Around Christmas, it becomes de rigueur for lucky food lovers to start gloating about receiving, or treating themselves to, a certain big, fancy, lauded, and esteem-conferring kitchen appliance.
I think you know what I’m talking about. Yep. The Kitchen Aid.
As a PhD student bumbling along on the scrapings afforded me by my scholarship (oh gosh, Hannah, look: beetroot is down to $4.98 a kilo this week! Aren’t you lucky, getting to splurge on something besides cabbage and broccoli for once!), making such a hefty financial purchase is far beyond my realm of possibility.
But then, there was Christmas. Oh, how there was Christmas. I almost stopped breathing when my grandparents handed me a Christmas card enclosing a cheque that would grant me the ability to procure the appliance of my dreams. The appliance I’ve been craving, creating fantasies in my head about, and even making space in my bed for*.
Wait, are you thinking I bought a Kitchen Aid?
Hah! No, that’s for normal people.
I am, it seems, a different kind of normal.
My preciousssss… (two LOTR references in a row? I’m on fire!)
I bought myself a Vita-Mix.
The Vita-Mix.
The Be All and End All Superstar MacDaddy of blenders. This baby can blend anything (edible). It can make nut butters, it can make flour out of whole grains, and it can make any and every type of smoothie imaginable. At one end of the spectrum, it can make ice cream out of frozen fruit in seconds, and at the other, it can make hot soup from scratch by transforming vegetables (even hard ones like raw carrots and pumpkin) into a boiling puree in 4-6 minutes, all because of how powerful its motor and blades are.
Oh, and please excuse my complete lack of make-up and presentability in these photos. I’d just showered and wasn’t expecting photos, but all rationality went out the window when the postman arrived.
I think I’m a little bit in love with it.
While I can never thank my grandparents enough for their overwhelming generosity and contribution to my current happiness, I also need to thank the gorgeous Robyn of Girl On Raw. Robyn not only pointed me towards the Australian online retailer of this American appliance, but she selflessly gave me her own gift voucher for the retailer so that I could put it towards my purchase.
So thank you, my beloved grandparents and my dear Robyn. From the bottom of my heart.
But that’s enough about me. It’s time to instead show you what I christened my new baby with. I made a riff on Robyn’s Strawberry Seduction Smoothie, although (shockingly, I know) my version was bereft of cacao nibs.
Luckily, it was all kinds of fruity delicious anyway. Oh, before you ask, yes, I served my smoothie in an enormous soup-bowl mug. Apparently, when I bought a blender with which to make magical huge nourishing smoothies, I forgot that I don’t own glasses big enough for magical huge nourishing smoothies. Oh, and yes, the smoothie was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon. Ah well. Can’t win ‘em all.
Raspberry, Banana, and Coconut Smoothie
- 1 large banana, frozen and broken up into large chunks
- 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 tb agave syrup
- 1 tb chia seeds
- couple of dashes of cinnamon
- 3 token ice cubes. Just because, erm, I knew the Vita-Mix could blend them.
- Couple of spoonfuls of melted raw coconut butter/oil, to garnish. (The coconut butter acts like Ice Magic when it hits the cold smoothie, which was rather exciting for me as I’ve never actually eaten Ice Magic.)
1. Throw all ingredients (except for the coconut butter) into the Vita-Mix (or another high-powered blender) and blend for about one minute. Pour into a large-enough smoothie receptacle, and drizzle your coconut butter on top. Watch the coconut butter turn into solid bits of fun that you can scoop up with or without your smoothie, then giggle with happiness like a schoolgirl.
Oh, lighting fail. I do apologise. Also, the spotty nature of the coconut butter drizzle is because the weather was 35°C when I made this, and so the coconut butter had melted to a clear liquid. As a result, I couldn’t see where I was drizzling the coconut until it hit the cold smoothie and solidified. Like magic. Whee!
* Not really. I’m not quite that nincompoopy.
{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s so cute! I’m very happy for you.
I’ve briefly read about what the Vita-Mix can do. I look forward to seeing your creations.
It looks like the chia seeds were completely ground into a powder. Were they?
Thank you Margaret! I feel less guilty when other people are excited too
Yep, the chia seeds completely vanished into the mixture as a powder. I honestly don’t know if they contribute much to the texture, but I liked throwing them in 
I am jealous – that is no nincompoop post but the post of a woman who is very wise with her money – and now I will be jealous at all the recipes you post with your vitamix – except when you put coconut butter over your smoothie – I have had ice magic and it was just amazing and I have had a bad coconut butter experience recently so I know which I would prefer
Thank you Johanna, thank you! Helps with the feeling of naughtiness for sure
In all honesty, I don’t think I’ll be repeating the coconut oil on the smoothie very often. Shall stick with other nut butters, I think! That said, I’m excited about using the coconut butter in raw desserts…
squeal! How very very exciting!!!!!
Yes yes yes!
Baaaah! More jealousy. You had better make something damn delicious for the wedding!!
Hmm, I’ll have to think about what I could possibly make in this that would work for a wedding. Something making a cashew cream sauce for raw pasta doesn’t seem quite right
Perhaps we could brainstorm some larabar-esque raw treat balls?
Three words. Chocolate Coconut Butter. Do it.
Very much an intention of mine, though am considering making my own from scratch with actual coconut
Mmmm, come to my house with your vita and make me that smoothie please!
*gets in car with blender in hand*
So much love! You look like a kid at Christmas. Grandparents are awesome and I can’t wait to see what you whip, blitz , puree and blend up. And I love your lemon scale in lemon yellow!
I felt like a kid at Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one! Now if only I could get through my backlog of pre-Vita posts…
P.S. I’ll let the housemate know her scale is much liked
oooh very cool.
Indeedy!
Yay for your new super-blender!!
PS…I may try your smoothie recipe and if I do (brace yourself), I’ll likely toss in a couple of scoops of post-workout protein supplement powder. Can we still be friends?
We can absolutely still be friends… if you send me some of your protein powder! I’ve not seen any non-gross kinds here in Australia
Wha??? MILK-BASED!?!?!? (as in whey only?) message me your address. You need pea protein, or soy even, or hemp, or anything!!!
Yes, and they all seem really fake and sugary. I’m envious of the protein powders I read about on American blogs!
Darling you have to get onto Hemp Powder. It is kinda tasteless if anything maybe nutty. I use it in my smoothies as a protein add in
I would *love* to use hemp powder – do you mean you’ve found it in Australia??
Congratulations, and welcome to the VitaMix cult! I sure do love mine, and I know that you’ll become just as addicted in no time.
Happy New Year to you too!
I can already feel the addiction building
I haven’t actually been using it everyday yet, as I’m trying to eat through a lot of frozen/pantry goods so I can go crazy with the VitaMix and not feel guilty about how much food I already have…
Oh how fantastic. Grandparents are the best. Yours seem especially wonderful. I’ve only recently heard of the Vitamix, I’ll be interested to see what you do with it. I’ve been in the precontemplation stage of a new device for some time. I have a blender that is newish, that I don’t use all that much I guess. And my food processor is a Big Oscar that I bought as a student in the early 90s! Still going strong. I am vaguely toying with the notion of something else. I spent far too long as a student though to just merely buy a new one and throw the old one out- thus here I am waiting for my non-breaking Big Oscar to break, and also our tele to break so that I can get a new one. I do love the look of the smoothie. It looks fabulous. I love raspberry. I’m still not completely sold on the coconut oil thing though.
Oh, I know what you mean about not feeling able to buy a new appliance if the old one works *at all*! And I must admit, I had to deal with some strong feelings of naughtiness when I splurged on this. Thank heavens for grandparents!
I love that you named your food processor!
Sadly I’m not the sort of person to name my food processor. Although I used to name my cars- back when I was a poor student and the cars had personality. Big Oscar is the brand name.
Oh, that’s far less exciting
Oh this did make me laugh … you clearly need to spend more time roaming the appliance shops Hannah. You would have known then that Louise didn’t name her food processor after your cousin!
In my defense… no, I don’t really have a defense. But, um, I bet I know more about what lucuma is than you do!
HUG that box!
Oh, I did. How I did. And it felt goooood.
If I supply you with the nuts, will you make me nut butters!? Pleaaaaaaase? I promise you can keep some for yourself
YES. Seriously. Even before I had the VitaMix, I was chatting with another friend about doing that for her
I’ve heard such great things about this but have yet to try my own!
You’ve got your Kitchen Aid to play with in the mean time
Ahh! I am so happy for you, Hannah! So special. How very generous of your grandparents and Robyn
I can’t wait to try this creation, it looks super duper delicious!
heidi xo
I’m incredibly grateful and appreciative
I can’t wait to experiment with all kinds of smoothies!
haha! Hands down the best Xmas gift ever…for a foodie of course! Congrats
Absolutely, and thank you! It’s so exciting to have people who understand
Yay you! With the thing you’ll be purchasing today, you’ll be raw-ing it up in no time!
Gotta love secret BFF-talk
The thing is purchased!
Hehe there’s something utterly charming about being a nincompoop. Actually I like the sound of “the unrepentant nincompoop”. Sounds like a good book title no?
I think you just gave me the title of my autobiography, Lorraine.
From what I’ve heard, this is the blender to end all blenders, and you very well may never need to buy another. So, if you’ve got the money, it’s totally worth the investment. I’m very jealous of your beautiful new appliance. I can’t decide if I would get a cuisinart or a vitamix first. If I had endless money and space, I would definitely get both….
And, by cuisinart, of course I mean kitchenaid. I’m the nincompoop!
We’re all nincompoops together!
That’s what I’m hoping, that this will be my blender for the foreseeable future. It does come with a seven year warranty, which is awesome. Too bad we don’t live nearer to each other, or you could buy the Kitchen Aid and we could share!
OMG, I was beside myself thinking you’ve indulged in a Thermomix & I was about dash around to sit on your doorstep until you let me in so I could admire.., several problems with this as I don’t know where you live for one thing but then you tell me its a Kitchen Aid….., which still earns you seriously BIG brownie points, conjures up green eyed monsters within me & I completely understand your excitement. Your really getting into this raw thing huh.., go you good thing
I think you’d be able to track me down if I had a Thermomix – it’d be like a siren call to your chef heart
Haha, I definitely have a lot of the equipment for raw food now… let’s see how creative I get with it, or whether I just end up making and eating endless jars of homemade nut butter 
Ohhh, how exciting!
where did you get it from? Our blender is pretty broken and it’s my birthday in March
Check your email!
I think you just sold me a Vita-Mix!
I want one!!
If only I got a commission…
Darling sooo happy for you with your new purchase!!! This is really exciting!!!! I am sending you through some more recipes now mmmm K
So so very exciting
I made a very non-green smoothie today (ice cream and milo was involved…) for a friend, who properly appreciated the VM’s magnificence 
Squee, shall go check my email now!
Don’t hate on your lack of presentability too much, because that dress looks a lot like MY Christmas dress, which is pretty darn fashionable in my opinion!
Thanks Lauren! The dress is, I agree, not the bad part of this. It’s more my face…
OMG, I hope you can hear the extreme envy I am typing this with right now. A Vitamix, so much fun!
Teehee, thanks Alisa! What precisely does extreme envy sound like?
Lucky you! One day, when I am living my fairy-tale perfect life in my dream kitchen, I will have a Vita Mix. In the meantime, I might just have to come to Australia to borrow yours.
If I honestly thought that would get you here, I’d have bought two
P.S. Please please please come visit/move here!
Oh my gosh oh my gosh! Me = so happy for you! Best use of X-mas money EVER.
And good call on the raspberry smoothie components, mega-yum.
Though I will say: I just stopped on the final picture, turned to Matt, and asked “Do you think I should tell her what the coconut butter drizzled on there really looks like?” Either way, it’d be worth giggling like a schoolgirl for.
!
Thank you, Amber! I’m still so happy every morning when I wake up and see the Vita-Mix under my desk (no room in the kitchen…) And after only three days of smoothie making, I can safely say I’m addicted to my blended fruit-and-spinach beverages
Oh, and Amber? If you look at my facebook profile, you’ll see that someone already alerted me to what the coconut butter looks like. I can safely say I’m traumatised and refuse to look at the photo anymore.
HAHA! Oh, goodness. Best laugh of the night. Love you for that. ;D
Well, I’m glad my humiliation has been good for something! And now, if I start getting the urge to put pickles in my fruit smoothies, you and I will both know why
PS – now, just as I have given you the euphemism of “chestnut,” you have given ME the euphemism of “coconut butter.” This will now be in frequent use in my household.
Same goes for me, soul sister. It seems we’re slowly building our own secret Ladies of the Night language…
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