10 Amazing Things You Can Do with Your Blendtec Blender|Blendtec Recipes

Did you know that you can make your own almond butter with your blender? You can also make jam, ice cream, bread and soup, just to name a few Blendtec recipes. I love using my blender to make many of the foods my family and I eat daily, PB&J being one of those. The benefit of saving money on your grocery bill comes to mind, but it's also a very good feeling when you know exactly what ingredients are going into the foods you and your family are daily eating.

In this article, I'm going to highlight 10 amazing things you can do with your Blendtec total blender which will hopefully inspire you to get into the kitchen and start creating some delicious food of your own. I make no apologies being a Blendtec purist. If you love your Blendtec, you'll love these ideas.

If you haven't discovered Blendtec blender yet, you are in for a treat. The Blendtec has a high horsepower motor that functions at up to 29,000 rpm’s with over 1500 watts. This commercial grade blender is not only one of the most powerful appliances on the market, but it's priced lower than other similar commercial grade blenders. Here are some of the highlights of having a Blendtec blender:

• Powerful-up to 29,000 rpm’s
• Easy to use-auto buttons with pre-programmed cycles that allow you to blend hands-free
• Easy to clean-just add warm water and soap and hit the pulse button for a few seconds
• Multi-functional-it's a juicer, food processor, mixer, smoothie maker, snow cone maker, ice cream maker, nut butter maker and more, all in one
• Nice looking and practical appliance that fits nicely under your counter
• The included BPA plastic, large, square blender jar that holds up to two quarts, comes with a tight lid
• Amazing warranties-lifetime warranty on the blade; 3 year warranty on the motor; and a one year warranty on the lid
• Best smoothie blender on the market because it evenly blends everything and it maximizes your nutritional content-you can add in whole nuts or seeds and greens and the consistency of the smoothie remains smooth

Sorbet is such a nice, healthy frozen treat. Most sorbets are dairy-free and vegan and contain frozen fruit juice, sugar/sweetener and water. Ice cream is based on dairy products with air copiously whipped in, sorbet has neither, which makes for a dense and extremely flavourful product. There are many kinds of sorbet out there. Some mouth watering recipes I've come across are Strawberry-Lime, Mojito Sorbet and Pina Colada. When making sorbet in your Blendtec blender, be sure to use frozen fruit, as fresh fruit will result in a slushy consistency. Simple assemble all the ingredients in your Wildside or Twister jar and press the "ice cream" button. Add more water in if the sorbet is too thick.

If you're looking for a dairy-free and healthy beverage option, almond milk is a great option. Do keep in mind that almond milk doesn't provide enough protein or calcium to be a true substitute, so make sure you're getting enough protein and calcium from other sources too. Almond milk offers several health benefits:

• Weight management-a cup of almond milk has 60 calories while cow's milk ranges from 86 to 146 calories, depending on the fat content (1 %, 2%, whole or skim).
• Heart healthy-there’s no cholesterol or saturated fat in almond milk and it's high in healthy fats like omega fatty acids.
• Almonds keep your bones strong by giving 25 percent of the recommended amount of vitamin D, reducing your risk for arthritis and osteoporosis.
• Almond milk doesn't contain lactose.
• It's low in carbs, so your blood sugar levels won't be increased.
• Improves digestion-Almond milk contains 1 gram of fiber per serving.

Almond Milk

Your blender can make nut milks such as almond milk and cashew milk. There are plenty of other nuts you can make milk out of, and your Blendtec, the best blender can handle them all like a champ. Simply follow the recipe and soak the almonds in water overnight, then rinse and add almonds to fresh water into your Wildside jar, pressing the "Whole Juice" button. Then strain the liquid through a cheesecloth or a nut milk bag to remove the almond skins and pulp. Rinse the jar and add the liquid and put in the rest of the ingredients (vanilla extract, salt and agave nectar), pressing the "pulse" button 3-5 times. Excluding soaking the almonds overnight, the whole almond milk making process took me about 10-15 minutes.

Nut Butters

You can make all sorts of nut butters with your Blendtec total blender, including peanut butter, almond butter, and cashew butter (and cashew cream!), just to name a few. One of the best parts about making your own nut butters (besides saving money) is the fact that there is only one ingredient in your recipe: nuts. Be sure to add the nuts in slowly, only a handful at a time, as too many nuts at once will clog up the blade. You might find it more labour intensive making nut butters in your Wildside jar as you will need to frequently scrap down the sides. The Blendtec Twister jar (sold separately) can be used in place of the Wildside jar. The Twister jar is designed for ultra thick recipes like nut butters and humous and the Twister lid has tines that rotate and push ingredients off the side and into the blending vortex. This completely eliminates manually scraping down the sides and it saves time.

Normally store-bought fruit leather is banned in our home (non-essential grocery item/full of sugar). I know my kids would love fruit leather and I grew up eating homemade fruit leather. The lack of time and proper equipment is the ongoing issue I have with fruit leather (I don't have a fruit dehydrator and if I did, I wouldn't have space to store it). There's a great blender recipe for strawberry-peach fruit leather. There's no added sugar in this recipe, and I can use my oven to make this fruit leather. What you need to do is to add all the ingredients to your FourSide or WildSide jar. Secure lid and select "Batter."

Pour onto 13-x-15-inch pan covered with parchment paper. Dehydrate mixture in oven for 8–12 hours at 170°F or in food dehydrator until top is no longer sticky.

Did you know you can make all sorts of batters in your Blendtec? Pancakes, crepes, waffles, breads, scones and muffins. Seriously, if you haven't figured out yet that a Blendtec is the best blender in the world, you're majorly missing out. This Cocoa Crepes recipe looks promising, as well as these healthy and delicious protein crepes.

This Lemon Frozen Yogurt is simple and delicious. All you need to do is add in your ingredients and hit the "Ice Cream" button, and you're done.

I found this Mocha Frappe recipe in my Blendtec recipe book that came with my blender. This drink is quite possibly better than a Starbucks Frappachino. Just freeze double strength coffee into an ice cube tray and add in milk, agave, and chocolate syrup and you've got yourself a refreshing blended coffee drink (and you saved yourself $4.25).

For a nice, basic guacamole recipe, this is a good one for your Blendtec blender. Add lime juice, shallot, garlic, and salt to FourSide jar in order listed and secure lid. Press "Pulse" 2–3 times. Add avocados and cilantro to jar, secure lid, and press "Pulse" 8–10 times.

Tahini is a sauce made of sesame seeds, also known as sesame paste or sesame butter. You can add tahini to humous or babaganoush recipes or use it as a base for salad dressing.

Place half the sesame seeds into your Blendtec Twister Jar, fitted with twister lid. Blend on high (or use the whole juice setting) while turning the lid counter-clockwise. Repeat this 3-4 times until sesame seed butter is smooth and creamy. Scrape into a wide-mouth mason jar and repeat for 2nd half of sesame seeds. Store in refrigerator.