I just use these jars when empty to make my daily milkshakes. (Some shaking required.) No fuss, no muss, and a breeze to clean.
If you want the best, used in many Michelin star kitchens too, get a Bimby: https://thermomix.vorwerk.com/thermomix/
Is Bimby and Thermomix the same? Bimby is a registered trademark for Vorwerk's Thermomix in Portugal and in Italy. For global Thermomix fans, the two names are often interchangeable. Thermomix may be its official name, but Bimby is its friendly nickname. However, seeing as how it is priced anywhere from $1,500 to $1,800, this is an appliance you could not justify purchasing for yourself in a million years, given your personal lifestyle.
I have been in food and drink professionally for most of my life. As I mentioned above, this is If you want the best. So Bimby is the European nickname... I don't know who's personal lifestyle you are referring to, but I know a lot of Italian young ladies and professional chefs with a bimby in the kitchen.
I started this thread as "a convenient spot for me to archive" information for myself, so I'm referring to me personally. Yes, clearly this appliance is far superior to most in that there is almost nothing it cannot do! If I too were involved in food and drink at or near the same level of professionals, no doubt, this might be a piece of equipment I simply could not do without.
FLOURLESS THUMBPRINT BREAKFAST COOKIES Healthy, wholesome breakfast cookies sweetened with banana. These cookies are soft, doughy, and dense—almost like portable baked oatmeal. Have fun changing up this recipe with different mix-ins, like chopped nuts or seeds. Recipe inspired by Ambitious Kitchen. INGREDIENTS 2 cups rolled oats (use certified gluten-free if necessary) 1 cup (250 mL) mashed ripe banana (about 2 very large) 3 tablespoons chia seeds or ground flaxseed 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon fine grain sea salt 8 teaspoons (40 mL) jam Peanut butter (or almond or sunflower seed butter), for serving (optional) DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a food processor, add the oats and pulse until a coarse meal forms. Don't process it into a flour, some big flakes are good. In a large bowl, stir together the processed oats, mashed banana, chia seeds, cinnamon, and salt until combined. The mixture will be very wet and dense. With a retractable ice cream scoop or a spoon, scoop the dough into 10 mounds. (The cookies do not need to be spaced far apart on the baking sheet as they don't spread out.) Press your thumb into the centre of each cookie to create a well. Fill each well with 1 heaping teaspoon of jam. Bake cookies at 350°F (180°C) for 11 to 13 minutes, until the cookies are slightly firm on the outside, but soft and doughy in the middle. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. If desired, pipe on your favourite nut butter. These cookies also taste great with a pat of coconut oil on top! TIP: To make the cookies nut-free, omit the peanut butter topping or swap it with sunflower seed butter instead.
Two ingredient Healthy Pancakes (Gluten, grain + Diary-Free; no added sugar) These pancakes are so easy to make, you only need two base ingredients (bananas + eggs) to make them. The ratio is also super easy to remember so making these pancakes in the morning is a snap! Notes: The basis of the pancake is extremely simple, just roughly 1 medium UK egg (US large egg) per 3 or 4 tbsp of mashed banana. But, I like to add a few things to it to make it more awesome. (Yeah, right...so I might as well just go ahead and stick with the recipe I attached to page 5, Post #43; seeing as how I have no objections to eating whole wheat, and am not limited by a gluten-free diet.) How to make healthy pancakes, tips for success: These pancakes can be slightly tricky to master at first. Once you’ve practiced a bit you’ll be a pro though, so don’t give up! The batter doesn’t have flour supporting it so you have to make a few adjustments to how you might normally make pancakes: Make the pancakes SMALL! Silver-dollar style pancakes are going to be best here. They’re easier to flip and won’t break. Use a non-stick frying pan. You seriously need it here as the sugar in the banana makes the batter stick to the pan more easily. The non-stick coating plus a little spritz of oil will really help you here. Cook low and sloooow. This method means that the batter on top will cook more making them easier to flip when the time comes. The underside will be less likely to burn as well (again, as the banana has sugar it’s more likely to burn) Use a thin metal spatula for flipping – you can even use a metal offset spatula. Those plastic/silicone ones are probably not going to be useful here as they are too thick to be able to get under the pancake successfully. Blend the ingredients together with a stick blender (immersion blender) to make a smooth batter. This will make the batter have the best texture. No lumps of banana in the batter = easier to flip! Consider adding in a bit of nut/seed butter/ PB powder/ ground almonds (almond flour). This makes them not 2 ingredients, but still ultra simple. I recommend this when you’re getting used to working with the batter. Then when you’ve made them a few times like this, you can remove the nut butter/whatever you’re using as you’ll be more likely to succeed.
BANANA BREAD BAKED OATMEAL INGREDIENTS: 3 large bananas (about 1 1/2 cups/350g mashed banana) 1 cup milk of choice 1 egg 2 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cup (150g) gluten free quick oats or gluten free rolled oats 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda Optional: add in ~1/4 cup honey/maple syrup/sugar if you like things sweet or whatever mix ins you like! (see ideas above) I sweeten desserts with Medjool or Deglet Noor dates. INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F Grease and/or line an 8 × 8" baking dish with baking paper Mash your bananas and add in your egg, milk and vanilla. Add in your dry ingredients and stir to combine. Leave to soak for about 15 minutes. Pour your oatmeal into your baking dish and bake for 30-45 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. Either serve immediately and spoon out your hot baked oatmeal or leave to cool before slicing. The oatmeal will stay fresh in the fridge for 2-3 days and freezes perfectly (which means you can keep it for months for a quick and easy breakfast!)
I received and unsolicited invite from Dr. Steven Gundry in my email inbox yesterday, which prompted me to begin looking into the guy... Lara Hyde, PhD. writes that in The Plant Paradox, cardiologist Dr. Steven Gundry proposes that a lectin-free diet is the cure for nearly all health woes, which is what I think he probably talks about in this video (which I admittedly have not watched). However, because this guy strikes me as being a bit of a crackpot (which is just my subjective impression and not an objective, fact-based opinion) I opted to watch this video about Gundry’s theory made by Hyde. It's her opinion that there is a lack of research to substantiate the doctor's claims. But, here are critiques of her comments in the video: Gundry never said to not eat fruits or beans. There are over 15 fruits on his list that you can eat. And he said that beans can be eaten if cooked with a pressure cooker. And with tomatoes, you remove the skin and the seeds. Dr. Gundry does NOT eliminate legumes, etc. He eats them! He just wants people to be aware of preparing them correctly just like the ancient Okinawan people did to lower the lectins count. Proof is in the pudding. My health issues have disappeared since following Dr. Gundry’s advice. As a biologist it was interesting to me what he had to say and why. I got on his nutritional diet and not without difficulty. It has been about a month and it seems this new diet is a positive for me. Given that I see no need for this diet for me personally, I plan to check into whether I can access Gundry’s book online at reduced cost (or no cost) just out of curiosity. In any case, Hyde responded to what I considered to be the best critique of her video (but was too long to include here) by writing the following: Yes, I certainly agree with you that there is a need for more rigorous science in nutrition, especially in the area of autoimmune disease and diet from both the cause and management perspectives. If this diet works for managing your symptoms and your GI is on board then great, my issues are more pertaining to the diet being recommended as a cure-all for such a wide range of conditions outside of autoimmune diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. There is such consistent evidence that diets high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes reduces risk of CVD and type 2 diabetes that I cringe when I see messaging that sways away from these knowns. It’s possible that avoidance of lectins or certain compounds in some lectin-containing foods are beneficial in the management of autoimmune diseases, but that is a much narrower application than is presented by Dr. Gundry. What I think we can both call for is more research - start with case studies of these personal stories in the medical literature and move forward to clinical trials to pinpoint whether avoidance of lectins/some other components of lectin-containing foods is effective in autoimmune management so that practitioners can make evidence based recommendations. Thanks for your comment! I read them all. So then, this "controversy" seems to come down to how I feel about the attitude of a lot of so-called experts, including many traders here on ET, which is to say: Don’t assume that what you do successfully will work for everyone and in every single circumstance, and don't assume that what doesn't work for you is not going to work for anyone or in any circumstance. In the end, I think each individual needs to do his or her own research, and then do the best they can to make an objective decision about what will work best for them personally.