Month: June 2012

Apple Pie Lettuce Smoothie

Apple “Pie” Lettuce Smoothie

This is a modified version of a recipe Bhavana found online. It’s a refreshing mix of apple, lettuce, cinnamon and ground flax seeds. You will hardly notice the lettuce and the smoothie taste like apple pie, and apple pie you can drink. I used Deer tongue lettuce for this recipe but red leaf or Romaine lettuce will also work. The Deer tongue makes this smoothie slightly bitter but I didn’t mind that at all.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 615 grams apples (about 4 medium apples)
  • 133 grams lettuce (about 1 head of lettuce)
  • 296 grams water
  • 2 grams cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoon flax seed

METHOD:

  1. Preparation: Cut the apples ( I used 4 medium apples ) and clean the lettuce. Add the cut apples, lettuce, the flax and the cinnamon to a blender ( I recommend a Vitamix ). Blend on medium high for about 40 seconds. Stop the blender and ice cold water then continue blending for another 30 seconds.

  2. Serve: Pour into a tall glass. SERVINGS: 2

One way Google+ helps Local Business

I recently attended a meeting of the Mercer-NJ Small Business Coffee Talk. After a round of introductions and some discussion about how each attendee used social media to engage their customers and grow their business, we broke out into to groups to learn more about using Google+. The first group was led by Lynette Young, a Google+ expert who started the Women of Google+. Lynette has a huge following on Google+. The second group was led by me.

During our discussion it was mentioned several times by a number of people that they felt that Google+ did not function as well at reaching a local audience. Some felt that Facebook was better for that sort of engagement and that they were wasting their time using Google+.

To some extent I agree with that sentiment but I’ve had some time to think about that sentiment and I think Google+ is still necessary as part of a social media and brand management strategy. I think it requires that local business owner look a bit differently about how they use the service.

In the past few months I’ve had the need to order flowers but for two different reasons. The first reason was as a condolence to a friend who had recently lost his father. The second was as an anniversary surprise for my wife. In both cases, I ordered an arrangement from Monday Morning Flower & Balloon Co.. The business is owned by Georgianne Vinicombe with a store in Princeton, NJ and one in the other in Yardley, PA. Both of orders were for local delivery but I could just have easily ordered from a large national retailer. But I wanted quick service with a personable touch.

But my Mom wanted to send flowers to me from her home in Florida? Could she get the same quick personable service from a national brand? Perhaps. But what if Mom wanted to shop “local’ and get speedy service? Mom, could do a Google+ Local search for florist in the Princeton zip code. She could look at customer reviews, get contact information, and maybe engage in some social media chit chat before choosing which florist will get her business. Looking at the results, I can see that Monday Morning Flower and Balloon Co is the second florist on the list.

I’m planning a trip to Niagara Falls, Canada with my family this summer. We’ll be staying for a week and I’m using Google+ Local to help me find restaurants and entertainment options. Local businesses who have a Google+ page that ranks on the first page of search results will most likely get my business.