Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I got mine on the payment plan--definitely worth it! Well, if you hav been wanting a vitamix anyway.

Yep, I just got mine through QVC on the payment plan as well! Much less painful than one lump sum payment! Lol.

Picked up mine today from Costco, also got the dry container/blade since it was a lot cheaper than I'd seen them online. Not sure what I'll do first, I'm probably going to read everything several times before I jump in and use it, just cause that's what I do when I get a new toy. I super excited though, I've wanted one since I was a teen (literally decades ago) after seeing them at the fair every year growing up! Most kids remember the rides or something, I've always remembered the expo hall with the vitamix demo.

A shiny new Vitamix was my Christmas surprise from hubby this year! I'm so madly in love.....with the mixer, that is, lol!

I've become a smoothie person. I never thought I would, but I totally am. I never make the same smoothie twice. I experiment and play around with some variation of the same formula though. It's typically one part greens, two parts fruit, one part liquid (soy milk or fruit juice) and then this past weekend I bought some sample size Vega protein powder packets to try out. Such fun!

I have had my vitamix for a while, but got the dry blade container for my birthday. I'm in love with that container! I needed some pea flour for something, so I ground up a bunch of split peas, and in one minute had pea flour. But then I had all of this darn pea flour left over. I have now discovered that 2 cups of vegetable broth, 3 tablespoons of pea flour, and a 1/4 teaspoon of liquid smoke makes almost instant pea soup. It took about 10 minutes to cook everything and it was so good!

Ok this? This sounds awesome. Did you just whisk everything together and let it simmer, or...?

if you blend them longer (before you put any frozen stuff in) it'll take care of the seeds.

The pea soup thing is good to know!! I just got the dry container for Christmas from husband, and so far I've only used it as a coffee grinder.

RE different models, I thought this was a little tricky to figure out, but the differences seem to be the wattage/noise level (somewhat), the included accessories and cookbooks, and the controls. Like I have the 750, which I think is the only one with the cycle settings. There's one setting for a smoothie, for example, and I actually love these settings. Some reviews called it gimmicky, and for some people it might be, but I love that I can press the button, walk away and tend to something with the baby, and when I come back it's turned itself off and is all ready. Plus the presets blend things for far longer than my patience lasts, which may explain PART of why stuff ends up so much smoother than in my old blender. I think there were some things I just wasn't blending long enough. The 750 is also squatter (so it will fit under more cabinets, though I have to take the lid off to fit it under mine), and supposedly quieter (though it's still a loud mofo). Of course, Blendtec has these features too I think, and is much cheaper though slightly less powerful.

The one I just purchased is the 6300, not sure where it fits with the others. It seems as if they used this number for ones to sell at events maybe? It looks like the 500 from their website, it also has cycle settings, but only three (soup/smoothie/frozen). That was one thing people said in reviews why they bought a Blendtec (the pre-sets) so I was glad Vitamix now has a few.

How is it at grinding coffee? I've got a cheap burr grinder that doesn't get it evenly ground.

Does anyone know how the container fastens to the base? Mine just sits there, but there is no screw or anything...nothing, you just pick it up and plop it down. I have not used it yet and I am afraid to. Won't it fly off when the blades start going? Is it supposed to be like that?

That's it, it just sits there. It will 'tighten' when it's going (not sure that's really what it does) and stays put.

I just made guacamole and a banana type frozen dessert. My only concern now is that it's too loud to make smoothies early in the morning -- landlady's right on other side of kitchen wall. I may have to make them in the laundry room where I also keep my bread machine.

Thank you, Liz. I am getting two root canals in the morning and I will live on smoothies for a couple of days.

I think it's fantastic at grinding coffee. In fact, once I ground the coffee TOO much and ended up with powder, and it made great coffee, but I use an Aeropress and I couldn't get it to plunge all the way!

So now I stop it every few seconds and take a look - there's a big long novel in the manual about how to do it and how many seconds for what fineness, but I didn't bother reading it because I am bad at life.

I brought the veggie broth to a boil, wisked in the pea flour slowly so it wouldn't get lumpy, and covered and simmered for 5 or so minutes. Then I added the liquid smoke when it was cooked. Ooh, I forgot, I also put in a squirt of lemon juice.

I just got a Vitamix!!! Costco 6300 version. The pea soup sounds awesome, although I didn't get the dry jar - awesome enough that it might be worth finding pea flour in the store.

Last night I had my first smoothie made with whole fruit and no liquid. It was a little too airy, I'll have to play with different fruits. And the vitamix sits perfectly under our cabinets.

Tried the soup setting tonight, a bit too frothy at the start for me, but wow it got really hot. I only did enough for a bowl, so maybe more liquid next time would help.

I'm probably going to go crazy experimenting with different weird combos. The soup was vegie broth, a few cashews, a bit of "chicken" flavoring, a short piece of celery, some sauted onion and mushrooms, then I decided to throw in some kale just 'cause. It was good, very green. Maybe would have been better with a bit more body.

The froth thing seems to be a general problem.

We made cajun corn soup tonight. It was really good, eventually, but we learned not to put a little bit of soy milk over a bunch of frozen corn. Instant block of unblendable ice. Bashing and a bit of boiling water fixed it.

I use mine literally every day for smoothies, sauces, etc. My latest favorite thing with this cool weather is to make hot chocolate in it. Vanilla soy milk, cocoa, a splash of kahlua, run on the second highest setting until warm. Avoiding the highest setting seems to contain the foam situation a bit. The cocoa stays incorporated so much better than when I've made it on the stove, and of course it's so tasty!

The Vitamix is also an excellent teaching tool.

This just blew my mind. I am so doing this!!!

The hot chocolate is an amazing/brilliant idea.

quagga - what's funny is that *we already learned that lesson* from making this same soup on the stove, but the difference is that the stove of course is designed to heat and not to blend, so it doesn't much matter that we always start with a block of ice. In fact my husband said right after he poured the soy milk, oh yeah, duh, I wasn't supposed to do that. Next time we'll just let the corn defrost on the counter first. Or just use a bit of hot water for the liquid instead of milk - it's just a splash anyway. It's a super delicious, cheap, easy soup.

I love the cocoa idea!

Ha. I've totally done this too, and every time, I'm like, duh, that was silly... : ) You are not alone!

I'm loving seeing all the cool ways you're using your Vitamix - I need to use it for more than just blending liquids!!

I just got my Vitamix though Amazon! I'm financing it interest free for 6 months. My payments are around $64.

So far I make green smoothies in it daily. Some of my favorite combos are:

Oranges, apples, kale/spinach, carrot, ginger and lemon. I blend it with a little vanilla coconut yogurt and half a frozen banana. I also made hummus in it. I haven't made soup yet and I can't wait to make ice cream/sorbet in it this coming summer!