Reconnecting with An Old Gadget (Magic Bullet) to Explore a New Ingredient (Purple Sweet Potato)

Image from HK2046 Flickr

Sometimes I forget how useful a gadget is.  After we moved out of our last apartment, I stashed the Magic Bullet away.  It was only when we mistakenly bought whole beans instead of ground did I realize that I could use the Magic Bullet for grinding coffee beans  and since then, it’s been on the kitchen counter and used everyday (not only for coffee beans but for blended drinks).  A good and accurate infomercial of the Magic Bullet is at InfoNotmercial.  The Magic Bullet can’t do EVERYTHING as the regular infomercial claimed but does an exceptional job with some uses (grinding coffee, blending shakes).  It is also very convenient with preparing servings for personal meals.

We have also been using the Magic Bullet for blending purple sweet potato shakes.  I know that it sounds disgusting but with a little bit of soymilk and ice, it tastes like a taro smoothie.

Purple sweet potatoes are loaded with anthocynanin, an antioxidant with anti-cancer properties.  A really good description on the nutritional benefits of purple sweet potatoes is here.  Purple sweet potato is one of the five superfoods to eat now per Dr. Oz .  The article featured the dietary lifestyles of other cultures worth noting.  The women of Okinawa, Japan eat purple sweet potato on a daily basis. They are also some of the longest living females in the world.  According to Dr. Oz, purple sweet potatoes have high beta-carotene content and 150% more antioxidants than blueberries.  Worth noting is that the Stokes Purple potatoes have purple skin and flesh (instead of just white skin in Okinawa potatoes) and therefore four times the anthocyanin than Okinawan sweet potatoes (Truong, 2009).

It also looks like another blogger had tried making regular sweet potato shake and its looks amazing.  She adds cinnamon.  I did some research on cinnamon just now and learned that it has reduces blood sugar levels as well as cholesterol levels.  Here is all the health benefits of cinnamon from authors of books from my library (Tim Ferris (Four Hour Body and Four Hour Work Week) and Dr. Mehmet Oz (You Staying Young)).

After writing this blog, I am inspired to have a page on gadgets.   And when trying to find the association of the theme of a gadget to the theme of happyconnected, I realize that connection may not be just connection to the internet, to data, but to electricity.  Well, the day to day convenience of modern civilization!!