Vitamix for the Seattle factory

[Darcy]

Hoping to bump this thread up to capture some more Vitamix tips, tricks and recipes anyone (esp the TB crew) might be kind enough to share! My daughter just bought one, loves it and I suspect one may be coming my way for a big birthday coming up soon. Thank you to all!

Good soups that get pureed/heated up in the Vitamix as the last step:
Roasted Yam and Garlic with Chiles and Lime
Vegan Potato Soup

Favorite smoothie right now:
Pineapple
Apple
Parsley (lots of this.. more than the fruit combined)
Romaine Lettuce
Lime

[dorayme]

Rocky surprised me with the 32oz. dry jar on Wednesday. He was picking up our tax software at SAMs club and there was a Vitamix demonstration. I haven't had an opportunity to try it yet. We have been under the weather as well as other life things and I haven't been out of my house to acquire any new ingredients.

I have been blending Emergen-C packets into our morning smoothie to help boost our immunity.

The little peeps' favorite veggie blend-ins so far are: baby spinach, carrot and avocado. I Add at least one to each "fruit" smoothie.

I made Coconut milk today. I strained off the texture bits, My eldest will give me his evaluation after breakfast.

I haven't been successful with citrus. One you tube video guy may have touched on the problem, when he said the Vitamix explodes favors. I have peeled the citrus, but not super carefully when I included it, and the smoothies with any type of citrus have been very BITTER. To the point that it takes work to drink it. I was surprised since I have never had that problem with juicing citrus in the Breville. I don't want to give up on citrus, but no one in my family can handle the bitter. Im pretty sure it comes from the pith, but i read that he pith is nutrient filled. Any tips would be welcome.

[Darcy]

Rocky surprised me with the 32oz. dry jar on Wednesday. He was picking up our tax software at SAMs club and there was a Vitamix demonstration. I haven't had an opportunity to try it yet. We have been under the weather as well as other life things and I haven't been out of my house to acquire any new ingredients.

Aw, that's so thoughtful of Rocky. Let me know how you like it -- I've been going back and forth and getting one of those for while. Hope you guys are feeling better soon.

I haven't been successful with citrus. One you tube video guy may have touched on the problem, when he said the Vitamix explodes favors. I have peeled the citrus, but not super carefully when I included it, and the smoothies with any type of citrus have been very BITTER. To the point that it takes work to drink it. I was surprised since I have never had that problem with juicing citrus in the Breville. I don't want to give up on citrus, but no one in my family can handle the bitter. Im pretty sure it comes from the pith, but i read that he pith is nutrient filled. Any tips would be welcome.

Interesting... the only citrus I've tried adding so far are lemons and limes. Is that what you're adding that adds the bitter flavor, or are you adding tangerines/oranges/etc? I tried grapefruit in my smoothie. Once. That was very bitter. And I like grapefruit on its own just fine, but in the smoothie, it was pretty awful.

[backpack]

On this Wikipedia picture of the interior of a grapefruit, you can see the outer thick white membranes of the grapefruit.

Grapefruit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All citrus fruits have it, it is bitter and along with the inner sections should be removed before using the fruit in salads or smoothies.

In one of his PBS program (the recipe calls for orange quarters) Jacques Pepin demonstrates how to cut the quarters really carefully to avoid the bitter parts.


I suspect juicers are built to "feel" the bitter and coarser white parts and discard them, only keeping the yellow, orange and pink yummy sweet pulp.

The solution seems to be using a juicer to juice all the citrus fruit at hand, save them in glass bottles and add the juice to whatever vegetable or other fruits are planned in the smoothies.


If choosing to cut the quarters with a small knife, Jacques Pepin style, make sure that little ones and pets are at a distance and if possible wear eye protection.


Feel better soon Dorayme!

[dorayme]

Aw, that's so thoughtful of Rocky. Let me know how you like it -- I've been going back and forth and getting one of those for while. Hope you guys are feeling better soon.



Interesting... the only citrus I've tried adding so far are lemons and limes. Is that what you're adding that adds the bitter flavor, or are you adding tangerines/oranges/etc? I tried grapefruit in my smoothie. Once. That was very bitter. And I like grapefruit on its own just fine, but in the smoothie, it was pretty awful.

I tried grapefruit, lemon, lime, cuties, and navels, but not all at once. Every time the result was bitter and barely palatable. Thank you for posting the reasons why backpack, I had come to those conclusions by trial and error. Citrus is so delicious when I juice it in my Breville. It's almost like candy! But in the Vitamix, zomg, that was some nasty stuff.

[backpack]

The fact that citruses need a juicer to work in the smoothies or need to be bought as commercial juice is yet another piece of the puzzle into what machine would be relevant to make liquid vegetable/fruit meals.

So far, I have been able to avoid the "let me eat like a bear just before hibernating" overstuffing of sweet and savory carbohydrate/dairy combo.
But. I have to be ever vigilant of sliding back.

Replacing one meal and all the snacks with vegetable/fruit smoothies would be ideal, it would keep me hydrated and nourished at the same time.

The carbohydrate meal of the day could have the leftover vegetable smoothie added as healthy sauce. For example potatoe and brocoli/cauliflower/spinash or pasta with carrots and cheese with stronger flavor than sheddar made just as orange by the carrots.

I also want to be able to experiment with small batches of smoothies or sauces in order to confirm we can tolerate them well.

Thanks for the awesome links Darcy!


Thank you so much to both of you for helping in the not so easy road of eating healthier on a budget.

[dorayme]

Another consideration backpack is that juicing is going to remove a lot of the fiber, which is an important consideration if you have blood sugar or dietary tract issues, among other things. I have a close friend who is hypoglycemic. She would consider a Vitamix over a juicer for the volatility of her sugar levels achieved by fruit in the absence of fiber. I think there is a time and place for both.

Citrus is one of those fruits that you can extract juice from with a manual juicer. You may not get as much, or as efficiently extracted juice as with a juice machine, but don't let that limit you, especially if you are looking to add citrus into other types of smoothies.

[backpack]

A recent shopping expedition, has shown the price of organic chicken to have doubled!


So the inclusion of more vegetable, fruits, nuts and herbs to carbohydrates based meals is essential.

I also added pre-made juices, I will see how I can incorporate them in recipes.

I get my proteins from all kind of dairy but my husband gets seafood and salad items if he has to shop by himself when I am under the weather.
He eats salads with the same relish I eat pastas and pastries, I have to kind of tell myself it is good for me.

I think the solution is vegetable, fruits, nuts and herbs sauce.

Do you know how the Vitamix fares on making hummus and other beans or bean and vegetables dips?

[bltkmt]

Made this concoction yesterday before the Super Bowl...kale, banana, apple, frozen mango, frozen peaches, almond milk and a little water. Dee-lish-us. (Not sure how to fix the sideways view...)

[bvp663]

I'm going to drive up for a visit and make everyone some kale smoothies!

[julawils]

I am experimenting with a meatless month (no eggs, either...but still doing dairy, just watching it). Feb is a short month, so why not...

And sooooo, I am also doing smoothies every morning and sometimes for dinner, too.

Banana, handful of kale/cilantro/parsley/spinach/chinese broccoli/whatever is green in my fridge, some berries, almond milk, ice, ground flaxseed. If I have a cooked sweet potato, I'll add in a little of that too. As long as I have a banana and some berries, it's always delic. It's a like fun experiment to see if I can taste the veggies! So far, it's been smooth... (ba-dum-ching)

[darbs]

julawils, I have a smoothie every morning for breakfast! Have been doing this since July and I love it! I actually dump a scoop of Plant Fusion's unflavored protein powder in my smoothies. I can't do whey, soy, or almond milk and the Plant Fusion stuff is great. It definitely helps make the smoothie last longer. A whole scoop is around 22g of protein and it makes a big difference.
I'm like you with the banana, but I also have to have pineapple in my smoothies. I prefer the fresh, but the frozen works well. The pineapple gives them that added little sweetness and covers the veggie taste perfectly. I've been doing ground chia seeds as well as flax too just because I keep reading about how great Chia is for you. Frozen peaches and mango are also really good and using those instead of berries gives you that awesome green color.

[julawils]

Sounds great, darbs. I'll pick up those groceries/supplies, too, then! I'm going to order the Plant Fusion today...just looked up online. I cannot wait to try it plus the pineapple and frozen fruit. Thnx!

[darbs]

Ice is a hot commodity in my house so by using frozen fruit, I don't have to add ice. The BF gets a little snippy when there isn't enough ice for his big glass of ice water.

[backpack]

Please share your experiments with kale and turnip.

What fruit or vegetable can be added to it to make a good looking juice or smoothie.

Good looking to me means dark or light green with a purpleish hue but not anything in the mustard to brownish hue.