I’ve been married for 6.5 years, but it’s taken less than a week for me to fall in love with another. I know, I know, a fickle heart is nothing to boast about… but wait until you see us together.
Meet Edgar. Our love has been a long time in the making. Lengthy visits online to the Vita-Mix website, drooling over recipes, babbling on to friends and family about how “it’s not just a blender” while they pretend to care. Over the course of our marriage I have ruined 3 blenders and 2 food processors, and I knew it was time to step up. So on my monthly trip to Costco for organic quinoa and evaporated cane juice, when I came across a man demoing the Vita-Mix, I stopped dead in my tracks. I sampled some delicious juice made from red grapes, a slice of lime (with rind!) and ice cubes. I gazed at the Vita-Mix with love and longing. When the man confided in me that you don’t need the dry blade container to grind flour, thus saving me about $150 from what I had originally planned to pay, coupled with the bargain price, plus not having to pay with shipping… I was sold. And so Edgar came to join us.
So far we have made juice, soup, smoothies and ice cream. Everything has turned out beautifully and I am in complete awe of the ease of use with this machine, especially clean up! It seems like some too-good-to-be-true dimension, where I can deliciously eat the whole fruit or vegetable, whip up food in a matter of seconds (literally), and clean up just as quickly.
For example, as part of our dinner tonight we had smoothies.
A banana, some soy yogurt, soy milk, frozen mixed berries, frozen strawberries, baby spinach and green powder from Trader Joe’s. With the help of the tamper, in under 1 minute it went from the above picture to this:
Ah, heaven. So, for you green smoothie folks, did you ease yourself in to them or did you just take the plunge? I’m a little scared of drinking all of those greens, raw.
The other part of our dinner tonight was my take on one of my favorite entrees at Blossoming Lotus.
Kale, sauteed with olive oil and garlic, under some Soy Curls that I hydrated with veggie broth, coated in a mixture of nutritional yeast, dried basil and sea salt and then lightly pan fried. On the side, sauteed asparagus. I can never come close to the simple complexity that is Blossoming Lotus, but it tasted pretty darn good.
More adventure with Edgar to come!
0 Responses to an affair to remember
Featured Friends of nom!
It’s here!
I am so unbelevably jealous of your vita mix. I’m onto my second blender and it just cannot blend anything frozen – rubbish! When I come to the US I may just have to pick one up.
you have no shame, woman!
I love that you named it Edgar.
wow those vitamixes really are amazing.
if you think about it…..the amount of replaced blenders and all the work you go through with cheaper ones…if you just bought a vitamix from the beginning you’d probably save money….or at least quality
…now if only i had had that money RIGHT NOW…..
haha
hope it treats you awesome
I live practically next door to the company. I should have a vita-mix! I’m getting one for Christmas this year!
I’ve had a secret crush on Vitamix for a long time and am slightly jealous of your new relationship. Have lots of fun together!
I have smoothies a lot but not green ones. I haven’t been able to get myself to drink something green, though I LOVE green veggies and eat them all the time both cooked and raw.
Am I the only vegan in the world who hasn’t tried soy curls? I’ve never seen them. What are they?
Soy curls are dehydrated strips of soy, somewhat like chicken strips. They are very versatile, I usually hydrate them in veggie broth and then proceed with whatever I’m putting them in. They are produced in Oregon, but they are available from many online stores like Food Fight.
I want a Vitamix too! I just got a pretty good blender the other day, but I’m sure its not as good as that Vitamix though.
Your smoothie looks so think and creamy!
http://whatyourmommadidntknow.blogspot.com/
I saw the Vita-Mix at Costco too! I even remember telling my mom to get it for me, but unfortunately she didn’t
I’ve just recently gotten into green smoothies, and I love them. So far I’ve used spinach and kale and honestly, you can’t even taste it. And yours will be even better b/c the VitaMix will completely break down the leaves! I have to use a food processor so once in a while I get a bigger piece of leaf and it’s a bit off-putting. My suggestion, though, is that you add a little handful of blueberries to your green smoothie, no matter what, or else the color will definitely make you go “no thanks.” Give it a try though!
I need a Costco membership! That device also makes babies-did you know that?!
Cya soon!
I am so so jealous of your vita mix! How lucky you are to have come across that great deal! Your dinner looks great, too. I’ve never used soy curls, but I do have a bag of them lying around that’s just begging to be used in a dish quite like yours!
Congratulations to you and Edgar! I heart my Vitamix. (I named him Gilliam.) But what is this talk of not needing the dry blade to grind flour?
p.s. your glasses rock!
I am in love with my Vita-Mix too! Isn’t it the best?! My family thought I was crazy at first, but since I got one about 5 years ago, both my sister and my mother have gotten newer, better models! Ha!
For green smoothies–you really can’t taste the greens! Go ahead and pile them in :o) In my opinion, spinach is the mildest tasting, so keep going with that. I have used kale, collards, and chard, and all taste a little “greener” than the spinach, but not in a bad way at all. Give it a try! Good luck!
Courtney
Don’t fear the greens! They can be yummy. When I started out, I did use slightly smaller amounts and worked my way up. Chard and collards have too much of an earthy taste for me (in a smoothie at least), but I use kale and spinach a lot. I have some recipes on my smoothie blog – http://www.planetsmoothie.blogspot.com
Color me jealous.
Congratulations !!
You know I am right there with you Kris, on the love for Vita Mixers! Perhaps ours ought to meet… This post made me happy!
I. Need. A. Vita-Mix.
Unfortunately, I have no excuse to do away with any of the three blending devices I already own and am running out of – or, should say, ran out years ago of – counter space. Oh, and having the down payment!
I’m glad you love it! I’m sure I’ll get one someday, and it’s good to know people are so happy with them.
If I could adopt Soy Curls like so many of Brangelina’s children, I would.
Hehehe, this post made me laugh
Love your blog! It’s so cool to live in a city with soooo many talented vegans! I’m about to buy a vita mix for my bakery and one for our new storefront on Alberta opening in a month or so and if you don’t mind me asking, how much did you pay for your vita mix via Costco? I’m just curious if the price is considerably better than buying one directly through them but I went to Costco and the next time they will have them available is in Vancouver on the 21st of July! Thanks for the great work you’re doing!
Garrett Jones
Back to Eden Bakery
[…] kale, spinach, Very Green powder, raspberries and almond milk. Yum! I’m really loving having Edgar around. We’ve gotten into the habit of having smaller dinners and giant smoothies- perfect […]
Oh my, this isn’t helping me one bit! Yeah, I’m no stranger to the lenghty visits to the Vitamix website… But you got me curious about not needing the dry blade container to grind flour. I’m slowly catching up in blog reading after coming back from vacation, so I’ll see if you talked about it in another post, but if not, I’d appreciate reading more about that if ever you give it a try. Thanks!