Friday, January 10, 2014

How to use your blender as a fruit or vegetable smoothie maker

With the new year comes new resolutions and probably at the very top of that list is to eat healthier or lose weight.

One of the more popular diets out there involves the blending or juicing of fruit or vegetables. Now I do not juice vegetables because of two things. First, it is very expensive. It takes a lot of fruit and vegetables to make just one glass that you drink. Second, it leaves out all of the fiber from the drink!!

According to the Mayo Clinic - "Dietary fiber — found mainly in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes — is probably best known for its ability to prevent or relieve constipation. But foods containing fiber can provide other health benefits as well, such as helping to maintain a healthy weight and lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease."

So why would you want to remove that from your juice??

 One thing I found was the price of the juicers (Magic/Nutri Bullet, Ninja, Vitamix, etc) can really get up there. In my searches I found an article that described the use of a Mason jar. Missing from the article was pictures and the finished produce so I decided to see if it really works.

My blender is an Oster 14-Speed Blender that I had around for a while.



 One of the things that I like about this model is that it has a solid shaft drive. So you don't have to worry about wearing out rubber parts.
You want to make sure that you are using the rubber gasket between the Mason jar and the blade.
As you can see the Mason jar will fit the blade attachment.

NOTE: Make sure that you are using REGULAR mouth Mason jars. I know you want to guzzle it down quickly but wide mouth jars will not work here.
One thing you may want to do is take your blade attachment and check it against a regular mouth Mason jar.

Watch my video to see how it works.





The Affordable Care Act Headache!

Ok so my wife and I are double insured. I have insurance through my employer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and from my military benefits, Tricare Prime. My wife has Medicare Parts A & B as well as Tricare 4 Life.

Today we are sitting at the doctor's office arguing over whether or not we have to pay Medicare's deductible. Before the ACA (Obamacare) went into effect there was no issue. Tricare was billed as our secondary insurance. Now with the new changes it seems no one can figure out how to bill.

It took a phone call and a fax from Tricare to straighten it out. I feel for the lady who was sitting here for an hour while they were still trying to get confirmation from her insurance. Needless to say she left untreated.

We were not the only ones going through this today. Everyone walking in today had had the same issue and were told they had to pay the deductible up front.

So much for "Health care that works for Americans."

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Hello World!

Welcome to my little slice of cyber space. Hi, I'm Eddie, a husband, father, and retired Soldier. I read blogs every now and then and never really thought about writing my own. Now that I have "retired" from the Army I thought now would be a good time to share with you things I've learned throughout that journey, things I wish I would have known throughout that journey, and things I knew but just didn't work out so well.

Hopefully I can make you laugh, get angry at me, agree with me, disagree with me or just leave you wondering. I'm very passionate about some subjects, especially those involving our military. After having that environment be so much part of your life for 25 years it is very hard being neutral. I hate political correctness so don't expect me to ride the fence on some subjects.

I am a pseudo handyman so some of my attempts at DIY projects will be on hear as well. Feel free to laugh at my failed attempts or offer up suggestions.

Thanks for your time. More to follow...