There is rarely a kitchen gadget that I use again and again, year after
year. But I would not want to be without my Vitamix 5200. The Vitamix is the same
machine that makes the ice cream drinks at Starbucks. But rather than burden
your beauty with such things, you can use the tool at home to make
incredibly healthy and delicious ice creams and sorbets to suit any whim, by
throwing in frozen berries, cantaloupe or peach slices, yogurt, soymilk,
decaf coffee (or Teeccino) ice cubes, unsweetened cocoa or, to be decadent, organic half and half ice cubes (great blended with the fruit or coffee
cubes) and your favorite sweetener (although you won't need it with ripe
fruit). Whiz it up, and in seconds you have extremely smooth, scoop-able ice
cream. I swear that the decaf and Teeccino (vanilla nut is fantastic) with
organic whole milk ice cubes is like Haagen Daaz coffee ice cream. For sweeteners, I use
just a little of NuNaturals' NuStevia (it's debittered and it's the best tasting stevia I have found) or NuNaturals' Vanilla Stevia (via droplet) or their Sweet-X Xylitol. All three sweeteners are perfect low-impact sweetening choices for these amazing recipes. You can put anything rock hard
frozen in there, which you can't do with a blender.
The other thing the Vitamix 5200 does is grind any grain or seed, so you can
make hummus with sesame seeds and chickpeas (I like to add cayenne, lemon
and garlic), whereas a blender will not grind the seeds smooth. You can make
buckwheat pancakes right from the container after adding nothing but
buckwheat, buttermilk and a little oil and salt (top them with warm pureed
berries and yogurt or low-carb syrup. It also grinds soybeans into soy
flour, which is a great tool for baking lower-carb stuff. It also grinds
flaxseed, makes soup without a stove, makes "whole" juice (recipes included)
and the smoothest smoothies possible. It's an expensive machine, but you can
put it through anything. See Resources.
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