I bit the bullet

After weeks of using my food processor to make chunky green "puddings", I caved. I was at Costco with the intention of just "looking" at the Vitamix. I didn't know if I'd find what I was looking for. I couldn't find one in the appliance section. And even if they had one, I wasn't sure if it would be the $650 package they sold on their website which included a lot of extras I didn't need.

But after picking up the groceries I needed, I stumbled upon a Vitamix demo! They were selling the unit alone (no extras) which is exactly what I wanted. Plus, they were running a "special" so the price was $400. Is the Universe trying to tell me something? I immediately told the woman I wanted one.

"Have you seen my demo?" she asked.

"Nope," I said.

"Well, stay, and at least watch the demo! It'll give you some tips on how to use it."

I did, and she showed me how to make:

• a green smoothie: Certainly I've had my share of making green smoothies while trying to incorporate ETL. But what caught me by surprise was that she added WHOLE chunks of fruit. I watched her drop a piece of cantaloupe (seeds included, but no rind), a quarter of an apple (stem and seeds included), seeded grapes, an orange (she barely peeled the outside rind and most of the white pith and seeds, if there were any, were included), and half a banana (no peel). I didn't know all those seeds were edible! It made me feel better about the grapes since I often am too lazy to spit out the seeds.
• "ice cream": I've done this before also in my old blender, but this version was smoother. It was mostly frozen fruit but she added protein powder to it. Yuck!
• tortilla soup: Spinning the blades fast enough will boil water! That was pretty cool. The soup was too salty but I was impressed at how easily the blender handled the hot liquid. I've had hot soup explode on the walls using my previous blender.

While I'm certainly excited about trying out my Vitamix, I am feeling a bit guilty about spending so much money. I don't mind making the investment when I know the machine will be worth it and I'll get tons of use out of it but that has yet to be proven. I hope the dream machine lives up to the hype...