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Juicing: Comparing Blenders to Extractors

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  After watching the online documentary movie “Hungry For Change“, we decided to start juicing. We figured juicing would be an easy and convenient way to add more nutrition to our family’s diet. Originally we started juicing by using an extractor juicer. Later we went over to a high performance Blendtec blender instead of the extractor juicer, and have found this to be a much better fit for our family. In my previous post, Making Whole Juice: Vegetables, Fruits, Berries, Recipes, I showed how to use a powerful blender to make whole juices or smoothies from fruits, veggies, berries, and more, and how you can easily come up with your own recipes, or make the drinks different every time by using whatever you have on hand. We tried two different models of juicers: Breville and Hamilton Beach. In my post Juicers: Comparing Breville to Hamilton Beach , I write about our experience with these two juicers. And in my post Which is Better; Blendtec or Vitamix? Why We Chose Blendtec ,” I compare the two popular and powerful blenders Blendtec, and Vitamix. In this post, I will compare our experiences with extractor juicers to our blender, and explain why we prefer our Blendtec blender over extractors. On the bottom of this post, you will also find the results of an experiment I did to compare the machines side by side, making juice of carrots and apples. Here’s my Blendtec, an […] Read more »

Making Whole Juice: Vegetables, Fruits, Berries. Recipes

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  Early this past summer my husband surprised me with a Blendtec blender. My first thought was “do we really need such a fancy blender”, but then he showed me what it could do. He had seen demonstrations at Costco, and after doing some research, he felt he had found the right one for our family. He demonstrated it for me here at home, and I was totally sold! I never knew just how easy it is to use a surprisingly large variety of produce to make juices full of nutrition and fiber. And you don’t have to have a fancy, powerful blender to do it, but it sure helps. Our cheap OLD one could never have handled all that this new one can do. Here’s a link to the Blendtec at Amazon that is the closest to the model we own, also the best price out there that I can find. There are lots of reviews as well, on different models. Vitamix blenders are very good as well, so here’s another link, to Vitamix on Amazon, for comparison. I’m sure there are many other brands out there that will also do a great job. The point is, this is easy to learn and will benefit your health greatly. You don’t have to follow a recipe, just get an idea of what to do, then get started with whatever you have on hand. Some related posts I recently wrote, with […] Read more »

Making Homemade Yogurt Using Cooler for Incubation; Recipe

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    Homemade, plain yogurt is easy enough to make. But how do you make sweetened vanilla yogurt without turning it into a runny mess? In this post, I will show you how to make thick and creamy, wonderful homemade vanilla yogurt using a cooler as an incubator, and of course I will share the recipe as well. If you do try this recipe, I would really appreciate a quick comment with a star rating (option found immediately under each recipe). It helps me out tremendously! Thanks in advance! Is yogurt good for you, I mean, really? Yogurt is good and good for you, isn’t that what we’ve leaned? Looking at the ingredients list at the grocery store, one can begin to wonder if this is really true after all. What had me wonder was the high sugar content, “other” ingredients, and live cultures, or rather, the lack thereof. As I’ve read about it and looked more closely at ingredients lists, I have found that store bought yogurt often contains loads of sugar, artificial colors and flavorings, and not all of them contain live cultures. Sure, the culture is alive when it first starts out, but not necessarily by the time the yogurt ends up at the store. According to an article by Dr. Weil, MD, yogurt is sometimes heat treated after the fact to increase shelf life, which kills the precious living bacteria that we need. “Made with” doesn’t mean […] Read more »