But a week or two ago I decided that I was going to make all our breakfasts and dinners in the Vitamix for a whole week. It was so hard to find dinner ideas to make in the Vitamix so I spent a long time planning what i was going to make. I went to Sprouts on Thursday because I get 15% off with my student ID and I bought a bunch of stuff. It was exhausting because I also had to go to Smiths to get a few things that I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for. The produce at Sprouts is better/cheaper so it's good for green smoothies.
Dinner Thursday: Tortilla Soup (click the links for the recipes)
This is what is awesome about the Vitamix. You throw everything in there without cutting it up - a stalk of celery, a hunk of cheese, a carrot, half a pepper (seeds and stem still attached), etc. - then you turn it on and blend it for maybe 7 minutes and not only does everything get ground up nice and small, it heats it up too! In no time at all you have a piping hot, healthy soup!
My attempt at a food bloggish picture.. haha
The soup was pretty good. The flavor was a little bit off. But it suggested putting some solids in there like beans, rice, chicken, etc. which I didn't do. With some extra cheese and sour cream it would have been pretty delicious.
Breakfast Friday: Emerald Ecstasy Smoothie and Energy Bars
Oh man. It was delicious. I made this for breakfast probably 3 times throughout the week. It has pineapple, green grapes, banana, apple, and spinach. SO good. And check out that beautiful green color. You just know that is healthy.
The energy bars were really tasty too. The website I got them from had them listed under desserts. I don't know about you but I definitely don't eat energy bars for dessert. My blender really struggled with these. It kept overheating and turning off so I finally took them out and they were a little chunky but still so good. They tasted like raisinettes, which I don't remember liking but oh well.
Dinner Friday: Macaroni with Cheese Sauce
I didn't get a picture of this because we were in a super hurry and we ate it out of tupperware in the car haha. It was really good though. Mike said he liked it better than Kraft. I love Kraft too much to say that haha. But it is definitely healthier than Kraft. And almost just as easy! You make the cheese sauce in the blender and blend it up nice and hot and then pour it over the noodles and bake it.
Breakfast Saturday: Whole Wheat Blender Waffles
Now these are GOOD. Be careful not to blend at too high for too long or the batter will start heating up. I read that this is not good for the wheat which I don't really understand since you cook it anyways but it makes sense that you don't really want it getting cooked in the Vitamix.
I also made some apple cinnamon syrup but it wasn't very good. It tasted like applesauce. I mean, it was good and all but I just really like butter and sugary syrup on my waffles is that such a crime?
I also made the Spinach Lemon Zinger smoothie and it was really, really good. I made this more than once during the week too. I think...
For dinner on Saturday and Sunday we were invited to other people's houses so I didn't make anything in the vitamix.
Breakfast Sunday: Apple Raisin Cracked Wheat Cereal
I didn't get a picture of this either but let's just say that this was also a bust. All I did in the Vitamix was grind up the wheat. Instead of being all creamy like it should be it was lumpy and flavorless. My very kind husband ate his whole bowl and I didn't touch mine. After he left for his church meetings I made a Banana Blueberry Orange smoothie. MUCH better :)
Breakfast Monday: I think I made one of the smoothies that I already made earlier on.
Dinner Monday: Pasta with Chipotle Pepper Cream Sauce
Whoops, I guess I did a bad job at taking pictures of the meals I made. This meal was pretty good. It called for half a pepper and I got lazy and threw in a whole one because they were pretty small and I didn't want to bother myself with cutting one in half (it's supposed to be easy!). That made the pasta preeeeettty spicy. But it was still good. Not sure I'll make it again though. It wasn't out-of-this-world delicious.
I had a few more dinners planned but I didn't get to make any of them. But we did make green smoothies for breakfast the rest of the week. And I also snacked on the energy bars every morning that week. Mike even made some, although his experimental ones need some work still.
So that was our week! I would definitely do this again without the dinners. I would totally love having green smoothies for breakfast every morning and I would even like to start drinking them at night too before dinner! They are pretty fast if you cut everything up all at once so you just have to throw it all in and blend it. Or you can even make them the night before and just grab one on your way out (am I the only one that eats breakfast on the go every morning?). It was just too hard to be creative in making different dinners in the Vitamix. There are only so many things you can do. If any of you have any favorite green smoothie recipes out there let me know!
Just one more thought on the versatility of the Vitamix, it can make soup but it can also make ice cream! This ice cream below doesn't have any dairy products in it which is why it is melting fast but it can make really thick ice cream.
Pictured below is Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
All it is is spinach, avocado, ice, agave, and chocolate chips! It tasted pretty good although I think I just didn't do a great job at making it.
If you are ever in Costco and they are doing a Vitamix show I highly recommend watching it and tasting the yummy things they make. They are expensive but SO worth it. Especially if you are into eating healthy!
