My Favorite Visionary Kitchen Tool

By Natalie Klejwa

It’s visionary to eat healthy.  What we put into our bodies today will, in many ways, determine our health tomorrow.  God gave us food to delight us as well as to nourish our bodies, and there is beautiful balance in the natural foods He has provided.

Over the years I’ve tried to feed our children as healthy as possible, knowing that in certain seasons it is less possible than other seasons.  For example, after a new baby comes into the house, the spelt pancakes and raisin carrot muffins for breakfast go flying out the door…and in walks the cheerios, raisin bran, and frosted (anybody judging?) shredded wheat.

I have been on serious health food kicks over the years.  Probably the worst experience was when we tried to “go raw” for a while.  Well, a week.  My husband nixed that one after the third night of an undefinable, seedy type of casserole followed by a “cheesecake” (his favorite dessert) made with ground nuts.

The recipe said it tasted EXACTLY like the real thing.

My husband said, “NOT”.

I’m just saying this so you know that I’ve swung this particular pendulum a few times.  One of the frustrating things about trying to eat healthier, whole foods, is that it takes a lot more preparation time, and when you get busy with more and more children, prep time is at a minimum.  The other frustrating thing I’ve found is that when I don’t have the right tools, I can’t do the right things, well…right.

Enter the Visionary Vitamix.  I’ve only had mine for less than a week, and I’ve already used it well over 10 times.  I’ve made whole grain pancakes, applesauce, several smoothies that were a DREAM to make AND eat, crushed ice, chopped onions and carrots, play dough, cream of asparagus soup and strawberry lemonade.  I plan to try peanut butter, potato cheddar soup, chocolate malts, waffles and some more smoothie recipes after I go grocery shopping today.

How did I live without this machine?  I think I will forevermore look upon my life as “pre-Vitamix” and “post-Vitamix”.

Last week, “pre-Vitamix”, I had a friend and her children over for the day.  I made some kefir and berry smoothies in my regular style blender.  She watched while I painfully wrestled with the blender and the ingredients for 10 full minutes before I finally had something blended well enough to choke down.  There was only enough for each person to have a tiny glass.  This is why smoothies, while healthy, were not something I would anticipate making…and therefore made only on rare occasions.

Here are seven reasons (just for starters and because 7 is a biblical number and I was also born on the 7th) why I’ve begun a life-long love affair with my Vitamix:

1. The size of the container is HUGE.  It holds 8 cups worth of whatever you are making.  That’s enough for our family of 10 to each have a 6-7 ounce glass, if we are making smoothies.  It also holds enough batter to feed our family the number of pancakes/waffles we need…and then some.
2. It is LIGHT.  My old blender container, made of thick glass, weighed a TON.  This one is so light it makes lifting and pouring easy…even for kids.
3. It blends up smoothies and blender pancake/waffle recipes with ANY KIND OF INGREDIENT painlessly.  And we’re not just talking bananas, berries and milk here.  I can put an entire CARROT  in there…and it will blend it up with my fruits SMOOTH AS SILK.  In 30 seconds.  This morning I put whole flax seed and almonds in our triple berry smoothie…and it was smooth and creamy rich.  With my old blender, virgin coconut oil would never get completely blended into the smoothie.  Instead, we could feel the tiny globules of coconut oil in our mouths.  (Raw, virgin coconut oil is SO good for your gut.)  But with the Vitamix, I can throw a big spoonful of the stuff…and it gets completely emulsified in with the rest of the ingredients.  In 30 seconds. I’ve thrown in fresh spinach leaves and avocado…without telling my kids…and it blends up so well, they have no idea those things are in there.  With my old blender, I had zero success with whole grain blender batter recipes that call for blending whole grains in with the other ingredients in one step.  With the Vitamix, I can throw in any whole grain to make a pancake or waffle batter that rivals anything we’ve ever tasted in the past.  My kids FLIPPED over the pancakes we had two days ago and asked if I could make those again the next day.  One more related thing: my baby is too old for baby food now, but I could have made perfectly pureed baby foods in this with painless perfection had I owned one just 6 months ago.
4. The lid doesn’t fly off when pureeing hot foods.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had hot, pureed vegies for cream soups splattered all over my ceiling, counter top, and face with my old blender.  Not any more.  My face is safe, thanks to Vitamix’s unique lid that “locks” into place.  I tried my creamy asparagus soup a couple of days ago.  Ah…heaven to make.  And even more heavenly to eat.  With a clean face.
5. I can weed out several other appliances from my kitchen, thus simplifying life and conserving space.  I no longer need my blender, food processor, coffee grinder or grain mill.  Yes, if you have the dry container, which is an add on, you can grind coffee beans and mill any kind of whole grain into flour.  You can crack whole grains too in order to make hot cereals like oat groats.
6. This machine enables me to feed my family more whole foods, more painlessly and pleasantly than any other piece of equipment I have ever owned.  If that isn’t visionary, I don’t know what is!
7. A seven year warranty.  Free shipping to their repair center and back should your Vitamix need help.

Anyone can be visionary, but not everyone can afford a Vitamix.  We certainly could not until this year.  This post isn’t intended to cause coveting, bitterness or nagging of husbands.  However, even when we’ve been quite poor, God has graciously enabled me to creatively figure out ways to acquire tools that I feel are helpful to my homemaking.

So why haven’t I owned a Vitamix before now? 

I wasn’t convinced it was necessary.

I thought it was just a glorified blender…and that it would be ridiculous to spend hundreds of dollars on a blender that would do the same thing as the one on sale for $40 at Target.  (We’ve been through 4 sub-par, painfully laborious blenders in the past 20 years, by the way.)  So the point of this post is to inform you that the Vitamix is so much more than “just a blender”.  It is the best way I’ve discovered, thus far, to incorporate healthy, whole foods into my family’s diet.  And I think you will find that to be true for you too.  Save your shekels.  Say “no” to other things and save for this one.  Ask for money for your birthday and Christmas…and put it aside for a Vitamix.  This is how I’ve been able to acquire some of my most beloved, quality homemaking tools.

And just for the record, I am not a Vitamix distributor, nor am I getting paid to write this post!  ; )  I’m just a  happy customer.

Do you have a Vitamix?  If so, share your thoughts!  I’m sure other readers would like to hear about YOUR experiences with this very visionary kitchen appliance!

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