Food - Pocketful of Joules

Reviewing the Ninja Coffee Bar

You guys remember how much I love my Ninja, right? Well, that love is still going strong and I use my Nutri Ninja almost every single morning to make my breakfast shake.

So when my friends at Ninja asked if I like coffee, I couldn’t type back fast enough that not only do I like coffee, I LOVE COFFEE SO MUCH that my day isn’t complete without a cup. Or two.

Which brings us to the amazing machine that was delivered to my door a few weeks ago: The Ninja Coffee Bar.

The Nitty-Gritty
With the Ninja Coffee Bar you can choose to make a cup, a travel mug or a carafe and personalize your brew by choosing from a variety of brew styles. From classic rich hot coffee, to refreshing Over Ice Brew or even delicious hot milk-based and frozen blended specialty drinks, you can do it all with one machine.

With Auto-iQ One Touch Intelligence, just set the dial to your desired size, select your brew type, and the Ninja Coffee Bar will automatically use the correct amount of water. Whether you like it hot or over ice, smooth or extra rich, this unique brewing technology knows just the right amount of flavor to extract to achieve just the right strength. The Ninja Coffee Bar just came out in September and is available at major retailers nationwide starting at $139.99 MSRP. For more information on where to buy, click here.

My Thoughts
As I mentioned, I love coffee and have gone through quite a few coffee makers at home. One thing I really like about the Ninja Coffee Bar is that in the morning I can brew the coffee directly into my travel mug, grab it and run out the door.

Or, on a lazy weekend, I can pull out the recipe book and brew myself my very own homemade pumpkin spice latte. They even included the Ninja Easy Frother so that I could give it a few pumps and get coffee shop quality foam!

Both Travis and I found the Ninja Coffee Bar extremely easy to use and the flavor of the brewed coffee is pretty fantastic. We also really like the look of the coffee maker. This seems kind of silly, but when you have a coffee machine that lives on your counter top all day long, it’s nice to have one that looks kind of pretty!

I have to say that after trying both the Nutri Ninja blender and the Ninja Coffee Bar, I’m really impressed with what the company has to offer. I love both my Ninja products, even if neither is an ACTUAL ninja (full story here).

If you’re looking for a really cool gift for the coffee lover in your life, this might be the perfect fit!

Do you have a fancy coffee maker that makes specialty drinks? If so, what is your favorite drink to make?

Disclosure: I received a Ninja Coffee Bar for the purposes of my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Loving my Ninja

When I found out that I was going to be sent a Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ to try out, I was pretty excited.

In fact, I may have said a few times how I couldn’t wait until my Ninja arrived so that I could make lots and lots of smoothies and milkshakes.

And I definitely said stuff like, “OH MY GOSH, if I had my Ninja right now I wouldn’t have all these chunks of ice in my shake!” and “My Ninja is coming soon!”

Yeah, I was pretty excited.
And Jack got pretty excited too, which was pretty cool.

However, I didn’t realize until my Ninja arrived that he thought I was getting an ACTUAL NINJA to make us milkshakes…

I’m not going to lie, that does sound pretty cool. But I’m not sure it could be any better than the Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ that now lives on my counter top. And I’m pretty sure that an actual ninja would need more space. And care. And fresh ninja outfits to wear after making me smoothies and milkshakes every day.

The Nitty-Gritty
The Nutri Ninja Auto-iQ™ Compact System includes a powerful 1100-watt motor base that has the ability to crush whole fruits, vegetables, and ice into deliciously drinkable super juices or whip up frozen smoothies in seconds. It also includes the multi-functional Blend & Prep Bowl, allowing one to make anything from frozen smoothies to cookie dough, in one versatile bowl. The system just came out in September and is available at major retailers nationwide starting at $159.99 MSRP. For more information on where to buy, click here.

My Thoughts
I’ve used plenty of blenders in my lifetime and they all kind of sucked. I’ve been making shakes recently and started using a small food processer (originally bought when I was planning to make Jack baby food…) because it left the least amount of lumps. But there were still PLENTY of lumps of ice and frozen fruit that it just couldn’t bring itself to chop.

Well, after I tried the Ninja for the first time I immediately became one of those odd people who tried to entice people over to her house to blend stuff.

Really.
Ask my sister.
And most of my co-workers.

Take this little mix: I threw in full handful of spinach, frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, greek yogurt, honey, a little orange juice and some ice cubes. I pressed the Auto-IQ Blend button and HOLY CRAP, my world was rocked. The smoothie was SO SMOOTH that you couldn’t even find a strawberry seed in there. It was incredible!

Jack has finally gotten over the fact that it’s not an actual ninja and loves his banana “milkshake” — which is actually just a full banana, a handful of ice cubes, some milk and a squirt of chocolate syrup. YUM!

In the past few weeks since my Ninja came, I’ve left the base on my counter top because I’ve been using it so often. Luckily, it doesn’t really take up much room. I especially like that my set came with a 24 oz double-walled stainless steel cup, because I can make my morning shake and sip it the whole way to work without it getting warm and gross.

The best part is that with all the attachments that come with this system, I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this thing can do! People use it to make soup, homemade nut butters like this almond honey butter which sounds amazing, cookie and bread dough, and more. You can check out some of the recipes here: Ninja Kitchen Recipes.

So, all in all I am super impressed with my Ninja and am so happy that I was able to try it out!

Do you have a favorite smoothie or shake recipe I should try?

Disclosure: I received a Nutri Ninja Auto-iQ™ Compact System for the purposes of my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Fitness Update & Designer Protein Shakes

The beginning of the month feels like a pretty good time to do a fitness update – you know, the whole holding myself accountable thing. I last updated you all at the beginning of July when I confessed that I had kind of fallen off the wagon.

Well, I’m still running next to that speeding wagon and trying to pull myself back on top.

I’ve been doing well with my runs and have been able to get my mileage up to 5 miles. It’s not a pretty 5 miles… but I’m able to complete it without walking or passing out. My part of the Relay Marathon is 6 miles, so I feel confident that I can get there within the next 6 weeks.

What a beautiful morning for a run! My second time accomplishing 5 miles feels just as good as when I did it a couple weeks ago. Honestly, I feel guilty as hell leaving my family to drive to the lake path and get my run in all by myself. But, I keep telling myself that it makes me a better wife and mother to take time for myself and my health. I have to say though… 5 miles is still pretty freaking hard! #joulesruns #fitmom

A photo posted by pocketfulofjoules (@pocketfulofjoules) on Aug 2, 2015 at 8:10am PDT

The part where I’ve been failing, failing and then failing again is my diet. I’ve been eating like crap. I mean, it’s mostly been delicious, but not the best choices to fuel my body. It all really starts with breakfast. If I eat an unhealthy breakfast, I throw any healthy diet plans out the window and continue eating whatever I want for the rest of the day. And whatever I want usually consists of pizza, birthday cake Oreo cookies, and cheese sticks.

I have a plan though. A friend of mine works with Designer Protein and sent me a TON of their shakes to try out. Really, a ton:

Aria Women Wellness Protein in chocolate and vanilla. Key benefits: 90 calories, 15G protein, no added sugar, contains Biotin and Vitamin C, Calcium, Phosphorus and Vitamin D.
Designer Whey in strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and unflavored. Key benefits: 100 calories, 18G protein, no added sugar, no soy, no SMSG, and it won the Chef’s Best Taste Award.
Essential 10 Protein in vanilla. Key benefits: 100% plant-based protein, 100 calories, 18G protein, and the equivalent antioxidant value of 10 servings of fruits and veggies.
Sunshine Protein in chocolate. Key benefits: 100% plant-based protein, 100 calories, 16G protein, and the equivalent antioxidant value of 10 servings of fruits and veggies.

Each serving has only about 100 calories, but once I add in some milk, frozen fruit and a little peanut butter it will make a yummy shake that is high in protein to start my day off on the right foot. I’m one of those people that can be totally fine with having the same breakfast every single day, so hopefully I can get in the groove of making a morning shake and stick with it.

So far my favorite is the chocolate flavored shakes with ice, water, frozen strawberries and a spoonful of peanut butter, but I’d love to know if you have any good shake recipes I should try!

How do you keep yourself motivated to eat a healthy diet? Are you a believer in the ‘cheat day’ or ‘cheat meal’ or can you just power through?

Disclosure: The Designer Protein power was given to me for review purposes.

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