Since We're Talking Appliances - How About Juicers/Blenders?

sivyaleah

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I'm in the market for a new blender/juicer.

My regular blender broke last year.  I replaced it with an inexpensive Cuisinart - just a basic blender.  I haven't even used it yet.

Looking forward, I'm going to be having dental implant surgery in June.  A soft diet is required for a long time, especially since it's a front tooth. Puleez! kill me now!  I'm fairly down in the dumps about it. Could it get any worse?

The past summer I signed up for a market box from our local farm, which was a great thing to do.  Got us eating healthier and more varied.  I just signed up again for this upcoming season but, I'm worried about how I'm going to incorporate much of it.  Corn on the cob? NOT happening!

I know the blender I bought won't do the trick so I'm debating about just sucking up the purchase of a Vitamex.  I found out you can get them refurbished direct from the company which shaves off a lot of money but they are still very, very expensive.  Plus, I'm not even sure a juicer is what I need or want.  I have no intention of becoming one of those pro-juice people; I enjoy them but it is not a replacement for food you chew.  For me it will be the best way to get a lot of nutrition into me easily which may be more difficult otherwise.

Does anyone use these?  Any recommendations?  Blender or juicer?  All tips welcome!
 

rubysmama

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Sorry, no tips, but I am also in the market for a new blender.  I have an old one that used to be my Mom's and sometimes it gets that overheated smell when I'm blending up a smoothie. 

I mostly use it for the occasional smoothie, so cannot justify paying $700 for a Vitamex (just saw them today when I was at the mall), but want something a bit better than a $20 one from Walmart.

So, I too, am interested in all tips and comments.
 

kittens mom

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Sorry, no tips, but I am also in the market for a new blender.  I have an old one that used to be my Mom's and sometimes it gets that overheated smell when I'm blending up a smoothie. 

I mostly use it for the occasional smoothie, so cannot justify paying $700 for a Vitamex (just saw them today when I was at the mall), but want something a bit better than a $20 one from Walmart.

So, I too, am interested in all tips and comments.
I just replaced my old original bullet with one of their 40 dollar versions. For anything bigger I have a hand held immersion blender.

I had a juicer years ago. I'm sure they have improved. The clean up alone made me hate the thing.
 

Willowy

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My mom got a Vitamix several years ago, she's a sucker for that kind of thing! She never uses it :lol3:. She says she'd use it if it had a clear container like the new ones, but the old ones had steel cups so you can't see what's going on in there. I'm not sure I believe that she'd use it more if she had a new one ;).

Anyway, it's not a juicer, but you can grind stuff up so fine that some people will blend, say, a whole orange, peel and all, and drink that. Personally, I'm not sure I'd be able to choke it down. Texture is a big thing for me. Otherwise, it just seems like a regular blender to me :dk:. I think Cook's Illustrated reviewed blenders and, while Vitamix got high marks, there's one that rated almost as high and costs half as much. I'll see if I can find that info. . .
 

losna

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I use an omega masticating juicer, and I love it. I love carrot juice, and when I ran the numbers I discovered that even buying the delux heavy duty juicer would pay for itself after 3 months if I juiced carrots myself rather than continued buying the juice itself. 

It spits the juice out in one carton, the dried fiber in another. Then I drink the juice and make honey carrot bread from the fiber. 

I use my juicer all the time, but never touch the blender.

Another thing you might consider is an ice cream maker with compression chamber. They're not as expensive as you'd expect - ours cost considerably less than the juicer - but you can make all sorts of frozen delights that definitely cut the edge off of a forced soft diet. The ones without compression chambers are considerably less expensive, but you have to deal with freezing the bowl/adding ice/etc.
 
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sivyaleah

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I just replaced my old original bullet with one of their 40 dollar versions. For anything bigger I have a hand held immersion blender.

I had a juicer years ago. I'm sure they have improved. The clean up alone made me hate the thing.
I have an immersion blender also. I hardly use it, although when I do it's fantastic.

I just don't think it will do the job I'm looking for - which includes crushing up veggies like beets 
 
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sivyaleah

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I use an omega masticating juicer, and I love it. I love carrot juice, and when I ran the numbers I discovered that even buying the delux heavy duty juicer would pay for itself after 3 months if I juiced carrots myself rather than continued buying the juice itself. 

It spits the juice out in one carton, the dried fiber in another. Then I drink the juice and make honey carrot bread from the fiber. 

I use my juicer all the time, but never touch the blender.

Another thing you might consider is an ice cream maker with compression chamber. They're not as expensive as you'd expect - ours cost considerably less than the juicer - but you can make all sorts of frozen delights that definitely cut the edge off of a forced soft diet. The ones without compression chambers are considerably less expensive, but you have to deal with freezing the bowl/adding ice/etc.
I have one of the Cuisinart ice cream makers - which I do use and enjoy.  Pretty simple too. You do have to freeze the bowl but I keep it in there all the time just in case the mood strikes!
 

kittens mom

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I have an immersion blender also. I hardly use it, although when I do it's fantastic.

I just don't think it will do the job I'm looking for - which includes crushing up veggies like beets 
Well that would be interesting to watch.
 

losna

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I have an immersion blender also. I hardly use it, although when I do it's fantastic.

I just don't think it will do the job I'm looking for - which includes crushing up veggies like beets 
Mine does carrots so I would assume it would do beets.

It also, absurdly, makes pasta. 
 

edit: My husband just reminded me that it also makes breadsticks, nut butters and flours. Also it dices, slices and minces. I've never used these functions though.
 
 
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losna

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Recipie please! (Assuming it would work with grated carrots
)
Ack, you had to ask that... 


I don't have a recipe for it, since the amount of carrots I need to make juice is sort of random. Some batches seem to have more juice than others, it's quite weird. 

I just dump in raw honey, coconut flour, chia seeds, 2 eggs, a pinch of baking soda, some water, cinnamon and coconut oil until it 'feels' right. Then I bake it at 350 for about a half hour.  

Off the top of my head, if I had to guess - and this is just a guess so if you decide to brave it you'll likely have to experiment - I'd say it's about half as much flour as carrot pulp, 1-2 tablespoons chia seeds, 1/4-1/2 cup honey, and I'm not sure about the coconut oil as I just sort of shave out pieces from the tub. Sometimes it needs more eggs - coconut flour can be very thirsty.

I know, I'm useless. 

I'm sure it would work with grated carrots. Coconut flour will soak up the extra liquid. That's where I fail the most with it; not giving the flour enough liquid.

In fact, I just did some googling and found this recipe, which is pretty close to my off the cuff estimating so you can probably feel safe just using this recipe instead of my weird 'mix random amounts of things together" : http://blog.radiantlifecatalog.com/...Carrot-Nut-Muffins-with-Organic-Coconut-Flour   My chia seeds and water take care of the third egg this one uses, so it's pretty close.

That one adds in dates. I love dates. I shall have to try it.
 
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Columbine

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:lol3: Not useless at all. I'll have to experiment when I have the energy. That link looks good too though :bigthumb:

I'm of the 'throw things together til it feels right' school of cooking too :lol3: I usually start with a proper recipe, but by the time I've finished adding/subtracting/adapting (adapting all without measures usually) it bears little resemble nice to the original!
 

cheshirecat

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My vote is for the Vitamix.  I have one but don't use it as much as I should.  The toughest thing I have done with it was grind coffee beans.  

My favorite thing is ice and chocolate milk to make slush.  It almost tastes like a shake.  And frozen fruit with juice or just plain juice with ice. 
 

Winchester

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I don't have either one. The only juicer I have is the one that will juice citrus and I use it when I need lemon or lime juice because I don't like the stuff in bottles. We gave the kids a Ninja for Christmas (they specifically asked for a Ninja) and we talked about buying one for ourselves. I can pretty much guarantee that's one small appliance that would probably sit on a basement shelf forever. I'm really not into the whole smoothie thing at all.

We used to have a blender and I used it quite often, more than enough to justify keeping it out on the kitchen counter. But it eventually died and we never replaced it. Again, like the toaster oven, it's one of those things that we talk about replacing, but never seem to do it. I've managed for about 20 years without a blender, so do I really need one? There's a recipe for the custard for an apple pie that calls for whirling it in a blender, but I can manage to do that in the food processor.

We talked about an immersion blender, too, but there's not one in the kitchen. I know it would come in handy at times, but not enough to justify spending the money, not that they're overly expensive or anything.  If I'm making soup and I need to thicken it a bit (bean soup, for example), I'll take out about 1-1/2 cups of the beans from the broth, throw it into the food processor and give it a good whirl. That usually does the trick. 
 

AbbysMom

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I have a blender, but rarely use it. I normally use my food processor for everything.
 

jcat

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We have both, but the juicer hasn't been used at all since we got the blender (a Philips with a glass jar). I don't think I've used the food processor, either. My husband originally bought the blender to make smoothies, but it's turned out to be great for juicing tomatoes, etc., as well as chopping, so it's used at least once a week, often more.
 
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