Vitamix Venturist V1200

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I've been a Vitamix customer since 2008. I have owned the vitamix 5200, the vitamix 6300 professional series and now I own the Venturist 1200. I have loved every version of the Vitamix that I have gotten...until now.

 Things I love

I love the power and versatility of this machine. I love that I can throw in anything frozen or fresh and it blends everything smoothly.  I love love love the tamper as it makes it possible to push ingredients into the blade for a smoother blend over all. I love that I can make ice cream, smoothies, or soup sauces, salsa, pizza sauce, and so much more in this blender.  I can also blend my own flour and make my own almond milk or peanut butter. It does a ton of things and I don't think I can live without a powerful blender for very long. I also love how easy it is to use and the fact that I can control it myself or use the presets.

Things I don't love

I also dislike that I have to use the app to get the presets to work.  I don't want to have to pull out my phone and connect the app to the blender then go in and find the preset I want lost deep in the app somewhere.  It's not quick or convenient enough.  The 6300 had the presets right on the blender and they worked nicely.

I absolutely hate the new containers.  The 64 OZ low profile container is terrible.  Everything I make is either watery or chunky.  I can't get the perfect blend even with the tamper unless I make a full jar(which I never do unless I have company).

I also have the personal size container and the sauce container both of which would be great if I could use the tamper with them, but I can't so they also make everything chunky. Vitamix does have a 48 OZ container that the claim would work better but it costs an extra 100.00 or more to get it. I already spent 500.00 on the blender and the parts it came with.  I'm not forking out another 100.00 to get a container that works.

Customer service is not my favorite either. I emailed them to see if there was anything I could do to get a better blend.  They wrote back but they treated me pretty poorly and didn't solve my problem.  I'm definitely going back to my 5200 or better yet maybe I will try Blentec instead.

 

Big Boss Oil Less Fryer

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So I've been testing out this oil less fryer that I got for Christmas.

An oil less fryer is supposed to let you enjoy the same type of foods (with the same deep fried taste) that  you would in a deep fryer with less to no oil. So, it's supposed to be healthier that way.  It's pretty awesome, but there is a huge learning curve when it comes to cooking in this thing. I've tried chicken wings, frozen Talapia several different ways, chicken breast, fish sticks, frozen sweet potato fries, and fresh cut fries in it so far.

The sweet potato fries turned out great following the suggested cooking time.  The wings also turned out well. I had to flip them over half way through the cooking time.  The fish with no breading turned out great. the fish with breading was cooked nicely, but the breading didn't turn out like it does in a deep fryer.  It was more dry. It still tasted good though. I also tried battered fish and the batter turned out leathery. So I don't think I will be battering anything is it again.

 

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The fresh cut fries were difficult. I tried several batches and searched Pinterest for several hours two days in a row before I found a solution that turned out good tasting, with the right texture, and crispy. First I just cut up some potatoes and tossed them in the fryer with the low rack in and the basket.  Turns out all you really need to do is toss the fries in a tiny bit of oil before cooking them. Then they turn out awesome.  this picture looks like there is oil on the fries but there is not. I added a few spices and some salt in to the the bag before tossing in olive oil.  You could likely just spritz them with oil and get the same result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Thing I really don't like about this fryer is that it is massive and you can't cook large amounts in it.  So it takes up tons of real estate on the counter top for not much yield.  This is the reason I gave the Big Boss Oil less Fryer one thumb up.