Blending smoothies and juices to create vitamin packed foods

YES! I always used an immersion blender before. Now I mix.

It doesn't take much reading to realize that blending raw foods to make a healthy drink retains many more nutrients than cooking food down to vitamin depleted fibers. I started easy with lots of fruit mixes and slowly began incorporating more nutrient rich foods into my blends. I needed a more industrious machine to handle some of the different types of foods. I learned that putting kale in with strawberries did little to change the taste if blended properly, but greatly improved the nutritional content. There are tons of easy adaptations like this that can easily change your diet without sacrificing taste.

But, the first time I tried kale with an immersion blender, it just kept bunching up in the blades and never quite blended. Interesting texture to the drinks, but not something I would crave. I needed a better solution. The standard in long lasting, commercial grade food prep makes more than just a smoothy, it greatly changed the way I think about foods. I started using a VitaMix blender. These machines will grind their way through all kinds of edible chunks of food to create drinks, sauces, amazing soups, grain mixes, bread mixes and more. Frozen fruit and vegetables don't stand a chance and leafy vegetables won't get wrapped around blades. This is not your standard motorboat immersion blender. I have chopped my way through raw foods that would have stripped the motor and broken blades on basic handhelds.  

The Vita-Mix series is not the most inexpensive game in town, but they are built so well they will last long enough you could pass these along to your children. But, your healthy lifestyle will keep you active, so they will probably need to get their own!

Since starting a new healthier lifestyle, and incorporating more raw and organic foods in my diet, this powerhouse has earned it's place on my counter. The clean up is easy and the results are worth it. Now, with the right tools, let's look at some options for improving recipes.