I ordered my very first vitamix!!

[GoingtoRAW]

I don't have a vanilla ice cream recipe ... but I make this chocolate thing pretty regular

1/2 glass of almond milk (4-6 ounces)
2 frozen bananas (chunks)
1-2 Tbl of raw cacao

Put all in vitamix. Run until all blended -- a Very Short time.

Makes a chocolate soft serve .. if you run too long, it is more like a choco smoothie ... good either way.

We also make choco frappe's .. same ingredients, but double the almond milk. I also like mine with a handful of blueberries ... but hubby prefers his 'plain'. I've never thought of adding vanilla to this .. I'm going to give it a try to see how it goes.

hmmmmmm .... got me to thinking. It might be good with cinnamon, too.

Something that tastes like chocolate soft serve - I can live with that. Did you make your own almond milk? Is it as really as easy as just throwing raw almonds and water into the Vitamix?

Thanks.

[lodestar]

the soup recipe sounds very similar to mine...i do add about four inches of cucumber, some organic spices i bought at Costco, and after the soup is blended i chunk up one half avocado to float in the soup...i also add a veggie paste type bouillon maybe about 1 t. oh, and don't forget small slice of onion...if you like.

did i mention that there is 2 cups of water in the vitamix before you start adding all of your veggies.

i don't use any sweeteners or oil.

[DebB]

Oh - how exciting. New Toy New Toy
Here is a soup recipe that is divine from the vitamix. I make it almost every day. The recipe was posted on goneraw

Tomato Soup

In YOUR NEW VITA MIX!!!

1 large tomato cut in chunks
1 cup water
some olive oil (maybe 1/4 cup?)
Blend this up.

Add
1 stalk celery cut in chunks
1 carrot cut in chunks
one quarter or more of a red bell pepper
1 clove garlic with peel
4 fresh basil leaves
Fresh dill
1/2 jalapeno pepper (do in 1/4 and taste for your desired hot!)
1 heaping Tbl of honey (or agave, or dates)
several pinches of sea salt
cumin to taste
dash of cayenne pepper

If it is too thick for you, add some water.

Cut up some red bell pepper in small chunks. Add this to your soup. This added crunch is divine!

Hi Terry ~ I made your soup above for my dinner tonight and it was sooo-o good! Thanks so much for sharing youir recipe, I sure enjoyed it and will add it to my Favorites binder.

I sweetened it with dates. To the bowl, I added finely diced red pepper, 1 carrot and fresh cilantro. Wow - YUM! *Ü*

[levamssg]

Yes, GoingToRaw .. I do make my own almond milk. It is soooooo simple. I do a cup of almonds, soak (I usually do that overnight), drain, rinse. Put in vitamix with water. I use anywhere from 3-6 cups of water. Blend on smoothie (high) speed.

Pour through a mesh bag in a bowl, squeeze out, and presto - almond milk. I use small paint strainer mesh bags from Lowes. Only takes a couple of minutes to squeeze it out.

I either then dry the leftover pulp to use as almond flour in other recipes, or I take it in the shower the use it as a body scrub. Makes a heck of a mess, but is a great skin softener.

Note: Actually, now that I have the Hurom Slow Juicer, I can put the almonds and water through the juicer and get milk, all strained, in one step. How good is that???!!! Tis funny, I forget and put everything in the vitamix and halfway through I remember the juicer.

[levamssg]

Glad you like the soup DebB ... tis my favorite right now. Today I threw an entire sweet red pepper in it, so it was more like pepper veggie soup than tomato veggie soup ... still good.

I like your concoction of crunchies in the soup -- I'm going to try the cilantro. I have fresh stuff growing in the herb garden right now!

i do add about four inches of cucumber, some organic spices i bought at Costco, and after the soup is blended i chunk up one half avocado to float in the soup...i also add a veggie paste type bouillon maybe about 1 t. oh, and don't forget small slice of onion...if you like.

did i mention that there is 2 cups of water in the vitamix before you start adding all of your veggies.

i don't use any sweeteners or oil.

Your soup sounds great too Lodestar - I like the idea of adding avocado chunks. How do you make your veggie paste boullion?

[GoingtoRAW]

Hi all,

I made a smoothie today in my brand spankin' new Vitamix and when I added my grapes I decided to throw them in stems and all. I usually don't use the stems in my smoothies. Well, I was spitting out pieces of stem so I poured my smoothie back into the blender and blended a little longer...still I got pieces of stem. I followed the directions for blending...what could I be doing wrong? I don't mind taking the grapes off of the stems but I thought I was supposed to be able to use the whole fruit in my Vitamix and not have the same problems I had with other blenders. I was a little disappointed.

Help!

[GoingtoRAW]

I don't have a vanilla ice cream recipe ... but I make this chocolate thing pretty regular

1/2 glass of almond milk (4-6 ounces)
2 frozen bananas (chunks)
1-2 Tbl of raw cacao

Put all in vitamix. Run until all blended -- a Very Short time.

Makes a chocolate soft serve .. if you run too long, it is more like a choco smoothie ... good either way.

We also make choco frappe's .. same ingredients, but double the almond milk. I also like mine with a handful of blueberries ... but hubby prefers his 'plain'. I've never thought of adding vanilla to this .. I'm going to give it a try to see how it goes.

hmmmmmm .... got me to thinking. It might be good with cinnamon, too.

Levamssg, are the bananas used to make the recipe have an ice-cream texture? I made the vanilla ice-cream recipe that came with my Vitamix and it was delicious. I used rice milk instead of half and half called for in the recipe. I used non-fat, dry powered milk - I think about 1/8th of a cup. I didn't use the sugar called for in the recipe either. Instead I put in a few drops of raw agave. So next time I'll try the bananas instead of the dry powered milk. Live and learn. Anyway the ice-cream was delicious!

[levamssg]

GoingToRaw .. Yes, the bananas are the 'thickening' for the ice cream --- if you don't overprocess, the bananas make it very thick like soft serve. If you process longer, it turns like a frappe .. more processing -- like a cold milkshake.

So, by using the frozen bananas in place of the dry milk and see what you think.

[levamssg]

I added my grapes I decided to throw them in stems and all. I usually don't use the stems in my smoothies. Well, I was spitting out pieces of stem

Yeah I thought the vitamix could conquer anything! Thanks for the warning about grape stems. They can sure clog up a juicer, too. I know every now and then a little stem piece gets in my smoothie (the tiny part in the grape itself), and I haven't noticed it. I'll continue to be watchful tho. :)

[GoingtoRAW]

Levamssg, are the bananas used to make the recipe have an ice-cream texture? I made the vanilla ice-cream recipe that came with my Vitamix and it was delicious. I used rice milk instead of half and half called for in the recipe. I used non-fat, dry powered milk - I think about 1/8th of a cup. I didn't use the sugar called for in the recipe either. Instead I put in a few drops of raw agave. So next time I'll try the bananas instead of the dry powered milk. Live and learn. Anyway the ice-cream was delicious!

Thanks. I will use the frozen bananas next time. Now I need to figure out what to do with that entire box of non-fat dry milk that I bought. I guess my next question is can you taste the bananas? I know that when I make my smoothies I only use 1/2 of a frozen banana because when I use a whole one the banana flavor is really over-powering. I don't want to taste banana when I am eating vanilla ice-cream.

[GoingtoRAW]

Yeah I thought the vitamix could conquer anything! Thanks for the warning about grape stems. They can sure clog up a juicer, too. I know every now and then a little stem piece gets in my smoothie (the tiny part in the grape itself), and I haven't noticed it. I'll continue to be watchful tho. :)

I used grapes in my green smoothie today without the stems and it was great....

[levamssg]

yeah - you can taste the banana ... so the ice cream won't taste the same as with the dry milk. I wonder if ground cashews could take the place of the dry milk??? hmmmmm

[GoingtoRAW]

yeah - you can taste the banana ... so the ice cream won't taste the same as with the dry milk. I wonder if ground cashews could take the place of the dry milk??? hmmmmm

Ok I've got to figure this out. I don't mind tasting the banana if it's just a faint taste but if it's overwhelming I won't be happy. I love the taste of vanilla. I will try it though at least. Maybe I'll add more vanilla extract to help mask the banana taste.