We’re far from starving here, but I always get excited when it’s “food day” – the day that I hate to love, when our monthly food order comes in. I love getting a new supply of fresh, wonderful, Good for You food. I hate getting up early and going out in the cold and dark to unload the truck. But I guess that beats going out to the Walmart zoo to buy groceries. (I do that as little as possible.)

Part of this month's food order

We order much of our family’s food from Azure Standard, an organic farm and natural food supply company based out of Oregon. We’ve been doing so for about a couple years now, ever since our local food buying club, that I’d been a member of for over 25 years, started dwindling out. It has been a great solution for us.

We get great foods, mostly organic. They have a good assortment of organic fresh fruits and vegetables, all except the delicate, highly perishable ones. They have organic of most everything – nuts, dried fruits, raw honey, grains, spices, pasta, and frozen vegetables. Buying this all in bulk saves us a great amount of money. They have raw goat’s cheese, organic olive oil, and the few organic “processed” foods we buy – organic canned tomato products, organic all-fruit spread, and this time of year, organic canned pumpkin. We don’t live in a city, so we can’t find most of these things organic locally. But even what we can, we usually can’t afford to buy them in the small package sizes and with the health store operating mark-up.

Azure Standard is a family farm dedicated to raising a standard worthy of their name. Azure is a shade of blue associated with law, justice, and honesty. In 1971 they converted their farm to organic, cold-turkey – both commercial and personal crops. In 1987 Azure Standard was born. In addition to products they raise themselves, they’ve sought out other farm-grown natural products, mostly organic, to offer their customers. We believe they live up to their standard. We’ve been very happy with the quality of food and service (except that early morning truck.)

Getting our food couldn’t be easier (except for that early morning truck.) Once a month (before the cut-off date for our delivery) we browse their online catalog. (Actually you can mark your “favorite” items and have them placed in a Favorites List. I basically shop from that list that I’ve made up of the things we order. I also check the current produce and specials.) Fill your virtual shopping cart and check out with a debit or credit card, and your order shows up at your door few days later.

You can order for UPS delivery (not all items available for that.) Or you can check to see if they make deliveries in your area. I am on their route, down I-80, and am a drop point. A semi-truck brings my order (and the orders of those who have joined my drop point) to my driveway. (Of course, he has a lot of other orders on that truck too.) To set up a drop point you need a minimum order of $550. You can have as many people on your drop point as you want to make up that minimum. Each must place a personal minimum order of $50.

Azure has proved itself to be so much easier than my previous co-op buying club. Everyone places their own order, and pays for it online. No compiling orders, no collecting money. Everyone’s order comes boxed individually. No dividing case lots. (Did I mention you don’t have to order in case lots? Another plus.) Everyone comes to delivery and takes their boxes right off the truck. We’re done in about 10 minutes. (Then I get to go in and put it all away.)

Azure Standard is a super answer for our family for buying quality, organic food at affordable prices. (When you go to their website, create an account. The prices will be cheaper than what you initially see.)

Thank you Azure Standard for providing us Food Glorious Food. And Thank you God for giving us the blessing of Azure Standard. (And no, I don’t get anything for this endorsement. I just love Azure and want to tell everyone about it, so they can see if it is available to them to meet their Good for You-Naturally!™ food needs.)

Me and My House ministries is now an authorized affiliate of Blendtec® super blenders.

Because we emphasize that the Vitamix® (another popular high performance blender in the same class as the Blendtec®) is NOT a juicer – AND because we very highly recommend juicing, and purchasing a good juicer as the #1 needed kitchen appliance – some get the false idea that we are against super blenders, such as the Vitamix® and Blendtec®.

As noted on our Juicer page of our Recommended Resources, we believe these super blenders are great machines – just not juicers. And we don’t believe they take the place of juicers or produce a food product of higher quality than juice extractors. (Therefore we aren’t too thrilled with their promotions of blending food being better than juicing. We don’t believe it.)

But, we do believe they can be a great addition to the Good for You-Naturally!™ kitchen, especially for those desiring to eat a high percentage of G.O.D. foods. These super blenders can do in short order what your normal blender cannot do well, or cannot do for very long without burning out.

Why Blendtec®? Blendtec® and Vitamix® are both great high performance blenders. I think most would be happy with either one. There are a few differences, and those led me to go with Blendtec®. This is nothing against Vitamix®, just our choice at this time for Blendtec®.

Both are super blenders that operate at well over 200 miles per hour (29000+ RPM) and have high (2-3+) horsepower. (The Vitamix® is 11.5 amps and 1200 watts and the Blendtec® is 13 amps and 1560 watts. Regular blenders may have 300-500 watts.) These super blenders get the job done – and do it quickly – whether you are wanting a truly smooth smoothie or great almond milk. This high performance blending breaks down cellular walls in foods, allowing us to get greater nutrient quantity out of them. Both can make everything from frozen ice cream to hot soup. Both have 64 oz. BPA-free jars. Both are used in juice bars, coffee shops and restaurants, such as Jamba Juice, Starbucks, and Panera Bread. (There’s growing competition as some switch from Vitamix® to Blendtec®. I believe all those listed now use Blendtec®.)

Here are my reasons for going with Blendtec®.

1) The Blendtec® is shorter. It fits on your counter under your upper cupboards. The Vitamix® is about 5″ taller and doesn’t fit under standard cupboards.

2) The Blendtec® has an electronic “keypad” operation, rather than knobs and switches. Makes for easier clean up. It also is “programed” with 6 different cycles that automatically shut off, in addition to 10 manual speeds and Pulse.

3) The Blendtec® has a square jar design, and a 2-winged blade, making it easier to clean out. Get every last bit of that expensive food out easily. The blade design (curved up at the tips) also creates a vortex pulling food down into the blades better. The Vitamix® blender is small at the bottom, and has a 4-winged blade, making it harder to clean out, and uses a tamper to push the food into the blades.

4) The Blendtec® has a bit smaller footprint and is a lighter in weight (7# vs. 11#.) The first is important to me in my horribly undersized kitchen for our large family that prepares all food from scratch. The second is important for taking it along with me when traveling. (This is also a plus for having a blender separate from my kitchen center.)

5) The price of these super blenders is usually pretty comparable, but the Blendtec® is generally a bit cheaper (about $50 less.) (I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Vitamix® cheaper than the Blendtec®.) It also doesn’t need a second container for dry blending, which the Vitamix® does – and costs extra.

6) I have owned and sold the Blendtec® predecessors and was very happy with them. We used to use and sell the K-Tec® flour mill and the Champ® kitchen center, with blender. That blender was a workhorse that I never had any problems with. I remember our youngest daughter at the time being so impressed by the video. She said, “Get one of those mama!” If you want to be impressed by videos too, go to Will It Blend and watch Tom, the CEO of Blendtec®, blend all sorts of things you shouldn’t try at home.

7) Just to round things out, but not a really good reason. I like the looks of the Blendtec® better. Not so industrial looking. AND the red goes great in my kitchen!

Sooo – if you already have a good juicer (Champion or Green Star) and you are planning to up your percentage of raw G.O.D. foods, a Blendtec® high performance blender may be next appliance you want to look at getting (or a good dehydrator.) It would make a great Christmas present for your family, so you can get started in the New Year with your new Good for You-Naturally!™ way of eating.

And there is a GREAT sale going on right now, until Dec. 21st (2009.) Get the Blendtec® with 2 containers for the price of 1. Get the regular 64 oz. jar and also the new 3 qt. jar with 4″ blade for even better blending!

See our Blendtec® page in our Good for You-Naturally!™ Resource & Recommendations online catalog.