Vitamix Review

I recently bought a Vitamix.  I have been wanting one for quite sometime.  I first really heard about these magic machines while living in Germany.  One of our friends even spent the 800 Euros or so to get a 220v Vitamix.  He's an older, retired teacher who moves around quite a bit but really enjoys life in Europe.  He is in really good health and I think a lot of it has to do with all the raw fruits and vegetables he consumes.  

A Vitamix is a professional blender.  I was hoping to get a Vitamix for Christmas.  However, life changed when I went with my dad to Costco one afternoon and they had a Vitamix demonstration.  We tried about four different things.  I called my husband and he said to go ahead and buy one.  Thank you Husband!!  To my surprise my dad also bought one!  My parents have enjoyed theirs as much as we have ours.  Blue Rock is also enjoying morning and evening smoothies as well as homemade ice cream.

I will say that my first Vitamix broke within 5 days.  The start button stopped working.  Rather than sending it in to replace we returned it to Costco.  My new one has worked perfectly and hopefully it will continue to work great.  Thankfully they have a 7-year warranty.

Vitamix's are expensive.  We paid $499.99, for the Vitamix 6300, which is basically the Vitamix 500.  

My review of the Vitamix 6300:
- Easy to use
- Has three pre-programmed settings to make it easy to "walk away" when blending
- Blends everything perfectly
- Chops and dices
- Makes ice cream and soups quick and easily
- Makes perfect smoothies
- Easy to clean

One of the main reasons I have wanted a professional grade blender is because of the health benefits.  My family has been trying to avoid processed foods as much as possible.  However, getting enough fruits and vegetables everyday is challenging.  In Germany I had a blender and a juicer.  When you juice, you lose a lot of vitamins and minerals.  With the Vitamix I can blend many foods whole.  I have started a new blog where I'm posting all my blender recipes.  Join me as I blog about my blender adventures!  Please join me at: http://everydayblender.blogspot.com/.  Happy blending!

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 7

Dinner - Rotini Alfredo with peas

We have completed Day 7!  For the first time in my life I have kept a food diary and have kept track of eating five colors of food a day for one week. I am pleased to announce that we did it! It takes some planning but I tried to keep the meals simple and allowed room for us to eat out occasionally.

Today was easy.  As you can see below we ate all of our colors by lunch time. When you can combine fruits and vegetables it makes things easier. If you read all of my posts you will notice that everyday we ate dried cranberries. At the moment, that is one of my son's favorite foods. That and almond milk. I hope I gave you a few suggestions for eating different fruits and vegetables in your daily diet.  

A really great book about eating five fruits and vegetables is called Gimme Five! by Nicola Graimes. I bought it at a bookstore in Ireland (it's British) and am not sure where you can buy one in Germany or the States. The book gives a lot of information on the nutritional needs of children, the nutrients found in the different fruits and vegetables, and has some great recipes. An example of something I didn't know - children need 3 fruits and 2 vegetables per day, while adults should eat 2 fruits and 3 vegetables. If you are unable to find Gimme Five! then you could try Five-a-Day Fruit and Vegetables Cookbook by Kate Whiteman or another book like it.

Day 7

Breakfast: cereal and blueberry, strawberry, and banana almond milk smoothie

Lunch: carrot sticks, chopped cucumbers, and cheese pizza 

Snack: goldfish crackers, dried cranberries, and yogurt

Dinner: Pasta with homemade Alfredo sauce, green peas, and baked cheese sticks

Blue/Purple: blueberries
Green: cucumbers, green peas
Red: cranberries, strawberries
Yellow: bananas
Orange: carrots

Read more:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 
Day 5 
Day 6

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 6

Lunch - salad with fish sticks

Today turned out good on our food challenge.  We ate lunch out again today. This time we went to one of our favorite places in our small town, a guest house. I ordered a salad. Salads are very popular in this part of Germany and usually include some kind of legumes or meat. While my husband did not order a salad for lunch, he did eat a few bites of mine giving him a small dose of the raw nutrients. My son tried a few bites of my food but only wanted fish sticks and some of his dad's fries. You can't win everyday.

Day 6

Breakfast: cereal and bananas

Snack: strawberry fruit stick

Lunch: Guest Haus Restaurant in town - salad with fish sticks

Snack: cheese, purple and green grapes, dried cranberries, cheerios

Dinner: 7 Bean soup - with split peas, purple, red, black, white beans, and tomatoes, homemade whole wheat corn bread, and rice

Blue/Purple: purple and black beans, purple grapes
Green: split peas, lettuce, cucumbers, green grapes,
Red: cranberries, tomatoes, strawberries, radishes
Yellow: bananas, white beans, corn
Orange: carrots

Read more:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 
Day 5

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 5

Beans and Rice

Just two days left and we will have eaten at least 1 of the 5 main colors of fruits and vegetables a day for a week.  Here is what we ate today.

Day 5

Breakfast: sweet potato pancakes, kiwi, and yogurt

Snack: crackers, cheese, cranberries, and dried strawberry fruit stick (all natural)

Lunch: Burger King (not my favorite but we were running errands) - chicken nuggets, cheeseburger, and french fries (they were out of the apple slices)

Snack: banana and rice pudding

Dinner: 7 Bean soup - with split peas, purple, red, black, white beans, and tomatoes, homemade whole wheat corn bread, and rice

Blue/Purple: purple and black beans
Green: kiwi, split peas
Red: cranberries, tomatoes, strawberries
Yellow: bananas, white beans, corn
Orange: sweet potato in the pancakes


Read more:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 4

Dinner - Eggplant Parmesan

We are more than half-way done with this week's challenge of eating 5 colors of fruits and vegetables a day.  With just three more days to go, I think we will follow through with this challenge.

Tip for fussy eaters: A friend recently asked me how I get my son to eat such a variety of fruits and vegetables.  Simple, I ask him to eat one bite of this and then he can have what ever it is I know he likes.  After he eats something a few times he usually eats it no problem.  However, there are days that he's not interested in eating certain foods but I always ask him to eat at least one or two bites of everything we're having for dinner.  Up until about 4 or 5 months, he would spit out food he didn't like. Now he willingly will eat new foods even if he doesn't like it. I am never pushy nor do I force him to eat something.  I simply ask him or tell him he can have ___ if he eats a bite of ___ first.  If he down right refuses, I let it go and try again another day. 

Here is what we ate today.

Day 4

Breakfast: whole wheat pancakes and blueberries

Snack: peanut butter crackers

Lunch: broccoli macaroni and cheese

Snack: green and purple grapes, cranberries, banana, cheese, and Cheerios

Dinner: Eggplant Parmesan, tomato sauce, carrot sticks, and fresh garlic bread

Blue/Purple: blueberries, purple grapes, eggplant
Green: broccoli, green grapes
Red: cranberries, tomatoes
Yellow: bananas
Orange: carrots

Read more:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 3

Fun smiley face for my son - kids love silly faces

We have completed day 3 of our 5 colors a day fruit and vegetable challenge.  We seem to be eating a lot of green foods lately.  I think that is okay since we're rounding it off with a lot of other colors.

Occasionally, I make my food presentations fun. Today I made a smiley face for my son.  I gave him his whole wheat crackers and 2 corn tortilla chips on the side after he ate his vegetables. 

Day 2

Breakfast: Whole wheat pancakes, sliced pears

Lunch: Nachos with tomatoes and avocados

Snack: blueberries, green grapes, oranges, cheese, and graham crackers

Dinner: Sausage, veggie sausage (for me), broccoli mac and cheese, and banana pudding

Nachos for the rest of us

Blue/Purple: blueberries
Green: avocado, green grapes, broccoli, green pear
Red: tomatoes
Yellow: banana
Orange: oranges

Read more:

Day 1
Day 2

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 2

My son enjoying his snack

Day 2 was successful!  We ate out for lunch so I ordered spinach ravioli that I shared with my 2 year old.  It was an easy way to get spinach in our diet. We had tacos for dinner.  If you are eating meatless, stuff the tacos with beans and rice instead of the meat and top with any additional items.

Day 2

Breakfast: French toast, sliced apples

Snack: Green and purple grapes, sliced cheese, crackers

Lunch: Spinach ravioli with alfredo sauce, carrots, tomatoes

Snack: dried cranberries, graham crackers

Dinner: Avocado, Tacos with beef, rice, beans, and corn

Blue/Purple: purple grapes
Green: spinach, avocado, green grapes
Red: red apple, tomatoes, cranberries
Yellow: corn
Orange: carrots

5 Colors a Day for 1 Week - Day 1

Bison, corn, and carrot mashed potatoes

Eating healthy is a priority to me (although rarely will I turn down a good dessert). When my son was first starting to eat solids I tried to offer him five different colors of fruits and vegetables a day.  The past few months I have not been doing as good of a job as I had in the past. So now I'm back for a challenge.  I am going to document the different color fruits and vegetables we eat for a week.  Since I am a flexitarian and don't eat a lot of meat, some of my dishes will be meatless while other dishes will have meat in which I may or may not eat.  By starting in the middle of the week, I will hopefully stick with this as the weekend is usually the hardest since we eat out more.  I have never kept a food journal before so this will help me keep track of the different foods so I make sure we get a variety of each color. I hope to give you a few ideas as well.

Day 1

Breakfast: Cheerios, dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries, and prunes

Lunch: Blueberry/banana almond milk shake, peas, tomatoes, pizza, and crackers (my son ate some sliced turkey and yogurt as well)

Dinner: Bison, carrot mashed potatoes, and corn

Blue/Purple: blueberries, prunes
Green: peas
Red: tomatoes, cherries, cranberries
Yellow: bananas, corn
Orange: carrots