I received this stick blender from the CSN stores in order to do a review of one of their products – thank you very much CSN!  Like I mentioned in my previous review of my Cuisinart Quick Prep Stick Blender, I wasn’t too happy with it’s performance.

A few things that I don’t like about the Quick Prep blender are:

• It never really got the soup or smoothie really smooth and bits of food would get stuck in the plastic surrounding the blade.
• It was a pain to clean because the blade doesn’t detach from the motor.
• Plastic instead of stainless steel.

However, my new Smart Stick blender – the one pictured above – really performs so much better than it’s little brother.

The number one great thing about the Smart Stick Blender compared to the Quick Prep Blender is that it actually gets the food smooth!  Plus, food doesn’t get stuck in the holds on the side of blender like the Quick Prep.  When I make smoothies with it, it blends up the fruit quickly and very smoothly – so yummy!  My smoothies made with the Quick Prep were always a bit lumpy.   Because of this, my son was never very fond of them – go figure!  But yesterday I made a smoothie with the Smart Stick and he said, “I do really love this smoothie, mom!”

Beyond smoothies:  The other thing I have used the Smart Stick blender for was making lentil pate for a personal chef client of mine.  And the amazing thing is I used the stick blender to do this and it blended everything up beautifully with barely any liquid at all.

The other wonderful thing about the Smart Stick is that the blade component detaches from the motor and cord so that you can clean it very easily under running water.  The Quick Prep blender was always a pain to clean because I could never get the entire blender low enough in the sink in order to easily clean the blade.  Plus, I never wanted to get water close to the motor and cord.

It gets better.  The Smart Stick Blender comes with some nifty attachments – a chopper and a whisk.  Now these are awesome to me because my Cuisinart Food Processor, while a wonderful piece of equipment, is very heavy and large.  I love that I can use the small chopping attachment on the Smart Stick Blender to chop up small portions of nuts or ginger.  Plus because it’s so much smaller, it’s much easier to clean as well.

As for the whisk attachment, I haven’t had a chance or opportunity to use this yet.  The thing I would use it for would most likely to whip egg whites instead of using the mixer – which is also quite large.  But since I haven’t been eating eggs, I just haven’t tried it yet.  But I am assuming that because the motor is 200 watts of power, it would do fine job at whisking some egg whites.

If you have never tried using a stick blender, you might consider adding this piece of equipment to your kitchen.  The main thing I love using it for is blending up soups because you can blend them directly in the pot of soup instead of transferring them to a blender.  It really is very versatile, very light and very easy to clean.

Plus this particular model is on sale at CSN for around $50.  I bought the Quick Prep for $30 but if I had known was a huge difference there was in performance, I would have originally purchased the Smart Stick.  It’s simply so much “smarter” and the Quick Prep simply doesn’t compare.

I might add that I’m not getting “paid” to write this review, other than the fact that CSN gave me the stick blender.  So if you purchase a Smart Stick from CSN or any other store, I do not make a commission.   But what I do care about is sharing about something that makes my life a lot easier in the kitchen!

Happy cooking!

For the times I don’t read reviews and make a really informed choice before handing over my cash, I do sometimes end up with something I am not extremely happy about.  Last winter I bought a Cuisinart Quick Prep stick blender from Sear’s and I thought it would do the job.  My old one had been recently retired and I didn’t realize at the the time that stick blenders are not created equal!

Here is a picture of the stick blender that I have.  First of all I should have followed my intuition and purchased a blender with metal around the blade because I use the blender for blending up soups and have been steering away from using plastic.  But for whatever reason, I purchased this one.

The other thing that simply does not thrill me about this blender is that bits of food constantly get stuck inside the little holes around the base of the “blade shield.”  I can’t really blend up pea soup or plum smoothies without a mess of unblended food getting stuck in these holes.  This results in having to bang the stick blender against the pot or cup numerous times before it eventually gets blended.  And sometimes, even then, it is not as smooth as I’d like it.

So!  I have decided to take up CSN’s offer for me to review one of their products so that I can try out a new stick blender.  So, keep an eye out for a review of a different stick blender!

By the way, if you don’t have a stick blender, please consider buying one.  They make your life in the kitchen so much easier (when you have a good one).  Some of them even have an attachment for chopping nuts as well as whisking liquids.  I find it so much easier to pull out the stick blender than the food processor or counter blender for smaller jobs.  And it’s great to use for creaming soups because you don’t have to transfer the hot liquid to a blender – which can be somewhat dangerous.

]]> http://allergyfreemenuplanners.com/2010/08/27/great-deals-on-cookware-at-csn-stores/feed/ 2 http://allergyfreemenuplanners.com/2010/01/15/review-of-tropical-traditions-gold-label-virgin-coconut-oil/ http://allergyfreemenuplanners.com/2010/01/15/review-of-tropical-traditions-gold-label-virgin-coconut-oil/#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:27:41 +0000 Sarah http://www.heartofcooking.com/?p=2213 Last summer I was gifted a bottle of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut oil along with the book, Virgin Coconut Oil by the company.  It has taken me this long to write a review of the coconut oil because of what I experienced when I started eating the oil on a regular basis.

At the time of receiving the oil and the book, I knew of coconut oil’s nourishing and healing qualities.  I wrote a post about it in the fall of 2008 talking about the different qualities of coconut oil.  I even wrote:

“The principle fatty acid in coconut milk, lauric acid, is a medium-chain 12-carbon saturated fatty acid that has potent antiviral, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties.”  Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

However, I was also not eating coconut oil regularly enough to really benefit from its highly nourishing and healing properties.  But when I received the Tropical Traditions oil and read most of the book about its qualities, I decided to start eating it regularly.

The book warned to take things slow.  Because of its healing properties, the coconut oil can help to release toxins from the body.  However, if this happens to quickly, one can be subject to a “die off” effect or a “healing crisis,” also known as a Herxheimer reaction.  This is when too many toxins are trying to leave the body but the body isn’t able to do it quickly enough.  The result of this is people can often feel sick and achy, like they are getting a cold or a flu bug.  Or they can have old symptoms return for a day up to several months, depending on how much toxic build up there is in the system.

So I started taking a tsp or so of oil, but still ended up overdoing it somehow.  I woke up in a couple of days with what felt like an ear infection and my energy was very low.  I felt like I was getting sick, but it turns out I never really did get sick.  The feeling cleared within a day and I felt fine again.  I realized that it was my body’s way of telling me to take things even slower so I did.  I am now up to eating a couple tablespoons a day with no problem but it took me some time to get there.

The other thing that started happening when I ate the oil on a daily basis is a tiny rash on my hand started to grow.  This rash had come and gone the past year or so, maybe longer, but had never really bothered me.  But when I ate the coconut oil, it grew and eventually spanned my entire palm on my left hand.  It eventually crept onto my fingers and at its worst, it was very itchy, dry and cracked.

A few months after starting the coconut oil, I eased myself into the full GAPS diet, eliminating grains, starches and refined sugars from my diet.  This too created some die-off in my body and the rash continued to persist.  I treated it with calendula ointment because although I had a history of eczema, I came to the conclusion that it was a way that the toxins were leaving my body due to eating the coconut oil and changing my diet.

Sometime in December, the rash started to improve dramatically where it was no longer itchy and cracked and new and healthy skin was beginning to grow.  It is still not 100% but at this point, it is only a tiny bit dry and red in one place. So it took about six months of eating the coconut regularly and changing my diet for it to finally clear!

There have been other amazing changes in my life due to eating coconut oil – you can read about them in My Healing Journey section.

I find this truly amazing and I am sure that it is due to Tropical Traditions traditional methods of harvesting and processing the coconuts to make cold-pressed virgin coconut oil.  You can read about the process that they use on their website, which is based on the traditional ways of harvesting coconuts that has been used for centuries.

I highly recommend their products!  If you haven’t tried eating coconut oil regularly, I would recommend using their coconut oil because of its high levels of antioxidants found in lab analysis.

I personally use it for almost everything – I use it to saute food in my cast iron skillets.  I use it in place of butter in baking.  I make coconut candy out of it by freezing it with other ingredients like honey, peppermint extract and shredded coconut.  And I often eat it by the spoonful at the end of the day.  It becomes solid when it is cool enough and therefore kind of like eating almond butter by the spoonful, which I also enjoy.  I used to put it in oatmeal or hot cereal but no longer eat grains.  I know some people put it in smoothies or hot cocoa or other hot drinks.

I hope you have found this post inspiring you to eat coconut oil more regularly!

How do you use coconut oil?  I’d love to hear more ways to use it!