Playing With The Vita-Mix

Well, naturally I have been playing with my new "toy". I want to make sure that I learn to use it and then *use* it. My hubby works hard for our money and I don't want to waste it. The kids are fascinated by it and even watched the instructional DVD with me twice. I have watched it about 5 times just because I think of something else I didn't remember. Of course the kids all lined up with their little chairs in the entrance between the kitchen/living room to watch what I was going to do next...and wait for samples.

Yesterday I made smoothies twice. We have lots of frozen berries because I didn't get jam made this past year and because my folks brought some or my favorite Washington Raspberries down with them. (They grow in CA but they don't taste that great, it's just not raspberry weather here.) I also froze some peaches. I haven't experimented with those yet. The first was bananas, orange, blueberries and strawberries. That was so pretty, a raspberry/burgandy color. The second for after dinner was oranges, bananas and strawberries. My son, who is the pickiest, did not like them at first. Of course he needs to train his tastebuds that not everything that tastes good is sweet. I have tried to feed him healthy, but he just came out with a taste for sugar and chocolate in particular. He is one of the reasons that I am doing this.

For dinner last night I made the tortilla soup recipe. I started with boiling water, but the other ingredients are cold and I was a little timid about using the machine, so it did not come out as hot temperature wise as we like. So, we did end up heating it in the microwave and there were a couple things we would change but we really liked it. Hubby said that was the first time he had ever voluntarily eaten cabbage! lol The soup recipes are very adaptable and most of them involve much less heating than a regular soup would have, so they are healthier. I would like to try doing a soup night once a week. This will save grocery $, be nutritious and get us out of the habit of thinking we need a slab of meat on the plate to call it dinner! My husband had two servings, so that is a good sign. :o)

This morning I wanted to make bread. I knew I had some wheat that had been in the freezer and was shocked to see that it had a date of 12/2005 on it! I defrost and clean my freezer every 6 months and we do a lot with the freezer, so I was a little surprised to find something that old! Oops! I decided to try it anyway, since there is no $ until payday on Friday. I was really impressed with how quickly it made flour. I followed the bread recipe but I am not sure what I did wrong, but it was too wet, like a batter. I decided to cook it anyway to at least taste what it was like. It actually tasted really good and was not heavy like some all wheat breads. So, right now I have a second loaf that I made from some white whole wheat flour I had on hand and it rose nicely. The verdict is still out though.

You may be wondering why I am doing wheat if I want to go gluten free. Well, I am only one of five in our family and I am the only one who is doing this. In the mean time I would like to find a good recipe of bread to make on a regular basis. I think when I find a recipe, I may try it with the Kitchen Aid mixer because I can do more than one loaf at a time. However, if things continue to progress so well, I will probably be able to eliminate the bread machine, which I don't use for making bread anyway, mostly mixing dough for pizza and cinnamon rolls. Time will tell. Also Charlotte mentioned that gluten free bread is easier to do in a bread machine. I would imagine that less handling helps that. There is a gluten free recipe in the Vitamix cookbook and I will try that too.

Today I have also been making ice. We just have one ice cube tray since we don't usually use ice and don't entertain. So as soon as it gets done, I dump it into a ziploc and put more water in the tray. Hubby would like to try the pineapple smoothie recipe tonight and it requires ice cubes.

I almost forgot, we made a smoothie of our own concotion today at lunch. We haven't hit a formula yet that works for the picky boy! :o) We are trying. This one had carrot, cabbage, 2 apples, 2 bananas, honey, rice milk and strawberry Keifer. I thought it was really good and it was a peachy color. The girls drank it but D could only get half a cup down. It's a start and I know he wouldn't touch cabbage or carrot with a ten foot pole otherwise! I think that next time I will use half a carrot. Diane, the woman who sold me the Vita-Mix cautioned that a little bit goes a long way. And I figured this would be true because you could really overload on too much fruit or certain nutrients and get sick too. Charlotte also cautioned me about Beta-Carotene. I had to laugh at this, because when I worked in peds it was one of the most common calls I had from first time moms..."my baby's nose is turning orange, what's wrong?" "Did you just begin feeding solids?" "Yes." "Have you introduced carrots?" "Why yes! Baby loves carrots!" There you go! LOL Charlotte mentioned beta-carotene poisoning and I meant to ask her more about that, but forgot...hey Charlotte, if you read this, will you comment? I am also very cautious about eating carrots because Vitamin A in high doses is one of the triggers for Pseudotumor Cerebrei, a horrible disease I experienced and never want to go through again. But carrots do give it a pretty color, so all things in moderation.

Okay, if you read this far, do you have any recipe suggestions for the Vita-Mix? Please let me know.

Vita-Mix

For quite some time I have been debating whether or not to purchase a Vita-Mix. I have gone to several demonstrations, but I think I have gone to ones where the demonstrator was new and couldn't answer most of my questions. Sunday, I went to Costco in a neighboring town. I don't normally go there and I rarely ever shop on Sundays but because of the post Thanksgiving shopping, I had avoided stores. Eventually food runs out and you go to the store! Well, I honestly think that I was meant to be there. I should also back up and say that the night before, I couldn't get to sleep and I was praying about the idea of going gluten free and whether or not this was necessary for me or if I was going against my own advice and taking bigger than baby steps! I asked God to make it clear to me.

So, I go to Costco and I walk towards the produce section and there is a Vita-Mix demonstration. I decided to stay and listen even though I doubted there would be any new information. Wow, this gal was really knowledgeable and without me even asking, in the course of her demonstration she answered all the unanswered questions that I had. I could tell that she really knew what she was talking about and not just regurgitating company information. It turns out that she is a sponsored athlete (runner) and a personal trainer, including strength training for Navy Seals (she is in San Diego).

After her demonstration, she switched off with her partner and spoke with me. We talked about it for awhile and she said that as soon as I could give her half down, she would mail one to me, postage free and take payments, because the cost is going up a good chunk on January 1st. She also talked to me about what I was doing for my health and I explained the steps I have taken. Without missing a beat, she said, "Well, I think your next step should be to eliminate wheat and possibly all gluten." You could have knocked me over with a feather. Now, I am not saying that she is the voice of God, but I do believe that God uses people, books, the web and all types of different resources to teach us. I am continuing to pray about it but I think that is the answer I was asking for.

So, I go home and talk to Tim about it and he agreed, it would be a good deal and we should do it now to save the money. It was such a generous offer too. So, I emailed her and confirmed the information and told her I would send the payment on Friday when we got paid. She wrote back and said she had a "good feel" about me and she wanted me to come to Costco today for their last showing and pick it up. Now, my mouth really fell open! Shocking! So, the kids and I went back out to Costco. She just took my contact information and I walked out with a Vita-Mix 5000 and the dry blade container too.

As a token of my appreciation for her more than generous gesture, I took some of my photo greeting cards to her. This really blessed me. She told me how her father was injured a year ago tomorrow in a mountain biking accident in Mexico. His neck was broken and he is still in a hospital on a ventilator in San Diego, trying to recover. She is going to frame the card, seen above in low resolution and frame it for her Dad to look at in his hospital room since he loves to camp and be in the outdoors. Maybe everyone who reads this could stop and pray for this man's healing!

So, that was another long entry, but it was hard to describe succinctly and I'm more than just a little excited, having just drunk my first smoothie...orange, banana, frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries that I had already in the freezer. It was soooo good.

I appreciate the input that people gave me on the Vita-Mix, both the pro and the con. It helped in my decision making. I have about 3 feet of usable counter in my kitchen, on which I already have a Kitchen Aid mixer. The Vita-Mix will do the work of a couple different machines, so in that sense it is a good choice. It goes both slower than and faster than a blender, which allows it to do some food processing and grain grinding, mixing bread and dough and juicing. I like that you can use all of a fruit or vegetable as opposed to a juicer which leaves pulp. My husband told me that he would much rather drink some vegetables than eat them and it is a good way to get some veggies in for the kids. As a matter of fact, the kids loved the sorbet that was made with carrots and my son, the pickiest of all my eaters, said it tasted better than ice cream!

So, we shall see what happens. This is part of a new step to try and eat more fresh foods. Tonight though, I will be practicing on hubby making the delicious tortilla soup which I had at the demo. It's a good way to use up some more of those turkey leftover! :o)