Blender and Ingredient Storage Issues
After you have chosen your blender, you will run into the storage issues. Or perhaps, you might want to look at blender storage also in part as a decision making point. We hope you select the $240 OMNI Blender.There are two kind of storage issues. The first one is the storage of the blender with its container during those times when you don't use it. The second kind of storage issues considered, is the one storage for ingredients. Both of these things are very important to consider if you want to become a health-focused and dieting-graving smoothie nut (enthusiast).
You see, if you don't see your blender and if it is difficult to access the likelihood of blending will decrease quickly with every extra step you have to set up your next smoothie blending project. Why not trying to make it simple? And to the other hand, on the storage issue for ingredients, you might not have adequate space for more ingredients to choose from when making your ideal-daily smoothie.
Or what if you have bought too many vegetables and they are starting to stink up your refrigerator? And there are the nuts, and grains, new seasonings, dried berries, and sweeteners, etc... Where are you going to put all of that. And do you want your ingredients fresh, how fresh, or perhaps you even consider home-growing your vegetables. Now you need a housekeeper and gardener...
These are some of the questions which I will try to answer:
What happens to the Blender during non-usage?How easy is it for you to setup your blender for your daily blending project?
Do you work from recipes or do you throw together what you might have in the fridge and pantry?
Where to store vegetables and fruits
Dehydrating, Composting, and even Home-growing vegetables in your own greenhouse.
Pantry Storage Area
The image on the left depicts our pantry storage. We have not totally figured it out yet, how to best store the most dry ingredients most efficiently. Sometimes we have to throw away rancid walnuts or flax. The temperature in a kitchen-located pantry area is not always easy.An other issue with the common pantry construction is that glass jars, plastic containers, air-tight sealed bags, etc... have to be used to store your favorite ingredients.
What do you see in our pantry? Obviously you can tell that we are not faking anything here. This is reality. Top left you see lots of nutritional supplements. We even show some canned foods on the middle left shelf in the back. My wife likes spicy sauce. And on the lower left shelf you can see our cashew nuts, the flax already blended in our OMNI blender, pumpkin seeds, and grain.
My personal favorite bag is the one on the center right shelf. It is full of seaweed and dried kelp. When my wife makes raw soup, I usually add kelp and seaweed (algae). We don't have any sugar on board. Do you see a sweetener? If you can guess it or see it, send us an email for a $ 25.00 discount coupon towards your next OMNI Blender purchase.
Refrigerator Storage Area
What do you think is my personal favorite smoothie ingredient in my refrigerator? What do I mostly add to my hot water to make a great soup base? And how do I fill my stomach during snack time?Just to give you an idea, we are a family of 3 (2 adults and Jasmine). Is our refrigerator too full? Perhaps it could be better organized. If you have any ideas of how we can improve, send us your refrigerator pictures to participate in a monthly drawing for a $ 25.00 coupon towards your OMNI Blender purchase.
Why do you think vegetables go bad in the refrigerator? We purchase veggies and fruits all the time so we have ingredients for our smoothies. Sometimes however I don't feel like making smoothies. And the veggies during that time appear to rot faster than normal.
In my experience, it is better to just look into the fridge and see what's in it and choose ingredients from among the inventory, rather than just going shopping for a recipe. But it is certainly not as easy to blend a good tasting smoothie without a recipe. Well, it is not so difficult either, if you have had a chance to practice making smoothies from left-overs.
A refrigerator can help you store your smoothie ingredients longer. You will likely notice that your refrigerator is fuller than normal. Sometimes fruits and vegetables are going bad and you can't make the smoothies often and/or fast enough to keep up with it.
And our little family has actually 2 of these refrigerators...
Freezer Storage Area
The freezer is a cool place to store blueberries, raspberries, blended up fruit jams or purees, and wheat grass juice. The picture to the left shows some of these local and South American goodies. I wish I could grow blueberries myself. They are hot commodity that stay fresh for a long time in a cool place.Most of the time we eat fresh veggies and fruits. During off season times however, the frozen berries, and bananas, pine apples, and grapes come in handy. Normally adding any of these frozen ingredients into a smoothie replaced ice cubes.
Coming from Europe, I hardly ever add ice to my drink, smoothie, or water. The healthiest temperature of food is body temperature. But frozen foods or ice added to your smoothie can help you keep your smoothie cool or chilled if you have to blended it little longer to make it little smoother.
The freezer too is a place that can fill up quickly. It is also easy to forget your precious ingredients in there. And while you may have lots of goodies on ice, it is a plus to one hand to keep getting fresh fruit according season. Frozen fruit can stay good for a long time. Just make sure you protect your cool-stored ingredients against freezer burns.
Can you see the frozen bananas? Have you wondered why I am leaving on the banana peal when blending a green spinach, orange, banana smoothie? Well, I do that because it is not easy to get the peal off a frozen banana. And I figured it can't hurt.We try to purchase organic bananas anyway. But not even then of course, there is a 100% guarantee that there are no chemicals in the banana. I really don't want to be paranoid about this issue. Yes, I want to be as careful as possible about the quality of the fruits and veggies we buy.
How much control does anyone have about the quality of his lifestyle? I suggest, just do the best you can, and at least you can have a smoothie that is as healthy as possible.
And why do we freeze bananas in the peal? Some people told me they freeze there bananas pealed, and cut into cubes. Of course, if that works for you, it is your-best-you-can-do! In my opinion however, I think the banana nutrients are more protected in its original banana peal. And what's the mute discussion about anyway, whether frozen, whether pealed or with peal...? I mean, who cares? The bananas, organic or not, they are not fully ripe anyway. In today's economy and the way our grocery distribution system works, bananas have to be harvested green to arrive at the grocery store fresh unspoiled.
I used to work for Sysco Foods (Distribution) some 10 years ago. I visited a fruit and vegetable distribution once (went on tour). The fruits are exposed to some UV light for exterior ripening processing. It's like a pre-store beauty shop. They make the green bananas yellow(er), oranges more orange, polish up the apples into shiny glossy wax balls, and so on... whether organic or not. It's not that I don't care. But how much control do I have over it? I do the best I can!