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My VitaMix Anti Aging Chocolate Cherry Soft Serve will leave you saying, “That was delicious and I’m glad I ate it!”

When you are finished, you will still like yourself. Frozen cherries, raw cashews, my Nectar of the Gods Sweetener and raw cacao combine to make an instant, chocolate-y decadent, delicious soft serve ice cream.

Make this and post your comments and questions!

Transcript of this video:

Today I am making my Anti Aging Chocolate Cherry Soft Serve.  I know you will love it and I am going to tell you my secret ingredient. We begin with one cup of frozen cherries. These are the dark, sweet cherries and I buy the big bag from Costco, they’re high quality, low cost and I use them for so many things.

And then I take 12 raw cashews, you can soak them, drain them and pat them dry if you like or just use them right out of the bag. I did soak these, dry them and pat them dry, because I don’t want any extra water in my recipe. It just softens them up a little bit but I’ve made this many times without bothering to soak the cashews. Just want to let you know you can do it either way.

The first thing we do, we’ve added one cup of cherries and the 12 cashews to the VitaMix. I want to blend that up and break down those cashews before we do anything else. It doesn’t require much. You’ve still got bits of cashews that are not ground up, I didn’t make this smooth, I just wanted to get it going.

Then I add to that my secret ingredient. Do you remember in the other video when I showed you how to make my Nectar of the Gods Sweetener? Remember how we soak the Medjool dates in coconut water, and if you don’t have coconut water it’s okay just soak them in regular water, well, I froze it.

I put a cup of it in the freezer and now I’ve got my frozen Nectar of the Gods Sweetener and it turns this soft serve into the most delicious thing imaginable. You don’t need any refined sugar, so put a cup of the frozen NOG, which is what  I call it, Nectar of the Gods Sweetener, right in there on top of your cashews and your cherries.

And then, the part we all love, the chocolate. I am using the raw cacao powder, raw chocolate powder, because if I’m going to do this, I want it to be exceptional in quality. Also, once you get used to eating the raw chocolate powder, it’s hard to go back to the wax bricks, this is so much better.

But if you just have regular cocoa powder, go ahead and use it to get started. Just want you to know that in this raw chocolate there’s fiber, iron, protein, and it’s delicious. So that’s a quarter cup which is about 3 TBS and 2.5 TBS is 60 calories so the chocolate is about 80-85 calories.

So we have 1 cup frozen cherries, 12 cashews, the 1/4 cup raw cacao powder and the half cup of my frozen NOG Sweetener. Mmm, I can smell the cherries and the chocolate as I am blending this. If you don’t want it totally smooth and you want some of the cashew bits in there to chew on, you don’t have to blend it until it’s fully smooth. This is how I like it.

Look at the consistency, just like soft serve. Mmm, little bits of cashew in there. This is so rich, so decadent, you’re gonna wish you were eating this.

Take a spatula, I’ll show you the consistency, it comes right out. there’s enough there for 2 people, although I will eat all of this. Mmm, there’s little bits of the cherries and cashews in there and then what I sometimes like to do is take some dried coconut, finely shredded, and sprinkle it on top.

Here’s the thing, after you eat this you’re going to say, Mmm, that was delicious and I’m glad I ate it.” I never said that after I would eat regular ice cream. I loved it while I was eating it, but not so much afterwards. After you eat this, you still love yourself.

Do you have a favorite smoothie, ice cream or other recipe for the VitaMix? Send it in! Use the comment box below. Lettuce blend and mend together. Jane.

Hey Jane,

How long does a Vita-Mix green smoothie last in the fridge?

Laura

I answer Laura’s question in this video:

Transcript of video:

From my experience, and I’ve been drinking my greens for over 4 years now, when I make a blender full, it can be anywhere from 6-8 cups and of course, I cannot consume all of that immediately.

I usually pour it into several glasses, pop them into the refrigerator and work on them throughout the day. Or my family will drink some. But say I don’t drink them all and I have some left over – I leave them in the fridge ’til the morning and they stay fresh and beautifully bright green or whatever color they started out as.

I think the fiber in the green smoothies keeps them from oxidizing, unlike juice which has the fiber removed and oxidizes quickly. So don’t worry about that, they stay overnight very well in the refrigerator.

Unless, of course, you put a banana in them, and banana, for some reason, doesn’t hold that long, so when you make a green smoothie with banana in it, go ahead and consume it right away or at least within a couple of hours.

Another tip: you’re green smoothies can go on the road with you. They can go to work, they can go wherever you’re going. Fill up a couple thermoses or carry bottles, just keep them cold, and when you need a pick-me-up or you need a meal or you’re on the go, instead of getting something crummy and clogging, you can get an anti-aging, nutrient dense, chlorophyll rich, high water content food and a drink in your green smoothie.

So I hope you will make a lot of green smoothie, feel free to store it in the refrigerator and drink up.

Do you want to feed your skin at the cellular level? I do, too!

Watch how I make All Hail Kale: My VitaMix Beauty Smoothie

Transcript of the video:

“I can’t believe it’s kale.” This “tough” and nutritious green is rendered smooth as silk by the VitaMix. This recipe calls for 4 cups of grapes. We’re using lots of fruit. It has high-water content and it tempers the taste of the kale.

It also calls for 2 cups of mango, fresh or frozen. I happen to be using frozen today. Look at the colors. Remember, all our phyto-chemicals are in these bright foods. Add 6 leaves of kale. Now, I’ve already stripped these leaves from the stems. Technically, you can throw the stems into a  a high-speed blender if you want… I just like the more elegant texture without the stems.

So, that’s about 6 leaves of kale. a nice big handful. You’ve got your dark green kale filled with chlorophyll, the yellow from the mango and the red from the grapes. We’re good to go. I like my smoothies frosty, so I’m adding 2 cups of ice.

If you don’t have a high-speed Vita-Mix or another brand of high-speed blender, that’s ok – I mention in almost every video I make that you may have to cut the recipe in half, eliminate the ice or add some water to get it blending in a regular blender.

Let’s blend this beauty. Blending time is approximately 30-45 seconds. This recipe makes 6.5 cups with only 97 calories per 1 cup serving.

Mmm, sweet and deep green for super clean inside and out. It is a gorgeous color of green with purple specks from the grape’s  skins, so beautiful and delicious.

The high water content of the kale, mango and grapes helps to moisturize us at the cellular level, helping to plump up our skin and prevent dehydration and loss of elasticity. Tastes fresh and full of life.

I hope you will make All Hail Kale: My Vita-Mix® Beauty Smoothie. You will never feel more beautiful.

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Today I am going to show you how to make my AntiAging Amber Mandarin Mint Green Smoothie. This smoothie comes compliments of my daughter, who walked in the house the other day with a big bag of Mandarin oranges and some fresh mint and said, “I think these would go great together.” And she was right. We made the most delicious smoothie.

It’s a thin smoothie, it’s refreshing, and I’m going to show you how to make it right now and it only requires two ingredients. The Mandarin oranges and some fresh spearmint. Oh, they go together wonderfully. This is very refreshing, easy and simple, just what I like to do on Blend It and Mend It!

Mandarin oranges are so easy to peel and they hardly have any seeds in them at all. So just peel up 6, 8, maybe 10, they’re small, fill up your blender depending on the quantity you want to make. I have 8 in here, plus a handful of fresh spearmint, mmm. You can leave the stems on if you want if you’re using the VitaMix, or if not you can just pull the leaves right off. Put as much in as you like, it’s cleansing, it’s refreshing, it’s antibacterial.

And then, one cup of water. The more water you put in the less orange-y it will taste and the thinner the final product will be. So depending on whether you want a smoothie-like texture or a beverage-like texture, adjust your water. I added one cup of water and one cup of ice, 8 Mandarin oranges and a handful of fresh spearmint.

Let’s blend up Amber’s Mandarin Mint Green Smoothie and see what color it turns out to be. As usual, it smells wonderful, fresh, full of water, light, this is light. Pour into a beautiful glass and look at the color. It’s an amber color, isn’t it beautiful? The beautiful bright orange and the bright green mixed together to make this beautiful amber beverage. Look at the foam on top. Teeny, weeny green specks of the mint. It’s just beautiful. Mmm, creamy dreamy. Just so refreshing and light. I love this. Mmm.

Thanks Amber for stopping that day and picking up Mandarin oranges and mint, because look what we have to share with everybody right now. This is really delicious and what you can do if you want, is pour the rest of it into separate glasses or just into a big pitcher like this. Look at that. How would you like to open up your refrigerator and have this waiting for you? Cheers.

QUESTION:  What do you need help with when it comes to drinking your greens? Use the comment box below. Thanks! Jane.

Learn HOW TO Safely, Swiftly and Easily OPEN A MATURE BROWN COCONUT.

Get the electrolyte rich water and healthy coconut meat out so you can enjoy the delicious benefits and tasty dishes and drinks you can make from them.
Post your comments and questions!

The Eyes Have It

How do you get the water and meat out of this thing? When you’re at the store, shake it good and if you don’t hear the water, go on to another one. After you shake it and you make sure it’s full of water, take a look at the eyes. Make sure there’s no black, or mold or mildew around any of the eyes because that means there’s bacteria in the coconut and it’s not gonna be good. You don’t want to take that one home.

Make A Hole

When you do get your coconut home, poke around with a small paring knife that comes to a pointy end, not one of the curved ones. There’s always one of the eyes that’s soft. Put your knife tip right in there and start poking around, it should be softer, and look at that, it is. You’ll be able to turn the knife right into that eye just like this, and you’re gonna make a hole in the coconut. And from this hole, out comes the water and this is how we’re gonna drain it. Look at that. Was that not easy? It doesn’t even take any muscle. See that? You got right to the white coconut meat and right inside to the water by twisting a knife into the soft eye. That’s step #1.

Taste It

The next step is to take that coconut and drain the water out of it. Look at that. It comes pouring out. How easy is that? Before you do anything else with this, I want you to taste the coconut water and make sure it’s good. This is important, because you wouldn’t want to ruin a shake, a smoothie or a meal if the coconut water’s not good. I think it is, because we already checked out the eyes. But, let’s see. There is nothing like this. There is nothing like delicious coconut water. Okay, we have the water.

Crack It

Now, let’s get the meat out of this thing. It’s very simple. All you have to do is – I keep this cute little hammer in the kitchen. Isn’t that cute. There are a few ways you can do this, but one of the simplest is – you can hold it in the palm of your hand and start cracking. There’s a natural line in this coconut around the circumference that you can’t see. It’s underneath the fibers, but it’s there. Look at that. Hear that? It just cracked. See that crack? It’s right there. Give it a few more cracks and this thing’s gonna open up like a clamshell. If I can do this, anybody can. Look at that. Oh, beauty. Snowy white mature coconut meat.

Eat It

The easiest way I find to do this is to simply, on my cutting board, lay down a towel, put the coconut meat side down, cover it up with the towel, fold the ends under, and then take my trusty little hammer, and kind of bust it up. Keep your hand out of the way. You don’t want to bust your fingers, you want to bust the coconut shell. Now you have little pieces. Put the tip of the knife right in between the meat and the shell. Get it in there a little bit and then twist it. Pieces that are, look, 3-4 inches long, pop right out. I personally, leave this thin, brown skin on, it doesn’t bother me. See that? Pop. Then I run this under the water and clean it up.

And look at this, you end up with a strainer full of fresh. snowy white coconut meat ready to eat. If you need a chewing fix, you know, you have to chew? This is what you want. It’s full of the healthy fat, mmm… and it’s full of fiber. It has water in it and it’s so satisfying. And, it works your jaw bones. Your teeth and your jaw bones need exercise. Especially we baby boomers. We gotta make sure our teeth don’t fall out when we get old. We must exercise them. Just like your biceps. Mmm, this is a fabulous snack.

Laura wrote that she didn’t know how to cut up a pineapple, so I’m going to show her how to do it, safely, swiftly and easily.
Then I’m going to show you all how to make an instant, waterful lunch from it. Watch this video, cut up a pineapple and post your comments and questions!

Transcript of this video:

Today I am not using the VitaMix. Today I want to show you how to cut up a pineapple easily and safely. The reason I’m doing this is because I got an email from Laura, who said, “Jane, I had to use canned pineapple because I’ve never cut open a pineapple. I have no idea how to do such a thing.” I said, “Okay, Laura, I’m going to show you.” So this is for you, Laura, “Yoo hooo…”

Let’s begin in the store. How do you know if a pineapple is ripe? The first thing I do, is smell it. Does it smell like a pineapple? Give it a little press. They’re not all going to be soft. They’re not all going to be golden. But they better smell good or they’re not ripening. Another thing you can do is, just pull out one of the inner leaves like this. If it comes right out, you’ve got yourself a pineapple that’s ready to go. All the inner leaves get very loose and easy to extract when the pineapple is ripe.

Another tip: When you bring your pineapple home from the market, store it upside down. All the sugars collect in the bottom and if you store it upside down, those sugars will run to the top. It will help ripen it in a faster and more even way.

Your home, the pineapple is on the counter, it’s staring at you, what do you do first? Lay it on its side. Either twist off the top or cut it off with the ends. You want to cut about an inch off from each end. Now, pineapples, like all fruit, every one is different. They’re all not gonna be perfect looking inside, that’s ok. After you cut off each end, then you can stand it upright and I like to use a filet knife because they’re kind of flexible and it’s easy for me to go along with the curve of the pineapple with a filet knife. But use whatever knife you have available, I just don’t like to waste any ripe pineapple and this you can get close to the bone, as if you were fileting a fish, only now we’re fileting a pineapple. And you’re ready to go.

Then I like to wipe the counter down, lay the peeled pineapple on the counter and slice it into beautiful circles of pineapple steaks. About 1″ in thickness. If I’m going to take my pineapple slices and put them directly into a smoothie, I don’t take the core out, the VitaMix is gonna grind it up. I don’t see the problem with it. But if I’m going to eat the pineapple without putting it into a smoothie or blending it thoroughly, I just quickly cut out the core.

It’s very easy, take a little slice, take your knife around it, bam, it’s gone. And here’s our bowl of freshly cut fresh pineapple. There is no comparison. When you have a fresh, juicy, sweet pineapple, it is so refreshing and delicious. Now, I’m not gonna make you a smoothie today. What I want to do is show you how to have an instant lunch with this. One of my favorite combinations, and I’ve relied on this for years, is to take a bite of pineapple, a raw cashew… … mmm… … the juicy pineapple, the meaty cashew, the flavors, it’s so satisfying. It’s a perfect lunch.

Let’s not forget our greens.

Another way to enjoy this same combination, is to take a piece of your romaine lettuce, put a piece of pineapple in it, put a half a cashew or a whole cashew in it, roll it up like a little cigar… …mmm… … now you have a meal. This is another delicious and satisfying way to get your greens if you’re not in the mood for a green smoothie or for making a salad. That crunch of the lettuce… I love the green chlorophyll and oxygen from the lettuce, the juicy sweetness of the pineapple, the meaty, nutty whole fats of the whole cashews.

You don’t have to throw out the top and the peels. You can compost them. I throw them right into my compost bin and later on I’ll take them out to the side yard and put them into the big compost bin. You pay for the entire pineapple anyway. Why do you want to throw away part of what you paid for? It’s like throwing money away. So instead I compost…

HOW TO MAKE COCONUT MIRACLE MILK is simple, easy and delicious. The benefits of fresh coconut are many – skin, hair, nails, healthy fat, fiber, flavor – watch the video for more benefits.

You can drink this luscious Miracle Milk as is or use it as a base for smoothies, shakes, soups, etc.

Many thanks to Deion for writing in and asking me to do a video on How To Make Coconut Milk. It was on the list, I had some coconut meat in the fridge…

Make this and post your comments and questions!

Anti-Aging

If you remember, I already showed you How To Make Almond Milk, it’s very similar to that. I showed you How To Open A Mature Coconut and harvest the meat and water out of the shell. I’ve been nibbling on all this wonderful, mature, coconut meat. It’s so crunchy and delicious, you can eat it just like this. It’s out of the shell, but I left the skin on and you can leave the skin on to make the coconut milk.

I’ve got just enough left here to make a batch of coconut milk for you. I want to show you how easy it is. So, you don’t really measure for this. Pour as much of the coconut meat as you have into the blender. I’ve already used the water from this coconut for another recipe, so I’m going to use regular water. If you’ve still got the coconut water, or you’re doing this on the day that you broke open your coconut and harvested the water and the meat, you can put the coconut water from that coconut right in here. But I’m using regular water, fresh water, room temperature. And, depending on whether you want coconut cream, just add water to cover the top of the coconut and you’ll have a thick cream. Or if you want coconut milk, keep adding water to about 3 cups. There you go.

Miracle

You want enough water so that the blender works and you get a milk like consistency, but not so much water that you water down the flavor. I’m going to pour it into a juice bag, similar to the Almond Milk. I have a juice bag, ok, it’s got a little drawstring on it. If you don’t have this, it’s okay, use an old pillowcase or something. Put it in a bowl, so that the string goes around the rim like this, and then just pour the coconut milk, the unfiltered coconut milk right in there, and we’re gonna squeeze out the pulp.

Draw up the drawstring like this and begin squeezing out the pulp. Takes a few minutes, 2, 3, 4, minutes… and you are gonna end up with that snowy white coconut milk that is such a wonderful base for smoothies, shakes, soups, whatever else you can come up with. The benefits to coconut are never ending, you should Google it. A few off the top of my head are the medium chain fatty acids that coconut has, very easy for us to digest, doesn’t clog up our arteries. Of course, the flavor of coconut, so delicate, so tropical, so tender.

Coconut is rich in trace minerals, including Manganese, which is esssential for our metabolism. It’s good for healing and collagen formation, it has copper, which plays a role in immunity and bone health. It has selenium, a nutrient which is critical to thyroid function as well as developing healthy skin, nails and hair. And here is our Miracle Milk.

Milk of Coconut

Pour the fresh coconut milk into a glass, you can drink it just as it is. Isn’t that beautiful? Of course, it makes a wonderful base for smoothies, soups, shakes, all kinds of delicious concoctions. You can pour it over your granola, it’s fantastic. All fresh, waterful foods are considered beauty foods. They make us feel beautiful and when we feel beautiful, we look beautiful. That is delicious. Once you start making your own nut milks, coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, brazil nut milk, a whole world of wonderful, waterful food options open up to you.

I’ve been wanting to make this, but it wasn’t until I received this request from Deion – “Hi, Jane, I’m a huge green smoothie fan and I love your videos. Can you do a video on making coconut milk?” Thanks for writing in, Deion. I had just enough coconut left over to make this video and show you how to do it. And boy am I glad I did. It is fabulous.

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Hi I’m Jane from http://www.BlenditandMendit.com where I show you how I turn my VitaMix blender into my #1 anti-aging tool. Welcome.

Good Timing

Today I am making Kale Ice Cream. Yes, that’s right. Remember? I have kale on the brain this week.

Yesterday I made the Cream Of Kale Soup, which was so delicious piping hot and then several hours later I had a ‘kale gazpacho’ – those flavors must have cured because cold and chilled that soup was even better. So, I still have some kale and I received a question, maybe a week ago, from subxero1961, who asked, “Do you have a recipe for kale ice cream?” I do now.

I didn’t then. But since I’ve got kale on the brain, and I’m craving it, today that’s what I’m going to make. It’s another one of my very simple recipes with a mere 4 ingredients. All you need to get started are 2 frozen bananas. You know by now I keep a stash of them in the freezer, so they’re always on hand.

2 big, beautiful laves of curly kale. You really could use any variety of kale you want; the dinosaur/Lacinato kale or the Russian, red kale. Today I’m using simple, basic, easy to find green leaf curly kale. Strip the kale off of the stems, then throw them into the VitaMix right on top of your two frozen bananas.

Whole Food Ice Cream

4 Medjool dates, which I pitted and froze. Just throw them in the freezer the night before along with the bananas. And then, I used 4 ice cubes made from my coconut water. I forgot to tell you, when you wash the kale, make sure you thoroughly dry them. I do not want any extra water in this recipe.

This is the kind of whole food ice cream that you can really enjoy and feel terrific when you eat it. Kale is jam packed with the phytonutrients, antioxidants and anti-cancer compounds that we are all searching for. Very delicious. What a great way to get fresh kale. Most people look at this and they see a tough, bitter leaf. Yes, it can be that way. You can also put it into, not only your ice creams, your green smoothies, you can massage it and make wonderful raw salads with it.

All Hail Kale

And like yesterday, you can make a delicious cream of kale soup. All hail kale. This is delicious and I love how the little bits of dates are nice and chewy in there. You will get two helpings from this recipe. I did 2 scoops in this bowl and I put the rest into a little Tupperware container and popped it in the freezer so it’ll be there later when you want it. Also, if you leave it until tomorrow, there’s nothing like getting up in the morning and knowing you have the kale ice cream or some spinach ice cream, that you can have for breakfast.

Mmm… and it does not sap your energy or require work on your part to digest it… just keep on cruising through the day. Very good. So, subxero1961, thank you for writing in and asking for a kale ice cream recipe. I had not thought of that before, and you coincided with my kale on the brain week so this worked out beautifully. I’m enjoying it and I hope you will make it and come back, leave comments, and let me know how it came out and what you thought of it. And anyone else who makes it, I would like to hear from you, too :)

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