by The Crimson Crave2 Comments

by Landy Erlick ’19

Petsi Pies is a hidden Cambridge oasis tucked behind a residential street. With four locations in Massachusetts, the establishment clearly knows what it’s doing since opening in 2003. From eponymous pies and baked goods to spicy soups and flavorful sandwiches, Petsi is much more than a café.

There’s a decent amount of coffee choices, and most customers sip a cup while typing away on their laptops thanks to free wifi. I ventured in around 2pm, and every table was filled, explaining why the display case was looking a little desolate compared to the cornucopia of pies and treats it usually contains before lunchtime. Learn from my mistake – get there early, get a seat, get pie!

If you have a favorite filling or are looking to take a whole pie to go, you’re better off placing an order over the phone. Daily selections vary, but everything is freshly baked. Possible choices include a classic apple, cherry crumb, chocolate cream, blueberry, Mississippi mud, brown butter pecan, pumpkin, and more.

I selected the delectably messy mixed berry with a crumb topping. And here’s another tip: have them heat a slice up for you. Now that it’s getting colder, there’s nothing better than a warm, gooey treat, and this slice of berry pie did not disappoint. The texture was chunky enough to know it was made with fresh fruit, but soft enough to let it melt in your mouth. Plus, the crumb has a nice cinnamon kick to complement the hint of sour from the blackberry and sweet from the blueberry.

Needless to say, I understand the crowds, and I am all for keeping Petsi a secret spot. The more pie for us, the better! Be careful how often you frequent the café, though. It may be tasty, but my slice was $5.

It was worth it as a special treat, but maybe not as an everyday dessert.

If you’re looking for a change of pace from dining hall cookies, grab a cup of warm coffee, a plateful of pie, and relax in the bustling ambiance of Petsi’s.