While I was sick this past winter my diet was very limited (basically bananas were the only food that didn't make my symptoms worse, and I was getting so bored with them I didn't think I would eat another once I got better--no worries, I'm loving them again) but I found that blending fruit and even some greens in a blender with some added protein and other goodies was tolerable. Our cool, shiny red, retro blender wasn't faring so well with all the heavy use so Scott bought me the top-of-the-line, work-horse, jet engine, blending machine:
If I ever burn this one out, I feel there will be trouble from the bill-payer! On the upside we've used it almost everyday for smoothies mostly, but also soups, and pudding, and I haven't even tried any of the recipes that came with it yet. Just because it readily does its job at blending doesn't mean I always do a good job of choosing ingredients. The honeydew-cucumber-mint soup was more than a little weird. The melon wasn't ripe and I added too much honey to compensate. There was a weird after taste and it separated into a foamy top and watery base. It was a flop, although I would try it again if I found a recipe to follow instead of my own (occasionally misguided) creativity. The gazpacho, however, was very good. Maybe a little too good the first time around. We figure the first batch was way to heavy on the sherry. The last batch was too heavy on the onion. The middle batch was too close to the other batches. My poor family got sick of gazpacho and summer is just beginning! Scott won't let me make it for awhile. (I'm itching for more.)
Scott's wrapping job left something to be desired. It was more of a blob than a roll.
My wrapping skills were much better, beginners luck I guess. Note the bandaids though. The mandolin was not kind to my fingers. Scott was trying to give Pav a bath while I sliced up all the veggies, but kept having to bring me the first aid kit. And, after the first bandage was in place, he pretty much had to wrap the rest of my fingers one by one as I sliced the non-important bits of them off. Lesson learned: the mandolin is not a time-saver since I slice more slowly and clumsily with each cut finger, thus making the next cut more likely. And bloody food just isn't very appetizing!
If I ever burn this one out, I feel there will be trouble from the bill-payer! On the upside we've used it almost everyday for smoothies mostly, but also soups, and pudding, and I haven't even tried any of the recipes that came with it yet. Just because it readily does its job at blending doesn't mean I always do a good job of choosing ingredients. The honeydew-cucumber-mint soup was more than a little weird. The melon wasn't ripe and I added too much honey to compensate. There was a weird after taste and it separated into a foamy top and watery base. It was a flop, although I would try it again if I found a recipe to follow instead of my own (occasionally misguided) creativity. The gazpacho, however, was very good. Maybe a little too good the first time around. We figure the first batch was way to heavy on the sherry. The last batch was too heavy on the onion. The middle batch was too close to the other batches. My poor family got sick of gazpacho and summer is just beginning! Scott won't let me make it for awhile. (I'm itching for more.)The same week I found the most amazing leeks at Whole Foods. I tend to feel jipped paying by weight for leeks knowing the top 2/3 will go to waste, but I only had to buy one leek to make a whole batch of potato leek soup. There was over a foot of useable, beautiful, organic leek with just an inch or so of green at the top. This soup was Pav's favorite by far. Try as I might, she is very resistant to raw soups. She'll eat some very complex smoothies, with ingredients like spirulina, kale, chard, goji berries, etc. in varying shades of green to brown with sometimes questionable textures and off flavors (always so healthy it is worth the weirdness, of course), but is completely convinced that the raw veggie soup I gave her for lunch the afternoon she came down with stomach flu is to blame for her vomiting over the next two days. The soup really wasn't that bad!
After seeing a friend's blog entry about making spring rolls with her kids I decided it looked like fun and we had most of the ingredients, so continuing with my adventuresome spirit I got the rest and we improved our way through making them.
Scott's wrapping job left something to be desired. It was more of a blob than a roll.
My wrapping skills were much better, beginners luck I guess. Note the bandaids though. The mandolin was not kind to my fingers. Scott was trying to give Pav a bath while I sliced up all the veggies, but kept having to bring me the first aid kit. And, after the first bandage was in place, he pretty much had to wrap the rest of my fingers one by one as I sliced the non-important bits of them off. Lesson learned: the mandolin is not a time-saver since I slice more slowly and clumsily with each cut finger, thus making the next cut more likely. And bloody food just isn't very appetizing!So the jury is not in yet about the raw food movement. I haven't really researched it at all, just going by how I feel now that we are trying more raw foods. Things to weigh: raw saves cooking time, but prep time is about the same. It saves energy, and is thus greener, but is certainly very expensive and will be unless it becomes mainstream. A raw diet is chock full of fruits and veggies, which we all can eat more of, but in certain climates at certain times of the year could be a hassle, assuming one tries to eat locally, which is another issue entirely, very complex, don't want to get into that too. Wow, eating is complicated these days!
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