My New Toy- Vitamix Turboblend VS

 

Michy and I bought a Vitamix as our holiday present to each other.   I have been lusting after this machine for a long time and last week the coop where Michy works offered them as a special item, which was just enough of a push to convince me to make the commitment. We got an awesome blender, get her employee discount, and supported the co-op.  Wins all around.

Michy brought it home yesterday, and I was so excited to get started... but didn't have a chance until this morning.   I've used it four times today.  I can tell this is going to become a staple of my cooking.

One of the main reasons I wanted a vitamix was to make smoothies.  I love to have smoothies for breakfast, and I kept killing our immersion blenders... they just weren't holding up to the daily abuse.  I also wanted to be able to get a smoother consistency with veggies and be able to include more veggies in my morning drinks.

My first experiment was more of a juice than a smoothie but still yummy and gave me a good idea of how to work the machine.

 

1 apple, 2 carrots, 1 beet- chopped

 

1 cup of water, the fruits and veggies, followed by about a cup of ice. I also threw in a tablespoon of Udi's DHA Oil blend

 

It took less than a minute to reach the right consistency

 

The munchkin and I enjoyed glasses of this all day long.

 

clean-up was super easy.  rinse, add water and a couple drops a dish-soap and run for a minute. 

The next thing I tried was making pancake batter.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures while I did this, so you will just have to trust me that it worked great and tasted wonderful.  I had a great recipe for oat flour pancakes from Renee Hastings, who has been doing nutrition counseling for a program I have been involved in at Heartsong Yoga.  Basically it involves grinding oats in your food processor to make a flour to use for vegan/ gluten free pancakes.  The vitamix easily ground up the oats to a great flour consistency.  Oats are so much cheaper than some of the gluten free flours out there- so I have a feeling I'm going to be making oat flour alot. 

One of the coolest things I had heard about the Vitamix was that it would actually make hot soup- right in the blender.  I decided I had to try that.  So I combined a cup of water, a half cup of raw cashews, 4 tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic and some spices to make:

 

Delicious creamy tomato soup!

 

Munchkin approved (and notice he is still enjoying his apple carrot beet juice!)

My final experiment of the night (which I am enjoying as I type) was a couple squares of 100% cacao baking chocolate, coconut milk, vanilla, and stevia for a frothy hot chocolate. 

Right now I've got some raw almonds soaking on the counter that will turn into fresh almond milk first thing in the morning. 

I also picked Michy up from work today and got a ton of produce so we can experiment with some green smoothies.   I am already in love with this machine.  I can't wait to see what else we can come up with.