creative cooking
Ahealthy mix Blending up a more nutritious diet
MEDIA BAKERY
By Tim Talevich
EAT MORE FRUITS and vegetables, and cut
back on calories.
Sound familiar? It’s what experts have
been telling us for years to keep our bodies
healthy and weight down. But adopting these
healthier habits is easier said than done: We’re
busy, we’re set in our old eating ways and, let’s
face it, deep down we’d rather eat a candy bar
than a carrot.
I began looking at ways to add more fresh,
whole foods to my own diet in practical, tasty
ways. One essential tool I found is a high-performance blender that can turn fruits and
vegetables into a nutrient-packed smoothie in
mere minutes. These powerful machines also
serve as traditional food processors and
can make everything from soup to salsa.
The Costco Connection
Costco features high-performance blenders from Vitamix and Blendtec in the
warehouses during rotating Special Events.
For a complete schedule, see page 86.
You can also buy Vitamix blenders at
Costco.com. For a complete list of
Special Events in Costco warehouses,
go to Costco.com and enter “Special
Events” in the search box.
50 ;e Costco Connection MARCH 2011
Mixing it up
The government’s food pyramid (www.
mypyramid.gov) advises adult men and
women to eat about 5 cups of fruits and veg-
etables each day. A high-performance blender
makes it easier to hit that goal because a
smoothie or soup can include several fruits
and/or vegetables. The trick is making some-
thing that tastes good. Try this approach: For
smoothies, start off with a fruit-to-vegetable
ratio of 70 to 30, so that the sweet fruit masks
the sharper taste of the vegetables. Then,
critical fiber. Also, the blending process breaks
down the cell walls of these whole foods to
release the maximum amount of nutrition.
You can add flaxseed, protein powder and
other ingredients to boost the blend.
Saving time and money
Once you figure out the basics, using a
blender is as easy as pulling the ingredients
from the fridge. I find that blending is a smart
way of using the bulk sizes of fresh fruit and
vegetables from Costco. For example, I can
buy large containers of blueberries in season
and freeze them for future smoothies. If
bananas are getting too ripe, into the freezer
they go (peeled). And if the spinach needs to
be eaten, it goes in nearly any recipe.
The right equipment
The higher-end (and more expensive)
blenders, such as the Vitamix and Blendtec
models at Costco (see information at left),
have the horsepower to process virtually any
food you use, raw or cooked. Their blades are
even powerful enough to create friction to
heat soups. Standard blenders can make hundreds of great smoothies, but they work best
with softer foods. Do your research and make
sure you buy the right machine for the meals
you want to create. C
