kiwi fruit – GIVE IT A WHIRL GIRL

I wanted to do something a little different today and instead of sharing reviews and recipes I want to share some details about ME, in case anyone was wondering who I am! My name is Kimmy Ripley and I am from the city of St. Clair Shores in Michigan. I am very very VERY passionate about food and drink. I try my best to always eat with an open mind and I live for the thrill of trying out new things. This Give It A Whirl Girl food blog was started last June and it such a big joy to share my food and drink experiences with you all!

Today I will be sharing 10 questions and answers on the blog so you can get to know me better! There are going to be a ton of photos in this post so get ready! I know some people who “read” blogs don’t read and just check out the photos, so if you are one of those people you are in luck today!

Me! Kimmy Ripley AKA Give It A Whirl Girl

My hubby and I at Kona Grill for one of my birthdays

Give It A Whirl Girl with some Enlightened ice cream pop

Me and my daughter, Chloe Pearl, at the Heidelberg Project

You can also learn more about me in my introductory post!

All About Give It A Whirl Girl – Get To Know Me

1) Favorite food:

This is a tough question. I am not a very picky eater and I consider myself to be a foodie! There are so many foods out there that I absolutely love but if I had to choose one thing, just one thing, it would be…

Sushi! – I love love love sushi but I am also a big fan of things like crab legs or lobster tail because they are such a pricey and super rare treat for me.

My go-to place for sushi is Inyo in Ferndale, MI. We discovered this fantastic Asian fusion restaurant through Groupon. Inyo Ferndale is almost always on Groupon, so if you are local be sure to grab a Groupon for this spectacular Asian restaurant. You can thank me later… wink! wink! Their food is top-notch and we are regulars there.

And just for fun! Here is a photo of my daughter, Chloe Pear, with her chicken teriyaki dinner at Inyo Ferndale — And just for fun! Here is a photo of my daughter, Chloe Pearl, with her chicken teriyaki dinner at Inyo Ferndale

Ok guys! I am obsessed with Inyo. Here is a photo of my Walnut Lobster. This was the most recent meal that I ordered

Honorable mention:

Gotta love a big bowl of noodly pho at Minh Chau restaurant (they just changed the name to New Asian Star). Pho is comfort food for me. The broth here at New Asian Star is on-point! The pho that I enjoy ordering has sliced beef, brisket, meatballs, and soft tendon in it. Yeah I said tendon… and it is a weird meat to eat but I do enjoy it here. They also have a pho available with tripe if you are feeling really adventurous.

You can also stop in here for a bubble drink!

Big bowl of yummy pho at Minh Chau (now known as New Asian Star)

Pure comfort food right over here. I love pho at Minh Chau (New Asian Star)!

2) Least favorite food:

Oh this is an easy one. I used to eat some funky stuff when I was a little girl… things I could not fathom stomaching now!

Herrings in cream sauce (ew) I used to eat these fishy fishes straight out of the jar.

Giblets and hearts in my stuffing (ew! ew!) My mom always put those nasty things in my Thanksgiving stuffing. NEVER AGAIN

Liverwurst (ew! ew! ew!) All by itself or on some plain white bread. No thank you!

3) Favorite fruit

Want to know about my favorite fruit? This is an easy one to answer for me… dragon fruit, and that is followed by passion fruit, another favorite of mine. I am a HUGE fan of exotic fruits and I love to create exotic smoothie bowls with these fruits. If you are local, you can usually pick up a wide variety of exotic fruits at Nino Salvaggio.

Dragon fruit can have either a white center or pink center. You never know until you slice it!

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Exotic fruits that I purchased at Nino Salvaggio

4) Favorite meals that I have cooked:

Truth be told, and many of you all know, cooking and baking is my #1 passion in life! I love to serve up a delicious dish for my little family of 3

Italian drunken noodle is hands down the family favorite over here in the Give It A Whirl Girl kitchen. You can find the recipe for this delicious dish on my blog. Italian Drunken Noodle features Pappardelle pasta, Italian sausage, and mix of peppers with chardonnay wine.

A big plate of Italian Drunken Noodle and a glass of chardonnay

Italian Drunken Noodle - Give It A Whirl Girl's favorite meal to cook — Italian Drunken Noodle – Give It A Whirl Girl’s favorite meal to cook

Honorable mention:

Gigantic mozzarella stuffed meatballs are a big favorite and I have the recipe for these on my blog. This is the kind of meal that I invite my family over for. This recipe serves up a generous portion of meatballs.

CLICK HERE for my Huge Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs RECIPE!

Huge mozzarella stuffed meatballs simmering in the slow-cooker

A big plate of mozzarella stuffed meatballs served over spaghetti noodles

Pineapples stuffed with a teriyaki chicken is another family fave but it is somewhat complicated and tedious to create. You can find the recipe and learn more about this gluten-free dish on my blog.

Pineapples stuffed with teriyaki chicken are a fabulous summer meal

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5) Favorite desserts I have created

I love to bake cakes even though I am not the most talented baker and cake decorator. I created a bubblegum cake and a cotton candy cake. These cakes and cupcakes were a ton of fun to create and even more fun to eat!

Here are some photos of my favorite baking projects:

Bubblegum Gluten-Free Cake - Let's Get The Party Started — Bubblegum Gluten-Free Cake – Let’s Get The Party Started

COTTON CANDY CAKE by GIVE IT A WHIRL GIRL - Gluten-Free - How I Created It — COTTON CANDY CAKE

6) Favorite drink (non-alcoholic):

I don’t know how I can pick one here. I am a self-confessed coffee addict and I am also addicted to my energy drinks (have to have at least one a day!). My favorite energy drinks are by Bang Energy. With flavors like Unicorn and Cotton Candy, how can you resist?

7) Favorite alcoholic drink:

I recently started getting into craft beer and hard ciders. I was always attracted to the labels and packaging. It is so fun and colorful! I grew up my entire life, hating on beer, and saying it tasted like pee. Then one day I went to Hop Cat and I went there with the intention of giving beer a whirl and I ordered a flight with three different craft beers. Guess what? I enjoyed each and every one of them! I was impressed with myself that I gave craft beer a chance. I love craft beer and the entire drink experience with them. I love all of the unique flavors out there… Lucky Charms cereal, etc. etc.!

So sorry for the poor quality photo! I apologize but here is a photo of me with my first craft beer! I gave it a whirl at Hop Cat in Royal Oak, MI

First flight of craft beer for me at Hop Cat and I loved each one of them!

Rekorderling Passion Fruit hard cider – This was the greatest hard cider I have tried!

An assortment of craft beers... all delicious! — An assortment of craft beers… all delicious!

Cranium Crush - Raspberry Waffle Cone Ale — Cranium Crush – Raspberry Waffle Cone Ale

An assortment of craft beers that I tried out. And we save all of the bottles and cans and display them in our basement.

8) Favorite candy

Jelly Belly Raspberries & Blackberries are my favorite candy! What is yours?

There is no better candy than Jelly Belly’s Raspberries & Blackberries! These berry flavored candies are extremely highly addictive to me and I will kill a bag in just a couple of minutes!

9) Favorite post on the blog

I am nearing 200 published posts on the blog and if I had to choose one favorite post I simply can’t. I am going to declare a tie here. The two posts that were my favorite to do were both local reviews. I would love to visit more places nearby and review them. The local reviews I have done are my top performing posts. Here we go…

Modern Cone Review

and

Kawaii Bubble Tea Review

Modern Cone is an ice cream shop in St. Clair Shores that specializes in creative ice cream concoctions. This is the place to go if you want a unique ice cream concoction that is fun to eat, and very Instagrammable!

Make sure you are following my Facebook page because I will be sharing a Modern Cone gift card giveaway very soon!

Cereal Killer ice-cream Stacker available at Modern Cone

Kawaii Bubble Tea is located in Clinton Township, MI and they have some of the best bubble teas (boba) that I have ever tried. They also have a wide variety of macarons available. If you have never ever tried boba you definitely need to check out this place. It is a very fun drink experience.

Enjoying our boba drinks and macarons at Kawaii Bubble Tea in Clinton Township, MI
What a fun experience for all of us!

Honorable mention:

Tou & Mai is located in Detroit’s midtown area and they offer some very unique desserts. I tried their halo halo (Hello Hello is what they call it). You can read the review on my blog where I spill all the beans about this awesome dessert destination!

Tou & Mai Review

Sweet beans in my ice cream~!

Hello Hello (Halo Halo) at Tou & Mai in Detroit, MI

10) Favorite place to grab a sweet treat

This is an easy question to answer. Menchie’s and Orange Leaf are definitely my favorite place to grab a dessert. I am obsessed with frozen yogurt, also known as froyo. You can read my Menchie’s review on the blog.

Want to give Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt a whirl? Grab a Groupon and save on your visit!

Menchie's Frozen Yogurt (Froyo) Build-Your-Own Creation — Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt (Froyo) Build-Your-Own Creation
Edible art!

Menchies Heritage Village in Warren, MI toppings bar

Final thoughts

I truly hope you enjoyed this post over here at Give It A Whirl Girl. I would love to hear from my readers so leave me a comment here and tell me about your favorite food!

Question Time!

What is your favorite food? Least favorite food? Please share with me. I love to hear from my audience!

Also…

If you have any questions that you would like to ask me, leave a question in the comment box and I will be happy to answer it.

Follow Give It A Whirl Girl on social media

Give It A Whirl prepping a from-scratch pizza

At Tony's I-75 in Birch Run, MI with our gigantic banana split — At Tony’s I-75 in Birch Run, MI with our gigantic banana split

Learn more about this COLOSSAL banana split in my Tony’s I-75 restaurant review

Chloe Pearl and I cooking a from-scratch pizza in the Give It A Whirl Girl kitchen

Did you enjoy this post? Here are more posts at Give It A Whirl Girl that you might enjoy!

SHOP PYKNIC ON AMAZON (One of my favorite brands… all food/drink related items too!)

Today I would love to share my experience with you that I recently had with my new blender in this MengK blender review. This blender is quite simple to use and it is built like a professional blender. When I received my blender I was astonished by how professional the model looked and I was excited to give it a whirl with a dragon fruit smoothie bowl recipe. My hopes for this blender were that it would be capable of blending up frozen fruit because I am a huge smoothie fan and every blender I have ever owned prior was a big letdown to me. Keep reading this MengK blender review to find out how it performed in my test.

First impression of the MengK 1500W blender

Let’s kick off this MengK blender review with my first thoughts when I unboxed the blender. My first impression with this blender was the massive footprint it has on my countertop! This blender is a beast! Now, this can either be a positive or a negative for you. If you don’t have much storage space in your kitchen or home this blender might be an issue. This MengK blender couldn’t be any simpler to use either! If you look at the blender you will see one dial on the face of the blender and this determines the speed at which you will operate your blender. Big tasks call for dialing up on the knob for more power and speed.

Professional Blender MengK 2000W Peak Horsepower Electric High Speed Blender REVIEW — Professional Blender 1500W MengK 2000W Peak Horsepower Electric High-Speed Blender

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. I receive a commission from items purchased through these links with no extra cost to you.

What can the MengK blender do?

If you are in the market for a blender that is versatile, MengK has you covered with this blender! You can use it for smoothies, nice creams, soups, milkshakes, hummus, alcoholic beverages, homemade nut butter, baby foods, and more. This MengK blender features a very well-constructed 67oz professional blender jar. Please note that this blender jar is not a glass blending jar, it is made out of some very heavy duty, thick, plastic. The blending jar for the MengK blender is BPA-free.

MengK blender motor

The MengK blender has a whopping 2.6 HP-2000 watt motor, and this commercial blender can reach a rotational speed of up to 27,000 r/min. This powerful motor makes it possible to crush ice, fruits, and vegetables.

The controls on the MengK blender are simple

You might also enjoy this post: Mindblowing Smart Home Products For Your Kitchen

The MengK blades

This powerful blender features 6 stainless steel, sharp blades for maximum blending power. The MengK blender crushing blades make it possible and perfect for ice crushing, blending, pureeing, and controlled processing.

The 6 blades on the MengK blender are razor sharp

My experience with the MengK blender

The first experiment with this high-speed blender was to see how well it would process and blend frozen fruit. I placed two frozen bananas, a cup of frozen dragon fruit, and a bit of milk in the blending cup. I was really excited to try this out because I have not had much success with frozen fruit in any blender I have ever owned.

The capability of blending frozen fruit is top priority to me. I need a blender that can do this.

I turned the blender onto medium with the dial. I then turned it on. The blender was loud and I could tell it had a powerful motor. The blades efficiently chopped up my frozen fruit and blended it up with the almond milk. After a few short moments, I had a delicious smoothie bowl waiting for me.

I performed one other smoothie test with my MengK blender. For that test, I used a fresh banana, frozen dragon fruit, and frozen mango with a splash of some unsweetened nut milk. The blender performed wonderfully and as expected. In a very short time, without any hesitation, I had a delicious, tall smoothie waiting for me!

Overall, I am quite pleased with this MengK blender and I am excited to try more smoothie recipes with it.

The MengK blender is simple to clean

Cleaning the MengK blender is simple and easy to do! All you need to do is add a bit of soap and warm water to the blending cup. Turn the blender onto a mid-high speed and it 30-60 seconds the cup and blades will be clean. Rinse after cleaning and carefully dry.

Satisfaction guaranteed from MengK

If for any reason you are not satisfied with your MengK blender purchases, MengK offers a money back guarantee and a warranty on their product.

3-month warranty on commercial Cups and a 6-month warranty on household cups, unified TWO years warranty about this pedestal, and 30-day refund guarantee.

Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl

Take a trip to paradise with this dragon fruit smoothie bowl. You will feel like you are transported to a tropical place with this exotic fruit smoothie bowl recipe.

2 Bananas (Frozen and chopped)
1 cup Dragon Fruit chunks (Frozen of fresh)
1 Kiwi Fruit (Sliced)
1 Star Fruit (Sliced and seeds removed)
2/3 cup Unsweetened nut milk of choice

Place the frozen bananas, dragon fruit, and milk in the blender and process until smooth.
Pour the smoothie mixture into two bowls.
Top the smoothie with fresh sliced kiwi fruit and star fruit.
Serve, eat, and enjoy!

Dragon Fruit Smoothies created with the MengK Blender

Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowls topped with kiwi fruit and star fruit

MengK 1400W Blender

If you want to get yourself a MengK blender that is a little more friendly on your budget there is a 1400W model on Amazon.

There is also a clippable coupon to save on this model!

MengK 1500W Blender

The blender that I reviewed is currently available on Amazon.

Final thoughts

The MengK blender is a lot of bang for your buck! For this price point, you are getting quite the powerful blender. I am hoping that this MengK blender will stand the test of time. I have a great feeling that it will be outperforming the last blender that I owned prior to this one. I took a chance with this off-brand name and I am very pleased with it.

It is not a Vitamix or a Blendtec but for the price you are paying for this one you are getting a powerhouse blender. If you are like me and dream of owning a fancy blender like a Vitamix, this blender makes a great clone of one and you will save yourself a ton of money going with the MengK.

The MengK blender makes a delicious smoothie in seconds!

Question Time! What will you be using the MengK blender for first? What will you create with this powerful blender?

Find out more about MengK and their other products

Website

Disclosure: I was sent this product in exchange for a review. All opinions stated here are my own.

You can also learn more about me in my introductory post!

All About Give It A Whirl Girl – Get To Know Me

1) Favorite food:

Honorable mention:

2) Least favorite food:

3) Favorite fruit

4) Favorite meals that I have cooked:

Honorable mention:

CLICK HERE for my Huge Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs RECIPE!

5) Favorite desserts I have created

6) Favorite drink (non-alcoholic):

7) Favorite alcoholic drink:

8) Favorite candy

9) Favorite post on the blog

Modern Cone Review

Kawaii Bubble Tea Review

Make sure you are following my Facebook page because I will be sharing a Modern Cone gift card giveaway very soon!

Honorable mention:

Tou & Mai Review

Sweet beans in my ice cream~!

10) Favorite place to grab a sweet treat

Want to give Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt a whirl? Grab a Groupon and save on your visit!

Final thoughts

Question Time!

What is your favorite food? Least favorite food? Please share with me. I love to hear from my audience!

If you have any questions that you would like to ask me, leave a question in the comment box and I will be happy to answer it.

Follow Give It A Whirl Girl on social media

Did you enjoy this post? Here are more posts at Give It A Whirl Girl that you might enjoy!

SHOP PYKNIC ON AMAZON (One of my favorite brands… all food/drink related items too!)

Share this:

Like this:

First impression of the MengK 1500W blender

What can the MengK blender do?

MengK blender motor

You might also enjoy this post: Mindblowing Smart Home Products For Your Kitchen

The MengK blades

My experience with the MengK blender

The MengK blender is simple to clean

Satisfaction guaranteed from MengK

Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl

MengK 1400W Blender

MengK 1500W Blender

Final thoughts

Question Time! What will you be using the MengK blender for first? What will you create with this powerful blender?

Find out more about MengK and their other products

Other posts at Give It A Whirl Girl that you might enjoy!

Share this:

Like this:

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