Archive for January, 2009

Why Blend a Guide to Smoothies

Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Robert asked:


We talk about juicers enough, but here is our thought on our other favorite tool of choice, the blender. A decent blender in your kitchen is a brilliant tool for healthy drinks no mess, no waste and great easy to digest drinks! The blenders we offer are all tough boys, plenty of power offering easy liquidizing of fruits and veggies, we think when you adopt a raw and fruity life you will need equipment you can depend on.

What to look our for when you buy a blender

POWER, at least 900 watts but the more the merrier, a really powerful blender will make smoother smoothies quicker than a low power machine.

QUALITY particularly in the power socket, a cheap blender will ALWAYS break where the drive from the motor meets the blade driver.

JUG SIZE again, if you are making drinks for the family, the bigger the better, and allow for the drink sloshing around.

CONTROL speed control is an advantage, at low speed you can fold oils and powders into your drinks at high speed you can mill nuts and seeds.

EASY to clean, look for wipe clean surfaces, and simple to clean contours.

Keep things interesting too, if like me you can be a little lazy, equip yourself with a decent recipe book so you’ve always got new things to try. This keeps me primed with new mixes to try and knowledge of the effects of natural additives such as spirulina! There are TONNES of hip books out there, they’re a great help in keeping things fresh!

When you’ve got the time double up the juicer and blender for max nutrition, juice some carrots, ginger and tender stem, throw that juice in the blender and add some pears, pineapple, half an avocado and a couple of scoops of essential food and KAPOW, there you have broad spectrum natural nutrients in a glass! Take a look at our juicer-blender deals.

Remember, the point of consuming smoothies as well as them tasting really good is that liquidized food is easier to digest than food you chomp up, this means it takes less energy to digest and is more thoroughly digested.

If you are new to this fresh and juicy lifestyle here is some help deciding if you need a juicer and a blender and what each tool is for.

So here are a few of our favorite things to chuck in the blender..

Pineapple: just slice it up trim the skin and lob it in

Avocado: a total favorite total food here at JP towers you can’t go wrong with avocado in the mix

Banana: a smoothie staple, too fleshy to juice so in the blender it goes

Berries: blue, straw, black, you name it berries are good for you and add great taste to a smoothie.

Kiwi fruits: rammed full of vitamin C slice them, scoop them and throw it in the blender, the seeds crush up nicely and add protein.

Oranges: buy seedless oranges peel them and blend them great and no waste!

Apples: peel and core they blend well in a powerful machine.

Melon: high water content, great for thinning out a drink so it will go up a straw OK!

Peach: stone out then blend and great taste and texture to any drink

Nuts and seeds: add protein and more to your smoothies with a handful of nuts and seeds. So easy to do and really worth while.

I hope you found this useful and are inspired to start making your own healthy smoothies at home



Lorraine
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Mixing Animation With Blender

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Justin Mongiardo asked:


 

Mixing Animation with Blender

 

Using Blender is known to be a great way to make compelling art projects. No, this does not mean you should put paint inside a kitchen appliance. Rather, it refers to Blender software, a great tool for those interested in the digital arts. What makes Blender even better is that it’s free. Anyone can use it. All it takes is a simple download from the web. Furthermore, Blender is available for most major operating systems. It can run on Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and more.

Blender was developed by an animation company in The Netherlands. The program was originally meant to be used in-house at the Dutch studio NeoGeo. However, its creator, Ton Roosendaal, decided to make the program public. To raise funds, he asked for donations. Within two months, he had enough to release the software under the GNU General Public License. So, on September 7, 2002, Blender became free software.

Today, Blender is continually developed and updated by the Blender Foundation. This is a non-profit organization run by Ton Roosendaal himself. It is funded by donations, which produce enough income to keep Blender’s developers in business. When not enhancing the program, Blender’s developers take the time to create short, digitally animated movies. Two of their most popular works are Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny.

In addition to keeping the program up to date and producing short films, the Blender Foundation also hosts the annual Blender Conference. This is held each year in Amsterdam. Over the course of three days, attendees are invited to share developments they have made using Blender. There are usually several keynote speakers sharing their innovations as well as presentations of quality work. Visitors can also participate in courses and workshops to learn more about the program.

To test different materials, lighting, and texture options, Bender users benefit from Suzanne. Suzanne is a virtual model of a chimpanzee. It is constructed of 500 faces and considered a low-poly model. Suzanne also has an award named after her. Users who are skilled in creating animations with Blender can compete for one of these treasured prizes. Categories include “Best Art,” “Best Animation,” “Best Coding Contribution,” and more. Winners are announced at the annual Blender Conference and receive a Suzanne-shaped statue to show off.

Compared to other programs of this nature, Blender is extremely user-friendly. It has a customizable interface with a vast array of screen setups. What’s more, the interface is the same regardless of what platform you are using. Additionally, Blender features powerful tools that can compete with even the high-end software used by major design firms. Its advanced simulation tools allow you to create rigid bodies, fluids, clothes, and other dynamics in your animation. To discuss additional features would take pages upon pages of text. So, if you want more information, check out Blender’s list of features at http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/features/.

Ultimately, Blender is a great software tool for anyone with an interest in 3-d animation and graphic design. It provides users with an excellent alternative to pricey options. What’s more, its creators are truly dedicated to the industry and to their users. Thus, Blender is easily one of the best free software downloads on the web.

 



Edwin
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I have a food processor do I need a blender?

Sunday, January 4th, 2009
zee asked:


I have a food processor do I need a blender, if I want to make recipes that require a blender, such as hemp milk and smoothies.

Tommy
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