Pages

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Appliance of the Week ~ Blending: A Recipe & A Request

This certain appliance was one I saved for for over three years.  I dreamt about it.  I blogged about it.  And now...  I use it at least once a day.  If you are thinking about getting serious with raw food, this thing is a must.  This "thing" I speak of is... the Vita-mix. *Heavenly angels sing!*

Besides preparing palatable raw foods, you can also whip up at an alarming speed: smoothies (Jamba Juice-style), extremely creamy hummus, pesto, silky soups, healthy ice creams, frozen yogurts, sauces for pastas, salsas, dips, batters, doughs...  It comes with a nice-sized recipe book which is quite helpful, and once you get a feel for preparing food with this beast of a blender that breaks things down to a molecular level, your imagination can run wild with culinary possibilities.  :)

They offer wet and dry blades for this blender.  The dry blade is mostly for grinding flour, but I use the WonderMill for that, so I am happily a wet blade user only.

I looked for some Vita-mix recipes and found a site that might be good but charges 99 cents per recipe, which is a bummer for a freeloader like me.  Vita-mix provides even more recipes on their website, which is fun.

I've experimented with many different smoothie recipes which has been enjoyable for me, but the kids... They just like to stick with our blueberry smoothie.  Here's how it goes:

Katie's Blueberry Smoothie
2-3 cups kefir (a note about amazing kefir is coming soon!)
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 cups frozen spinach
2 Tablespoons raw honey
2 Tablespoons flax oil

I actually don't precisely measure; I'm estimating.  Add water (coconut water is best) if it's too thick.  If we're fighting sickness, I add 60 drops of grapefruit seed extract and elderberry elixir.  It's the most unnoticeable way to sneak anything herbal and yucky-tasting into kids.

When I run out of spinach, my kids actually don't like the smoothie as much.  And just how thrilling is that?!

So, all y'all Vita-mixers...  Would you be so kind as to share your favorite Vita-mix recipe?  I for one would be delighted to broaden my recipe repertoire.  So will you?  Pretty please?  Leave a comment with a Vita-mix recipe for a sista in need?  Thankyouverymuch.

4 comments:

  1. You got it Sista!

    Dutch Apple Baby w/ Yogurt Berry

    For Apples:
    2 Tbsp raw butter
    3 Lrg. apples (core and sliced)
    1/4 cup natural sugar/brown sugar (I think I'm gonna try Rapadura or Raw Honey next)
    1/2 tsp cinnamon
    1/4 tsp nutmeg

    For Egg Mix:
    3 farm fresh eggs
    1/2 Cup Spelt Flour
    1/2 Cup Raw Milk (I wonder if you could use coconut milk...mmmm)
    1 TBSP Raw Plain Yogurt
    1 tsp vanilla extract

    Apples:
    1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
    2. Grease pie plate with oil (I use Olive Oil)
    3. Saute apples in butter with natural sugar and cinnamon until apples are coated and are tender.
    4. Pour cinnamon apples in bottom of pie plate.

    For Egg Mixture:
    1. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the Vita-Mix in the order listed.
    2. Select Variable 1 (don't forget the lid)
    3. Turn VitaMix on and turn it to Variable 10 quickly, then to High.
    4. Blend for 30 seconds.
    5. Pour egg mixture over apples in pie plate. Bake for 20 min.
    6. Cut pieces and serve.
    7. Top with raw plain yogurt (sweetened with raw honey and a touch of cinnamon if you'd like)
    8. Top with fresh blueberries & other berries (thawed frozen berries if not in season). You can mash them just a touch so you have a bit of juice with it.

    *I recommend to not have too much juice cause it can get a little soupy. If you are thawing the berries, leave some of the juice out.

    (note: this recipe is a variation of the Dutch Apple Baby recipe in one of the VitaMix Cookbooks).

    ENJOY!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The recipe with pictures is now on my blog: mandasmakins@blogspot.com
    hope that helps. Love you girl!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh My Vita Mix is a favright up there with the Excaliber!

    ReplyDelete

I value your feedback. Thanks for taking the time to share yours!