A tale of high finances, high stakes, sister adventures and kitchen appliances. Part 1.

My sister Jane and my nephew Felix came to visit last week.

 Isn’t that the sweetest little face you have EVER seen????  I die a little every time I look at him.  His cuteness is killing me!

Anyway, one of the many adventures my sister and I had was at Costco.  Jane was looking for a specific carseat, Sebastian was looking for samples and Felix was looking for kisses from Sebastian.  I was just along for the ride.  And ohhhhh what a ride!  The first sample we came across happened to be at the Vitamix Blender demo booth.  While Jane and I were firmly becoming convinced the Vitamix would be the answer to a brand-new lifestyle Sebastian was getting more veggies in all the Vitamix samples - juice, smoothie, ice cream, and hot soup  - than he has had in the entire last year of his life.  (Seriously, the kid would eat peanut butter for every single meal if I let him.  Dinner time is F-U-N!)  Seeing Sebastian down all those hidden veggies was enough to convince me.  Nevermind watching demo-man make all those things in under 15 minutes.  By the time he was turning rice into flour I was SOLD.  Until I looked at the very hefty price tag.

Jane and her husband, Nathan, had been talking about getting a Vitamix for a while so she seized the opportunity and bought one.  And then after sleeping on it she returned it the next day unable to justify the price no matter how amazing the blender is.  I didn’t even entertain the idea of getting one.  Until I described it all to Hugh and he said we should get one if I wanted one, if it would help me on my quest to get our family to eat better, healthier, cleaner.  When I got back off the floor I had to ask him to repeat himself because I was in such stunned disbelief.  Since who has an extra $600 on hand for a blender we decided it would have to be bought under "investments in the health of our family”.  Even with Hugh’s green light I didn’t want to buy it.  $600 for a blender on steroids just seemed ridiculous.  And then suddenly, two days later, on the last day the Vitamix was going to be in Costco at a price cheaper than the Vitamix website, it didn’t seem so ridiculous.  I made it to Costco with minutes to spare, and came home the proud new owner of a miracle machine.  I mean how do you put a price on your family’s health?  (I said that very sarcastically in my head.  Did I really just spend $600 on a blender?)

Once I got home I did some happy jumps in my kitchen (literally) and then prepared to awe and amaze my family with homemade coconut ice cream.  No recipe?  No problem!  How hard could it be?  I watched the demo guy throw a carrot, a stick of celery, a whole apple - seeds, stem and core included, and frozen berries into his ice cream concoction.  It was amazing!  (The Vitamix even pulverizes berry seeds so your blends are smooooooooth.)  My concoction of coconut milk, shredded coconut and ice was horrible.  Didn’t work at all.  Didn’t blend properly and we ended up dumping the whole thing.  Fine, I thought.  I’m a Vitamix newbie.  I don’t know the machine well enough yet to be able to make things up as I go along.  I’ll follow a recipe.  I followed Vitamix’ recipe for vanilla ice cream to the letter.  Total bust.  It froze and formed itself properly but was full of ice chunks.  I wanted to take it back right then and there.  Which I actually can do according to Vitamix’ 30 day trial guarantee.  I didn’t take it back though. Costco was already closed.  And Monday Prep Day was coming up and I wanted to test it out.

And that is my really long intro into Monday Prep Day.  More details to come!

Here's a bit more gratuitous cuteness to leave you with.