Whoops, the green smoothie also has carrots. I knew I forgot something.
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Yeah something is wrong with that. Our Blendtec would turn an apple into sauce in a matter of seconds. I usually quarter the apple though and remove the seeds.
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Made almond milk last night. I take about 2 cups of raw almonds, soak them in salted water for several hours. Drain the water, put almonds in vitamix with about enough cold water and ice to double the volume in Vitamix. Added about 4-5 pitted dates for sweetness, a dash of cinnamon and vanilla extract. Add two cardamom pods. Blend on high until smooth, add water as needed.

It's best to add some ice in this as it'll get a little hot from spinning and you don't want the almonds to heat up at all.

Use some of the almond milk with water for quick snack. Really tasty!

*** Best to keep all raw nuts in freeze until you want to use them. They can be eaten right out of the freezer. Protects them from getting rancid. ***
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Looks like ours gets here tomorrow.
I can already see a huge grocery bill tomorrow, followed by lots of noise in my kitchen, followed by more smoothies and soups than I can taste in one day and tell her how good they are, even if they aren't.:-)
Can't wait.:-)
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Costco and frozen fruit!
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I should have seen this coming like a speeding locomotive.
Thought she would make me smoothies.
Turns out I made the mistake of helping her make one and now tells me I make them so good that I should make them for her.
And I thought I was the brains in this relationship.
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I'd assume make them myself and have it the way I want. Elys and I differ on what is an ideal smoothie. The frozen raw turmeric rocks in the smoothie; really adds some zip to the fruit with unquestioned health benefits of raw turmeric.
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Made one today that reminded me of an orange cream sickle from my youth.

Took plain Greek yogurt, added vanilla extract, frozen bananas, fresh squeezed orange juice and all I can say is I thought I was drinking an orange cream sickle Ina smoothie form.

Going to pick up some kale and spinach to make some green ones.
I have been freezing fruit and plan on buying already frozen in the future. Does anyone know if I can also freeze kale and spinach or that has to be fresh?
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I'd think you could freeze the kale or spinach and it would be just fine. You're going to purée the heck out if it, so I don't see why you couldn't use frozen.
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Went to the sort of "green" side today for the first time. Green only in the sense of using spinach and kale as the blueberries impacted the final color.

Used fresh baby spinach and kale and added almonds, flax seeds, ginger root, low fat yogurt and some fresh squeezed OJ.
Then threw in frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana and papaya.

What a great drink.
We will definitely be doing that one again.

BTW, ruined my first tamper.
Was a bit sideways from making frozen cocktails for friends and forgot to use lid.
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A few weeks ago, I decided I finally needed something better and with a larger pitcher than the 17 year old Osterizer that I have, but, in my mind, I couldn't see paying $350-700 for a Vitamix. So, I picked up the Kitchen Aid Diamond w/ 60 oz pitcher at costco for $120 and decided to give it a try.

End result is that I now own a Vitamix 5200.
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:-)

Congrats!!!
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Yup... I told my friend to take off his skirt and just buy the Vitamix and shut up... He did so and is loving it. He has the short squat pitcher style. To me, I noticed a difference in how it makes a smoothie over the higher pitcher, but the Vitamix salesperson was not so quick to say they are different.

In the taller pitcher, I feel like it creates more vortex when spinning.
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Wife just bought me the Ninja Mega and I'm loving it.
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I just bought my wife a Ninja Ultima for Xmas, 2.5hp in a blender for half the price of the others out there... pure awesome.
Great reviews everywhere I looked. While not as nice as the Vitamix, it is said to keep up in performance aspects. Haven't used it yet though so who knows. I do know that my Osterizer was garbage at making fraps and smoothies.
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Guys,
Nothing wrong with the Ninja for the nitch it fills.
My son owns one and loves it.
However, he would love a Vitamix more,

While it appears the same, they are not.
The Vitamix is built solid as compared to the Ninja.
The Ninja clearly has less quality plastic parts.
The Ninja will not blend as smooth as the Vitamix.
The Ninja will not cook soup as the Vitamix will.
The container on the Vitamix is glass.
The lid on the Vitamix is better made and easier to use.

Again, not knocking it all. I frankly wanted a Ninja and save the extra money but in the end, wasn't worth hearing wife ***** (other word for complain) forever after. I really think the Ninja serves a great purpose but I assure you, the cost difference is for a very apparent reason.
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I do wish the Ninja was all glass. For my budget and the wifes needs, the Ninja Ultima was the better fit. Not saying the Ninja is better, it is not.
Time will tell if I made the right choice, hoping I don't have to upgrade.

Reviews (Such as THIS one) made up my mind.
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The $150 KitchenAid Diamond I had bought also had great reviews.

While I didn't initially buy it to use it like a Vitamix, I ended up using it like one. Once I did, I found myself underwhelmed with it, so I returned it a week later and bought a 5200 instead ($379+tax at Costco).

I know, $350-700 for a blender seems nuts, but I couldn't be happier with the 5200. It's breezing through everything I've thrown at, or more correctly, in, it. The first time I ran it, my comment was "Holy shitballs! This thing is fast." It was done in 60 seconds with what would normally take 3-4 minutes in the KitchenAid.

After a few weeks of use, I can say that I have no remorse about the $400 I spent on this.
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General reviews would have not meant much to me but the review I linked tested it against the Vitamix. For very very light use with an occasional smoothie the Vitamix is clearly overkill for somebody such as myself. Do I wish I had one? Yes. Do I need one? I hope not... Maybe I will be back in here in six months raving about my new Vitamix.:-)
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I wasn't talking about general reviews, IIRC, it was consumer reports, which is at the very least equal to Cnet, who rated the KA higher than the vitamix.

"or very very light use with an occasional smoothie the Vitamix is clearly overkill for somebody such as myself." Funny, that's almost exactly what I thought too when I bought the KA. Then I decided to test it out and see how well it did. I found that one - it didn't, two - that I actually could (did) use the appliance more than I had imagined I would.
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