500 Times

Ladies and gentleman, we have  hit a milestone!  In a little over a year {or maybe exactly a year?} we have used the Blendtec 500 times.  Whoa.  That is a lot.  I thought it was especially fitting that we hit that mark on Monday while making our Monday morning blender pancakes.  Hahaha.

 500 Times!  {The kids were not quite as excited about this as I thought they would be.  To be honest, they were all rather ho hum.  Boo.  Hahaha.}

And now, in honor of this 1 year anniversary and momentous occasion, I will give you a completely unsponsored {and unsolicited} user review.  Haha.  First off, when I bought this last year {I'm pretty sure I bought it for myself as a little bonus gift when we sold our house so quickly last spring}, I did a LOT of debating and going back and forth over whether I should go with the Blendtec or the Vitamix.  I was really torn.  And for those of you who know how incredibly undecided I can be when having to choose certain things {*cough* paint colors *cough cough*}, it was a really tough call.  Especially because they cost so much money.  I didn't want to fork over a bunch of dough and then be left with a bunch of buyer's remorse.  In the end, I went with the Blendtec because I'd heard so many favorable reviews from friends AND because a couple of those friends had even just sold their Vitamixes to fund a new Blendtec.

Overall, I would say I've been really happy with the blender.  Here are the pros {in my opinion, of course}:

• The jar can be put in the dishwasher {top rack only}.
• When not in use, I can fit it in a cabinet to keep it out of sight.
• It's not overly heavy.
• They have GREAT customer service. {I think the first jar I got was a little faulty to begin with, but when it started leaking out of the bottom some time back in the fall, I was able to call in, explain the problem, and have them send me a NEW jar -- completely free of charge -- all within a few days.}
• It has a powerful enough motor to blend all kinds of stuff.
• I use it almost everyday {and sometimes MULTIPLE times in a day} and it's still going strong.

The only cons:

• I think the Vitamix is more powerful overall -- and I especially love its tamper stick in the lid to help break up bigger chunks of food.
• I still have to stop every now and then to use a spoon and stir everything around when making bigger batches of smoothies, especially when there's lots of frozen fruit inside.  I'm sure this is due to my not having the "proper ratio" and layering of liquids and frozen foods, but still.  It does make me wish for that Vitamix tamping stick every time it happens.
• But that's about it.  Overall, the pros obviously outweigh the cons and I am happy I went with the Blendtec.

So there you go!  A little midweek product review for you.  Hahaha.  In case you're wondering what exactly we use the blender for so often, the answer is a lot.  Although, it's most frequent use is for pancakes on Monday and Wednesday mornings.  :)

{We have also been making a lot of fruit smoothies now that the weather is warming up.  The kids don't know it, but I always doctor those smoothies up with SOMETHING.  Hahaha.  Usually it's just chia seeds, but sometimes I throw flax in there as well and/or protein powder.  The nice thing is that even if they don't drink the smoothies -- because Ethan pretty much never will -- I can freeze the leftovers in the popsicle molds I bought at Target last summer and EVERYONE will eat popsicles.  Hahaha.}

Totally unrelated, but THIS is what lover boy did while I was trying to get dressed this morning.  {Don't worry -- no toddlers were harmed in the crash of EVERYTHING falling over.}