On my recent road trip, I was switching through radio stations as usual (even if you find a good one, you soon lose it to geography), and came upon a station that was doing a show at that moment with two female DJs and no male DJs, and it was a shock to my ears. I am well familiar with the one-female-one-male-DJ format. I am well familiar with the two-or-more-male-DJs format. I am well familiar with groupings of one or two male DJs plus one or two female DJs, or one single DJ doing their own particular radio program. But I don’t remember EVER turning to a radio station that was doing a show with (1) more than one DJ and ALSO (2) none men.
I wish I’d found out what station it was, but I lost it before they said who they were. It sounded very indie. I wonder if it was some local/independent/college station? It demonstrated so clearly yet another way that we think of men as the default and women as the optional add-ons, and don’t even notice it’s like that until it’s done a different way and seems shocking. I never notice it when there are two male DJs; it just seems normal. But hearing two female DJs talking to each other was STARTLING.
To dramatically change the subject: I have been giving the kids small side-dish smoothies sometimes with dinner, as a good way of getting a better variety of fruits and vegetables into picky eaters. I have been buying small $3 packages of fresh spinach leaves to add to these smoothies but then, because I only make smoothies a couple of times per week, and sometimes there is an unfortunate gap between grocery shopping day and the next batch, I often end up throwing away a painful percentage of each bag. I was buying frozen broccoli at the grocery store this morning (not for smoothies) and my eyes fell upon FROZEN SPINACH. I HAD FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT FROZEN SPINACH. I have been buying frozen fruits, but I forgot I could also buy frozen spinach! I don’t want frozen spinach for, like, SALADS, but it’s PERFECT for smoothies!! …Or so I hope; I haven’t actually tried it yet. But I feel so sure it will be!
Our local (Colorado) public radio has a news station, a classical music station, and a new/indie/non-mainstream music station that frequently has 2 female voices on-air. I hadn’t really thought about how unusual it is though!
I buy giant bags of greens at Costco, usually a baby spinach/kale mix and am lucky if I make it halfway through the bag. But! When I sense they’re on the last day or so, I throw the bag in the freezer. So there’s an option for you if you still want some fresh greens for salads.
Hmm – not sure about the fresh/frozen spinach swap. I love the big bags of baby leaves and throw a whole one into bean chillis, soups etc and they just taste like another generic ‘leafy thing’ when used raw, BUT frozen (chopped as you would be using, or, God forbid, creamed) is a whole other ballgame and is officially vile. You have also just reminded me that I need to use up a bag for dinner tonight, so thank you.
I just have to recommend this book, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. It is brillant and very readable despite being an academic-ish book. https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Women-Data-World-Designed/dp/1419729071/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Y5NZ88RSE6U6&keywords=invisible+women&qid=1558865235&s=gateway&sprefix=invisible+women%2Caps%2C420&sr=8-1
Yes! I was going to make the same book recommendation. It is an absolute must-read.
I’m not sure I’ve ever used store-frozen spinach in smoothies, but if that doesn’t work, freezing fresh spinach in small portions (so I can toss them right in the blender without thawing) works great!
Learned the hard way that fresh spinach frozen this way does NOT work for cooking, it ends up kind of slimy. But terrific for smoothies.
Here’s guidance on freezing smoothie packs with spinach. Maybe it’s a good way to use up fresh spinach. https://www.momables.com/smoothie-freezer-packs/
I think the chopped frozen spinach would work but you’d need to thaw the brick ahead of time; there is so much water in them that it’s an ice cube. The package will leak so put it in a bowl or ziploc in the fridge. I’d totally go this route just because you can get frozen on sale more often, and it doesn’t take up nearly so much space.
Yes this.
I have 1 recipe I use frozen spinach for and it takes a long time to unfreeze the brick (bc of course I only need half of it for the recipe) and if I forget to put it in a bowl green water gets everywhere.
If you want to use this, I would unthaw once just enough to cut into individual “smoothie drink” size portions and then refreeze.
I like that momables link!
I know the solid brick of which you speak (my grandmother used to buy those, and I still shudder at the memory), but this is a loose fluffy bag of frozen chopped spinach—really easy to take out a small amount already. I haven’t opened it yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.
I make protein shakes almost daily to get the kids to take in more fruit. I add protein powder but it is really just a fruit smoothie with protein. I never thought about putting spinach in there. I already have a few kids who complain about me making them drink these daily – and, they are AWESOME! I wonder whether or not they would notice spinach. I buy a huge thing of baby spinach leaves from Costco and I eat a cob salad for lunch every day, but I always have a bit leftover so I can afford to toss them in there.
Two female DJ’s does sound unusual – but I would think it would work great. Women can chat and banter and have interesting conversations between songs just as well as any other match up. Of course. I remember when I was growing up that ONLY men were sportscasters. Only men interviewed the players after the games, talked about the games, gave the play by play. Crazy to think about that now -when women are hired to do those jobs and they do it well. Of course.
Here’s a tip for extending the life of your fresh bagged spinach—wrap it in paper towel. I usually use one of those Ziploc reusable containers and place paper towel all the way around the spinach. My experience is that this doubles the life of it.
I haven’t used frozen spinach in smoothies, but agree with the above commenters that it has more water in it and might need to be thawed and squeezed out before putting it into the blender. HOWEVER I use fresh or frozen spinach in stuff all the time; it’s kind of my secret ingredient! When I use the frozen kind, I zap all or part of a bag in the microwave, drain it thoroughly in paper towels, and then throw it into casseroles, pasta sauces, on frozen pizza, wherever I think we could use an extra veg. I make a lot of one-pot meals on the stove and I toss spinach into those as well.
I love smoothies! I like to buy the “last day” spinach or large bags from Costco. I then put individual servings into separate bags with some fruits and vegetables and freeze them. Then when I’m ready for a smoothie, I take a bag out and put in the blender with some milk, almond milk, water, etc. It is a good way to use up veggies and fruits that you won’t be able to eat before they go bad!
Frozen spinach is great for smoothies! I personally like a really frosty smoothie so I use fresh spinach and frozen banana, but in a pinch I’ve used fresh banana and frozen spinach and it’s excellent. Don’t thaw it! Just throw it in there with some fruit and liquid, and it will be nice and thick and frosty.
It’s not music DJs but I highly recommend NPR, where there often two women hosting the news. I grew up listening and never thought about it until I was an adult, but it’s been this way for years. Also many of their international correspondents are women. It’s lovely to tune in the morning and hear Rachel Martin and Noel King co hosting. On All Things Considered, four out of the five hosts are women! It’s like they are reporting from a futuristic MATRIARCHAL EMPIRE of FAIRNESS… er, well. It’s a nice change.
My question would be is the fresh spinach you’re buying baby spinach or… grown up spinach? (What is the word for large, fully formed non-baby spinach?)
I buy baby spinach (sometimes mixed with baby chard and or baby kale) and while yes, I chuck it into smoothies fresh, I also use it either mixed with lettuces or instead of lettuces in salads, and mix it into random cooked dishes too like pasta sauces, soups, etc. so using it up is rarely a problem. If you too buy baby spinach, maybe you could look at other ways to use it if the frozen option doesn’t work out for you?
I’ve bought the monster-sized bag of fresh greens from Costco and pureed the whole bag (in batches) in my blender, then frozen it in ice cube trays to add to smoothies. Works really well, and since it’s already pureed, it doesn’t affect the consistency of the smoothie.
Clever!
Yes this sounds like a genius idea!
The frozen spinach for smoothies sounds like a great idea. My husband will be out of town for a while and i am really bad about eating fresh spinach before it dies in my refrigerator. But the frozen stuff sounds like it will work great in a smoothie!
In my town we have one of those male-female DJ pairs you mentioned doing a morning show. My husband noticed recently they replaced “Julie” with “Judy” and we have suspicions they hoped no one would notice. He was surprised/bemused but I was kind of enraged. I don’t listen to it often (I pay for satellite radio specifically so I don’t have to hear anyone talking) but in his car we do sometimes. “Julie” (I use quotes because I know radio names are often pseudonyms/stage names) had specific interests and I wonder if “Judy” does too.
Call in and ask what’s up!!