Vita-Mix

When I was asked if I wanted to review Vita-Mix, I thought it was a health drink. Honestly. I had never heard of the Vita-Mix before, so I visited the website and did some additional research online, and found out that the Vita-Mix is a versatile appliance that owners rave about and say they couldn’t do without. Of course, with such great comments I wanted to see for myself just how great the Vita-Mix really is.

I was fortunate to receive the Vita-Mix 5200 (ARV $565; other models include the Vita-Mix Super 5200 and the Vita-Mix 5200 Deluxe). According to the Vita-Mix website, “No other kitchen appliance can give you the performance, speed, power, durability, reliability—not to mention health-enhancing benefits—that you get with the Vita-Mix 5200. This extraordinary machine does the work of 10 kitchen appliances with no attachments! It takes on over 50 'food feats,' including four unique processes that no other single kitchen appliance can handle. The Vita-Mix 5200 makes juice from whole foods in a minute, cooks soup from scratch without a stove, makes delicious, healthy ice-cream in 30 seconds and even grinds grain and kneads the dough for you in one five-minute operation. And that’s just for starters.”

When I received my Vita-Mix one of the first things I did was watch the accompanying DVD. It featured segments on how to perform a variety of tasks with your Vita-Mix, but what really impressed me was the segment on the soups. By keeping the Vita-Mix on for a few minutes, enough heat is generated so you can simply pour out the soup and it’s ready to eat. It was amazing to see all the steam coming out of the Vita-Mix on the video.

What’s special about Vita-Mix is that they promote good health and nutrition. As I went through the recipes that came with the Vita-Mix 5200, I noticed that they encourage using healthier ingredients (i.e. low fat cheeses, whole wheat flour, skim milk, etc.), and nutrition information is listed with each recipe.

After watching the DVD and going through the Vita-Mix recipe book, I couldn’t wait to try out my Vita-Mix, and here are just a few favorites out of the many things I made:

Strawberry Ice Cream: It turned out to be soft-serve consistency, and if you wanted to thicken it, you simply needed to add more ice and process until smooth. However, I love soft-serve ice cream so I thought it was perfect the way it was. I love how I could eat it immediately rather than waiting 20 minutes as I normally do with my ice cream maker. Best of all—there were no preservatives or artificial flavors.

Banana Muffins: I love making banana bread and banana muffins, but I don’t enjoy mashing bananas. The Vita-Mix did the mashing for me, and the end result was a smooth batter without random chunks of bananas.

Applesauce: DS1 loves applesauce. I had some organic apples and in just a few seconds-literally-I had some healthy,delicious organic applesauce.

I’ve also made spreads, dips, desserts, and of course smoothies.

There are so many more recipes I want to try--especially ones for soups and salsas. I’m even looking forward to making my own baby food from scratch once DS2 starts to eat solids!

Other great things I love about the Vita-Mix besides its versatility include how it comes with a BPA-free Eastman Tritan copolyester shatterproof container, they offer a 30-day in home trial and a 7-year warranty, and cleaning the Vita-Mix 5200 is a cinch. Just fill it with water and dish washing soap, turn it on for a minute, and it’s clean (however, when working with thicker substances, such as the banana muffin batter, I did have to do some hand-washing).

Shop: You can purchase the Vita-Mix 5200 online at vitamix.com, as well as other online and nationwide retailers.

Now I know why so many people love the Vita-Mix. Although it’s quite pricey, and I still have to get the hang of when to use Variable Speed and High Speed, the Vita-Mix can accomplish both simple and sophisticated tasks, performing the job of various appliances, saving you money and precious kitchen cabinet space. Best of all, Vita-Mix promotes health and good nutrition, so you can be sure I will be putting my Vita-Mix 5200 to good use to create more great drinks and meals.

Oh, and ice cream too!

Thank you to Vita-Mix for providing the product(s) for review and/or giveaway.

Posted in: reviews,Vita-Mix