Juicers & Blenders

II want to make an Orange Julius so have been looking for a blender.  My former wife had two juicers and two blenders in the kitchen, but so far I haven't found enough parts to make one blender so purchased a (refurbished) Vitamix 5200 direct from the factory.

Note a blender will NOT make orange juice from fresh oranges, for that you need a juicer.

Waring Citrus Juicer

This is a simple juicer that's been used a lot.  It's safe and easy to use.

Juiceman Jr.

The Juiceman Jr. uses a disk with a number of cutting teeth.  It can juice things like carrots that the Waring Citrus Juicer can not juice.

Vitamix 5200

Shown at the top of this page.  Comes with the liquid container (the solids container & blades are an option).  Also comes with a binder of Recipes and a CD-ROM.
It can not be used to replace a juicer.  For example if you put peeled oranges into the blender the result is a drink with too much pulp to be a nice drink.

A small container of berries and a cup of plain yogurt makes a good drink.

Orange Julius

In the produce section of the supermarket they have "Ice Mist" drink mix (89¢ on line 79¢ in the store).  They come in Banana, Orange and Strawberry.  The flavor is very close to an Orange Julius.

I've heard that the secret ingredient is coffee creamer and using high quality orange juice and some sugar.  More later . . .

Instructions

Flavor	Banana	Strawberry	Orange
Milk	1 cup	1 cup
Drink Mix	1 packet	1 packet	1 packet
Ice	1-1/2 cups	1-1/2 cups	1 cup
Banana	1	-	-
Strawberries	-	1/2 to 1-1/2 cups	-
Orange Juice	-	-	2 cups

The Drink Mix (2 oz of powder) Contains:

• Sugar
• nonfat (powdered) dry milk
• dried (powdered) egg white
  
• chemicals and colors

Vitamix has recipes for Dogs, Cats and Horses.

Banana Drink

20 June 2012 - This is an improvement on the Ice Mist banana mix (that my grocery store no longer carries, they now have chocolate banana mix).
Makes about 28 oz (two large mugs).

The order is important as you fill blender.
1 cup of cold water (from refrigerator water tap)
2 tablespoons of powdered milk (or replace the first two items with a cup of cold milk)

1/4 cup of powdered egg whites
2 tablespoons of sugar (optional, can use marshmallows and/or sugar)
1 banana peeled and cut into 2" pieces
3 tablespoons of Flake Coconut
6 regular size marshmallows (optional, can use marshmallows and/or sugar)

Set blender for Variable speed and dial to lowest position then power on.
Turn up dial slowly so that you end up on the highest speed in about 30 seconds then power off.
If done correctly the mix will not jump up.  Instead it will blend smoothly and the final mix will be thick but easy to pour.

Note if the ingredients are in the wrong order the blades will not swirl the mix and there will be no mixing.  When this happens you need to use the poker to try and get the mixing going.

Substitute Frozen Fruit for Ice

So far I haven't been able to get this idea to work.

Receipies - including bread