I’m going to spare you an ode to the iron I bought; I haven’t yet unpacked it. 

But I bought a handblender yet. You don’t need to know any details about it except it has a metal blade attachment, came with a cutter tool that resembles a baby food processor, and it also came with a jug type thing. That jug type thing, and the metal blade attachment were my selection criteria, that and not costing 120E while not being a supermarket own brand that I have never heard of. 

I wanted to make my own smoothies. I wanted to do this because most smoothies I buy seem to have added sugar in them. I don’t want or need this. I have a basic recipe and it goes like this. 

You will need the following stuff

• a hand blender
• something to blend the stuff in
• a citrus squeezer of some description. 
• a knife. 
• a dessert spoon
• a banana or some papaya
• strawberries or blueberries or mango
• some no-sugar added natural yogurt. I use a set yogurt with very low sugar content
• some orange juice
• some ground ginger, 
• a lime

Here is how you do it:

• Chop some (say, four) strawberries/some mango, some blueberries) into your something to blend the stuff into. 
• Chop the banana/papaya into that something
• Add the juice of one lime, or half a lime if you are a wimp
• Add “some” ground ginger. Err on the side of caution (I like a lot, but that should be no reflection on you. 
• Add two dessert spoonfuls of yogurt
• Top up with orange juice. I generally advise against the stuff with pulp as cleaning that out is a hassle, particularly by hand. 
• Use the blender to liquidise everything. 
• Remove and rinse the blender attachment immediately. Dried on smoothie is a bitch to clean off. 
• Decant some smoothie into a glass. Enjoy.