Monday, January 9, 2012

Blender Vs Juicer

It goes without saying...but just in case I need to mention to you new readers {What new readers? Leave me a comment? I want to meet cha!}......

I am passionately in love with my Vitamix Blender. Passionate is a strong word. I picture a steamy scene in a movie on the lifetime network.....the older movies, the ones I would watch at the end of my Moms bed after she had fallen asleep, unaware that I had crept in. Those were the good ones. Now lifetime is full of pregnant teenagers. What a shame. But back to passionate....I am passionate about my Vitamix.

The vitamix has opened all sorts of windows, doors, gateways...etc., etc., for me. Store bought guacamole and salsa is a thing of the past and although I feel as if I am still an amateur at blender soup making, I know that it is a possibility. Having options is a great feeling.

Am I beating a dead horse? Everyone knows that it has changed my life, right? Not everyone know that I also got a juicer the same day I got my Vitamix. I have a lot of guilt about this juicer. It never gets the credit it deserves. It will always be overshadowed by the blender. I picture it as the red headed step child with major face, chest and back acne. You love your little acne freak....but you also love the other one....more.

The other night after the gym episode I went to the store and picked up some produce in hopes of making some kind of magical smoothie concoction. I arrived home and saw the pathetic juicer in the corner collecting dust. "Why won't you use me? I've done nothing wrong. All I wanna do is suck the life out of a juicy somethin somethin." This taunting did the work and I whipped me up a big glass of juice.

Carrot Cucumber Fruit Juice
1/2 carrot {I used one huge carrot...I also regret it}
1 sm Cucumber {Peeled}
2 apples
1 Orange

If you use too much carrot it will overshadow the rest of the drink and you will walk away feeling like you need to eat 2-3 candy bars. If you do it right you will have a perfect mix of carrot and fruitiness which will help you feel full and content due to the sweetness.

Lets take a moment to whine compare. A juicer recipe is easy to screw up. I always feel like it could have used a little more of this and a little less of that. I never feel completely content. A smoothie in the blender is always magical. Banana, mango, grapes, spinach, pineapple, apples, oranges.....the possibilities are endless. 

I can't put soft produce in the juicer. I tried a mango and it was almost completely wasted. It was a super juicy mango but somehow big chunks were left over and hardly any juice was produced afterwards. I hate tomato juice so basically I am left with carrots, apples and oranges. Which is fine, but I am spoiled with all the possibilities with the blender.

Lets talk about cleaning this beast. There are many parts to this juicer. The blender has no parts. Sometimes I don't even use soap with it. I rinse it out and call it good. The juicer has to be scraped with a special tool and scrubbed with another tool to ensure all the fruit gets out of the razors. From start to finish it took me about 25 minutes just for this glass of juice. A smoothie in the blender takes 5 minutes, if that.

This leads me to the last and final comparison. The waste! The sinking feeling I feel at the end of the juicing process when all of the precious produce is still left. I wish with all my heart we had a compost pile and a garden. Sigh.....






I understand why the juicer had dust on it. I love it. I really do. But at the same time I wish it wasn't such an effort to make a drink....ya know. Maybe I need to read up on some recipes. Does anyone have an appliance like this that you have made a home in your heart for....and then wonder why you devoted the love to it? Any recipes you wanna share?


P.s I have noticed I am getting a lot more viewers lately....please feel free to leave a comment and say hello. I would love to come visit your blog as well. Did that sound like a bribe?

P.s.s I am not a getting paid to mention Vitamix, but at one point in my life I envisioned traveling the world, blender in tow. I would be the best Vitamix Representative the world has ever known.

1 comment:

Shanna said...

That was a lot of leftover produce, you could have made a smoothie our of all that. It's too bad about the juicer, but when you've got one magical appliance, others tend to fall by the wayside.