SMOOTHIE, ANYONE??

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this beautiful specimen, allow me to introduce you....THIS my friends, is a VITAMIX.  (Que oo's and ah's)

Doug has been wanting one of these babies for years.  He would see them being demonstrated at Costco and local fairs and I would dab the drool off his chin. We would talk about it and try to make ourselves feel better by buying one generic blender after another.  None of which ever measured up to much of anything.  Well, over the past several months I have been concerned with the lack of nutritional value my son consumes.  My girls love fruits and some veggies. But Payton could really do without any of them.  He will eat some fruits, but just is one of the pickiest eaters ever.  So, we talked about how this contraption could help us with that issue.  Next time the Vitamix guy was at Costco we jumped on it.  And we don't regret one penny spent on it. 

Now, this is NOT a blender.  It's a monster.  Calling it a blender is far too sissy of a description for this beast of a machine.  It pretty much can make anything.  It comes with this book of recipes for sauces, ice cream, shakes, dips, breads, deserts, soups (yes...it can actually cook the soup), and of course smoothies.  Among other things.  One of the coolest parts about it, is that you add most things whole.  Which is fantastic because most of the nutrition of fruits and veggies are in the peels and cores!!!  Apple...no problem.  Just cut in half and toss in.  Strawberries...throw the entire thing in!!!  Don't even remove the stem.  Of course with oranges you peel just the top layer off and keep as much of the white stuff as possible.  And it's obvious that you can't throw an entire pineapple in, but you can the middle part which you normally don't eat.  I sound like an infomercial!  But I don't care.  I love this thing!!
Another awesome thing about it is...you can add spinach, carrots, kale anything good for you to smoothies or ice cream and you can't even tell they are in there.  Which, for my kid, totally rocks!!  I honestly don't know how many healthy smoothies we have slurped down over the last month.  Now, we have had our share of shakes and unhealthy things as well.  But for the most part...healthy smoothies it is!! 
Did I mention how fantastic it is?  It is a bit of an investment...but worth every penny!!
I think I might have to create a Vitamix fan club!!