Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘WildSide Jar’

Broken Blendtec – Smoothie With Arugula

Posted by terrepruitt on September 21, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaThe other day I was using my Blendtec with the Wildside jar.  I had it on Ice Cream – Frozen Yogurt.  I usually press that button and let it blend a bit then stop it.  I don’t let it finish the entire cycle.  Then I pulse it for a little.  Then add more ingredients and let it blend.  Well, I pressed the button to make it stop then pressed pulse and it sounded odd.  I didn’t understand the sound, so I pulsed it a few more times.  As I think about it I realize what I was hearing.  I was hearing the motor whir, but not the items in the jar being blended.  When I opened the jar and started to scrape the sides, I was really confused as to why my spoon was not coming in contact with the blade.  Then I was REALLY confused when I saw a piece of metal near the side of the jar.  It took me a few seconds to realize that I was not feeling the blade at the bottom because the metal I was seeing was the blade.  The blade assembly broke.  I was so sad.  I was sad and I was concerned because I had not sent in the registration.  Ya know those cards just never seem to get in the mail.  I told my husband and he said it didn’t matter they could look it up.  I was not as confident.  I thought it was going to be a hassle.  Later on I realized that it really wasn’t the whole blender that was broken.  It was just the jar.  In my surprise and concern I was thinking “broken blender” not broken jar as was the actual case.  And I have another jar.  That is one reason why I got the blender it was a good deal because it came with two jars.  One regular and the Wildside.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaBecause I was putting it off thinking it would be a hassle I didn’t call Blendtec until a day later.  I got my headset on and got all prepared for a long wait and the hassle that it was going to be.  It was not.  The customer service person did ask that I return the jar because she thought the WAY it broke sounded unusual, but they shipped the new jar out to me the next day with a label for returning the broken one.  Cool and easy.  I was so relieved.

I haven’t actually been making green smoothies, but I do use the blender.  In our organic produce delivery this week we received lettuce.  We have lettuce . . . A LOT of lettuce so I thought to use the spinach I have in a smoothie.  Then I thought, “Oh, I should put some arugula in it.”  WOW!  What a treat.  It makes it fun.  I don’t know why but when I sip the smoothie I think, “How fun!”  So I give arugula smoothies two thumbs up.

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Arugula and Spinach Smoothie

8 ounces of water
1 small apple
1/4 (a little more than) a small avocado
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup arugula
3/4 of a frozen banana
7 ice moons

Blend according to your blenders instructions.

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I list the ingredients in the order that my blender instructs items to be put in the jar.

It was really good.  I really like arugula as you might know.

Ahhhh.  So . . . . I am very happy with the wonderful customer service I received from Blendtec and I am very happy with the arugula in the green smoothie.

So have you tried it?  Have you put arugula in a green smoothie?

Posted in "Recipes", Food, Smoothies | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Creamy Dreamy Cold Fruit Dessert

Posted by terrepruitt on May 14, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaOh my!!! Easy-peasy, just takes forethought of freezing the bananas!

The recipe is from the Blendtec website – I am not sure it is in my recipe book because I think the Twister Jar is new!

Appliances:  Blendtec blender and Twister Jar

INGREDIENTS
2 bananas , peeled, quartered and frozen

INSTRUCTIONS
Peel and quarter bananas; freeze until solid. Add frozen, quartered banana pieces to Twister jar, and place lid on jar. Hold lid firmly with one hand, and with the other hand press “Pulse” 15–20 times or until smooth. Turn Twister lid counterclockwise during blending. Serve with fresh berries, drizzle with syrup, or sprinkle with granola for a little crunch.

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Well, I don’t have a twisted jar and for $200, I probably won’t until I am rolling in the dough.  But I did look at a video of someone making “ice cream” with just fruit (bananas and strawberries) . . . . so somewhat the same thing as this, but with strawberries . . . and the twister jar is cool.  I makes the fruit very creamy AND I think it does it without heating it up too much.

I just made this recently and it was a little melty.  I think that might be because the blender does get a little warm.  That is why it can make hot soup.

Anyway . . . . I made it with two frozen bananas and a little splash of milk in my Wildside Jar.  I just let the blender blend on 1 until it was only blending “smooth”, then I stopped it and pushed the bananas close to the blade, then blended until it was only blending “smooth”, etc.  I probably did it about four times.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI was thinking if I didn’t want the bananas to be melty I could put them back in the freezer for a bit.

I had my bananas with almond slivers and chocolate port wine sauce.  My hubby skipped the almonds.

We don’t usually have dessert so when I told him after dinner we were having dessert he said, “No thanks.”  I knew he would say that because I told him RIGHT after dinner.  So we were full from dinner.  But I also knew that by the time I made it he would want some AND he would be interested because it was frozen fruit.  He is not much of a dessert eater and does not like cake and things like that so I know that won’t interest him, but he really likes bananas.  Also he is very supportive of my experiments with the blender so he was more than willing to try it.   I waited a couple of hours before making it.  He was happy and a bit surprised that it was JUST bananas (oh, the little bit of milk — I bet it was only about two tablespoons.  Next time I will measure.)

Of course, as I mentioned about the video I saw with the twister jar in it, they used strawberries.  I imagine you can use any berry you want.  You could probably use any fruit you want.  I am not a berry person or a sherbet person, so I will stick to bananas.  Awww, well, I guess, I should try some other fruit because my hubby likes it.  Yeah, I’ll do that . . . eventually.

The next time I make this though I am going to use three bananas!  And I will measure the milk and report back.

So what do you think about fruit ice “cream”?  Could you see yourself enjoying a dish?  What would you put in yours?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

My Reasons For Getting A Blendtec

Posted by terrepruitt on October 20, 2012

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaPeople ask me about my blender.  Just this week we were talking about super blenders after our Nia class.  A lot of people are interested in making green smoothies.  I was never interested in them because they sound so gross and the ones I had seen looked gross.  I also really like to EAT my fruits and veggies and felt I was eating enough, but I realized I could use more in my diet.  Eating more is sometimes difficult and that is why people have been making and drinking smoothies for so long.  It is a great way to get some additional vegetables in your diet.  I chose the Blendtec for a few reasons.  I started looking at it because it was on sale at Costco.  From there I started looking at prices on the internet.  I found that I could get a Blendtec for less than a Vitamix.  That was a big selling point to me, but not the only one.  I did more research.  The decision will just come down to what you prefer.  In addition to the Blendtec being less expensive I feel the one I got at Costco was a great deal.  At Costco they sell the blender and two containers/jars for less than the price I’ve seen elsewhere for the blend with just one container/jar .

To save you time, nutshell list:

–two jars; WildSide and FourSide
–easy to clean “buttons”
–it fits under most cabinets (Company claim)
–no tamping
–preset buttons/controls
–variable speed buttons/controls
–pulse button/control
–3 HP

If you are looking at buying one of these super blenders you might notice that not only are the blenders different but the containers they sell are different.  They have tall ones, short ones, round ones, square ones . . . all types.  With the Blendtec you can buy the blender with what they call the FourSide Jar or the blender with the WildSide Jar.  Now I didn’t know the difference and I didn’t know if I would want both jars, but when I saw that the jar alone was $100 and that Costco was selling the blender with BOTH containers for less than what I was seeing it cost for the blender with one container, I thought that was a good deal.  (I am now seeing the same deal on Amazon so if you don’t belong to Costco you can get the same deal on Amazon.)

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaNow the bummer to me was that this one was only sold in black.  All of my appliances are white and I would have loved to have a white one, but I wasn’t planning on leaving it on my counter anyway so I didn’t want to spend the extra money for white.

The features on the Blendtec that sold me were the “buttons”.  I am an old school girl so I like to be able to control things and I think knobs are better than those electronic squishy “buttons”.  With the knob on the Vitamix I was assuming I could get better control over the speed of the blender.  But then I realized, I don’t need more control.  What I need is not to have a knob that I have to clean under, on, and around.  The Blendtec has been amazing in how easy it is to clean.  I always seem to drip green smoothie all down the front so every time I do I am thankful I don’t have knobs and “real” buttons to clean all around.

The Blendtec is shorter than the Vitamix and will fit under most cabinets.  Even though I was not planning on leaving mine out on the counter, being a shorter blender means it would fit IN the cabinet better.  Being a shorter blender also means it is easier to use because you can add things easier, as in you don’t have to get the step stool to reach the top of the container!  🙂

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThe real thing that sold me is the information I read which said you don’t need a tamper with the WildSide Jar.  Now, I am not certain, but I think the Blendtec containers don’t need tamping because the lids are vented so I think the air gets in there and that does the job of tamping.  I liked the idea of just turning the blender on and letting it do its thing.

That is another thing, in addition to not tamping, the Blendtec has push-and-go buttons.  You just push the button for what you want and it does it itself.  I decided I didn’t need the control of doing it myself and if I do, the Blendtec has variable speed buttons and a pulse.  So I can turn on the blender to whatever speed I want or pulse it.  So I still have the control if I want.

Also the Blendtec has more horsepower than the Vitamix, that might be another reason a tamper is not required.

Please keep in mind I am comparing base models.  There are a lot of different models that are high-end and professional, but I was just looking at the two comparable models and these are the things that “sold” me on the Blendtec.

I would love to learn more about the Vitamix  if you have one and you would like to share?  Any of you out there wanting to get a super blender?  Do any of these things sound like features you’d like?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Blender Banana Bread

Posted by terrepruitt on October 4, 2012

I don’t like to waste my bananas.  My husband won’t eat them if they have one little tiny spot of brown.  And I don’t usually eat that many bananas.  So you might have learned from some of my posts that I usually use the over ripe bananas in banana bread or Banana Oatmeal Walnut Cookies.  Both of these items are not low calorie nor low fat, they are just a way for me to use up my bananas and put a treat in my hubby’s lunch.  I have a great recipe I found on the internet for banana bread.  I think it was called the World’s Best Banana Bread and I actually think it is.  I have issues cooking it though, it never seems cooked all the way through, but that could because it is hand mixed and the bananas kind of chunk up in the batter.  Well, since I got a fancy new blender I have been trying to find things to use it for.  In the recipe book there is a recipe for banana bread so I thought I would give it a try.  Even though the ingredients get mixed in the blender the recipe calls for the bananas to be mashed.  Before I stared I grabbed my camera fully intending on taking pictures along the way.  The next thing I knew I was putting the pan in the oven.  DRAT!  I forgot to take pictures as I was making it. But I took some of the finished product.  Can you see how smooth it is?  Blender bread is really like “commercially made” bread.

I liked the taste ok.  It was actually good.  I think the vanilla yogurt added the extra sweet, yumminess.  Since it has no butter it has to be less calories and grams of fat then my other recipe.  And it really was good, but it was so . . . “commercial”.  It was like a loaf of bread from the store.  There was no texture, no chunks, no . . . personality.

In addition to using my blender the other reason I wanted to try this recipe is because it called for two bananas and that is what I had.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI can’t find the recipe on the Blendtec website and, of course, I did some modifying anyway, so here is what I did:

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Blender Banana Bread

Using the WildSide Jar

2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1/2 C low-fat vanilla yogurt
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 C wheat flour
3/4 C white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Add first six ingredients to the container and secure lid.  Select “Batters.”  After that has blended, add the remaining four ingredients to the container and secure the lid.  Press “Pulse” 3-5 times until dry ingredients are incorporated.  (Do not over blend.)  Pour batter into greased 9″X5″ loan pan.  Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

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I guess the WildSide Jar and the FourSide Jar for this blender are very different because there are additional/different instructions if you are using the FourSide Jar.

Well, I know that I have been posting a lot about my blender, but . . . I am trying to get a fraction of the money’s worth out of it!  I will not turn this blog into a blender blog, I will post about Nia, exercises, other health stuff, and even Zumba, but I am getting some post out of my first uses of the blender.

Do you like your banana bread smooth?  Or do you like it more rustic and chunky?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »