Quick Carrot Pineapple Juice

 Today I tried a new-to-us recipe in the VitaMix.  The recipe comes from BlendingForGood.com.

Place ingredients in blender jar in order listed:

1.5 cups water
1.5 cups baby carrots
3 cups chopped fresh pineapple including central part
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
1 thick slice fresh lemon, skin included
2.5 cups ice cubes.

Blend for 60 seconds then serve in tall glasses.

It is pretty good.  It is not sweet.

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Delicious Natural Peanut Butter

Many times since we got the VitaMix I have seen videos on making peanut butter, almond butter, and cashew butter.  Today I saw another peanut butter video and the stars aligned!  (I needed a large container to put some fresh granola into and the peanut container seemed a good size and was almost empty.)   The alignment included going to the store to find another similar container of dry roasted peanuts.  I could not find any what were unsalted so I took what I could get.  After making the peanut butter we have two empty containers which is what I needed for the granola!

To make peanut butter, you need either a high speed blender or a food processor. I used the blender so I cannot tell you about making peanut butter in the food processor.

Place 4 cups dry roasted peanuts and 3 or so deglet noor dates in the blender jar.  (If you want a sweeter peanut butter you can add more dates.  As it happens, 3 of these small dates did not really make any sweetness that I could discern.  No problem. I am not really a sweets person.  Not that I won't eat a nice thick rich brownie if it falls onto my plate, but...I am more of a savory, salty person.  In several ways.  Don't ask.)

Start the blender at 1 and move up to 10 quickly.  You will need to use your tamper to push the peanuts down into the blades.  It takes just about 2 minutes to grind up the peanut butter.  In the VitaMix you feel like you are killing the machine but it really is just smiling there at you when the peanut butter is done.

Here is the creamy delicious peanut butter.  Dear One was not instantly enamored of the idea of homemade peanut butter, but when he had a taste he immediately made himself a peanut butter sandwich. I call that success!

Munchie Monday: Ginger Limeade

The VitaMix company made a new-to-me jar:  the Aer Disc jar.  This gives cooks the opportunity to make fluffy aerated things and different kinds of beverages.  The VitaMix website has a recipe for Mint Limeade.  This did not appeal tremendously to me...though if we had not already closed up shop on the deck and set the security system (something that takes about a minutes to overcome, so it is not a very good excuse...) I might have harvested some of the spearmint leaves we have on the deck.  Instead I decided to try Ginger Limeade.

2 cups cold water
2 limes, washed, with a little bit of each end cut off, and the remaining limes each cut into 4 equal slices
1/4 cup sugar
1 inch knob fresh ginger, peeled and chopped pretty finely
2 cups ice cubes

Ingredients in the jar

Using the Aer Disc jar, place all the ingredients in the jar in the listed order.  Turn on the VitaMix on low and move up to highest speed.  Let process for 30-45 seconds.

Ginger Limeade aerated and in the jar

Pour into two 16-ounce glasses.

Ginger Limeade, served.  There were two glasses of it

This was a GREAT experiment!!

It is my opinion that this same beverage can be made in any blender, with the exception that the limes should be juiced first and then added to the blender jar.

This is what the aer disc looks like.

Apparently what happens to the lime slices in the Aer Disc jar is called muddling.

You can see that most of the soft part of the lime has disappeared from the lime slices...thus muddled, I guess.

 I had never heard of muddling.  I think it means that the soft part of the lime is sucked out of the solid part and mushed up.  Whatever it is, this is a very refreshing beverage, even in the early winter...!

PS . The Aer Disc Jar was on sale on Black Friday for $99 through #LifeIsNOYOKE.  I could not resist!!!

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Green Juice

Lenny Gale's YouTube channel is so instructive and motivating to me.  He and Shalva put up lots of good recipes.  The latest one I have tried is his Green Juice recipe.

Mine was a little different than his, but it tasted really good anyway.

This uses a high speed blender.  I don't know if a less powerful one will do the trick to liquify everything.  Maybe if run a lot longer...?

This is how I made it because of what I had on hand:

In the blender put in this order:
1.5 cups of water
1 cored apple
1 peeled banana
a small chunk of fresh ginger
2 small dried up peeled clementines
a big handful of chopped raw kale, stems and all
3 cups ice (the ice needs to go on top)


Turn it on to blend on high for 90 seconds, then pour out into glasses. 

NOTE:  This is NOT a thick smoothie, but is in actuality green JUICE, just like Lenny said!

Because I was unsure of the taste, I only poured half a glass for Dear One and for myself.  It was really good!  Dear One liked it, too.  There was leftover juice which I put in the refrigerator to drink later.

Thanks, Lenny and Shalva!  #lifeisnoyoke

Munchie Monday: Four Fruit Smoothie with a Vitamix Scale and Blend App!

We like smoothies at our house.  You know that.

On Friday we were at Costco walking down the main corridor and there, right in front of us, was the Vitamix demonstrator guy. I asked him what he was selling us this time.  He said, "A four fruit smoothie."  He put the blender jar on a little kitchen scale that looks like it is made of stainless steel, and said, "Watch!"  So we did.  It was a really interesting five or ten minutes.

 He connected his iPad to the scale via Bluetooth then started cutting up fruit and putting it into the jar as the iPad told him how much to add then beeped when he had enough in the jar.  After an orange, a slice of fresh pineapple, four strawberries, some agave syrup, some baby carrots, some VEGAN(!!) protein powder, and some ice cubes,  he placed the blender jar on the Vitamix base then pressed the Smoothie button.

In about 45 seconds he had a pretty and delicious-looking smoothie.  He put six little 3-ounce paper cups on a tray.  He told me not to touch them, which I thought was odd, but I did not touch them.  He poured the rest of the smoothie into a large red Solo cup, then handed that cup to me!!  Well, thank you very much, good sir!!!  Dear One drank one of the little cups then shared mine with me. I could not drink it all.

Well,  guess what!  We walked away with the scale AND the vegan protein powder.  And have used the scale multiple times since.  With smoothies at juice bars costing in the neighborhood of $5 a smack, we will pay for this thing in savings very quickly.  Plus, it makes me smile.

Immediately upon arriving home, I made the Four Fruit Smoothie.  Ours does not look like the one in the recipe because rather than using straight ice cubes, I used the ice cubes I had made with "leftover" smoothie earlier in the week...the blueberry and kale smoothie. (One problem I have always had with smoothies is that there was always too much for just two reasonable servings. ) Somewhere I got the idea to put the leftovers in the ice cube tray then use them in the next smoothie.  It works!