Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I got this for my birthday from my husband and son, they are good boys! It was something we had looked at on the TV ads and kept thinking on and surprise, I did get one! I was so happily surprised with the way this contraption did absolutely everything they claimed on the TV ad, although we're not normally the infomercial buying kind of people, we wait for them to hit the stores to trek the "As Seen on TV Isle".
I always start off with a warning when needed, so WARNING, THE BLADES ARE FREAKING SHARP, My husbands already cut himself at least three times just barely touching them, always-always-always keep the blade locked inside the containers, the other pieces can float around your drawers or wherever you keep them, but the blades, keep them locked inside the pitcher/blender units. The Pitchers are also plastic, they don't mar or cut easily, but the blades can and will scar them up, so careful keeping your pitchers shiny and happy.
When washing, we place the blade in the dishwasher first, then the pitcher upside down on top of the blade, relative to which blade it belongs to, this keeps you from cutting yourself loading or unloading the dishes. You get the idea.. THE BLADES ARE FREAKING SHARP, AND THEY'RE EXTREMELY CLOSE TOGETHER SO IT'S VERY EASY TO CUT YOURSELF. It's like a saw, you don't grab it on the jagged side, and you don't grab scissors open and in the middle, so don't just go grabbing the blades here people, use the ends to handle it and keep yourself cut free.
Enough about the sharpness of it, because if you didn't notice, IT'S FREAKING SHARP, really now, moving on..
Construction: This is very well constructed, the grade of the plastics and the materials used to manufacture the Ninja seem very well made.
What you'll usually get the with the System, if it includes extras or perks you'll have to check the description or with the seller:
1 Large Pitcher
1 Small Pitcher
1 Large and 1 Small Very Sharp Blades
1 Large and 1 Small Dough Paddles (not sharp)
1 Small Dough Hook (also not sharp)
The set also includes Two (2) distinctive locking lids that cannot be interchanged, although they are identical in size I believe, each with spouts, the lid for the small pitcher has a strainer built in. The locking mechanism is very important if you have little ones, or a clumsy spouse, you want to store your blades inside their respective pitcher, I cannot say that enough.
Makes a fabulous Margarita, a Colada, any Frozen Alcoholic Drink this guy handles with a smile, Throw in your favs, add ice, blended inebriating bliss. For some of you this might be enough and you can just hit Buy Now, for others I've covered a lot here so feel free to read on.
We crush ice, I make slushies and snow cones for the kids sometimes, other times I just like the take of the ice alone, nothing added. There was a time there I was doing this daily at first, several times a day in fact, there is nothing like obliterated ice. It tastes exactly like snow! There is a drawback, you cannot pour obliterated ice from the pitcher, and the blades are extremely sharp and in the way, carefully remove the blade and scoop out the ice if that's what you'd like. Ice alone. For this and most drinks you want to use your Tall Pitcher.
I will warn you NOT to crush ice then add cold liquids, it needs to be one action, Ice + Liquid at the same time, otherwise, if you don't add enough liquid to your Ninja to the crushed ice then it will freeze together and make it difficult to remove from the Ninja and virtually useless to you because you've turned your "snow" into a block that's surrounded some EXTREMELY SHARP Blades, have fun thawing that mess out. There is one exception, an iced Latte or Coffee sort drink, using hot liquids, this wont freeze up your ice and liquid, that should be a duh there..
Remember: Hot + Frozen = blended bliss, Cold + Frozen = Nightmarish block of hell..
Speaking of making your own latte, read along 'til the end and I'll give you my very own Vanilla Latte Recipe, taste's amazingly similar to your favorite coffee shop on every corner, and this will cost you about $0.25 to make, I won't mention their name.
Making Guacamole, you want to be careful making dips or other things that are meant to have a texture that adds to the appetizing nature of the food, make sure you're not pureeing your foods. Texture is nearly as important as Taste is, unless of course you're feeding a baby and want to puree the foods. My husband pureed some Guacamole, it wasn't the greatest. Tasted fine, texture wise was too smooth.
Making Dough, for those of you that are Gluten Free using this to make your dough is amazingly simple. Especially when you're dealing with various types of flours and want to make sure you've mixed the mixture thoroughly. I've used many different recipes for Gluten Free mixes, including cakes, cookies, pancakes, and pizza dough, all turned out perfectly wonderful, well aside from the fact they don't have Gluten in them (which I terribly miss). Again, with baking too, textures are often necessary in the baking process, read the recipe carefully and make sure if it says the end result should be lumpy that it is.
We make quite a few things in our Ninja, things we would normally use a blender for smoothies (which we did toss out, rather donate, our Blender when we got the Ninja, I'm not a clutter person). Do exactly as it says, add frozen fruit, instead of ice and it taste's fantastic!
For you Gluten Free and Lactose Free people, we found using Coconut Milk (So Delicious or Silk brands) and a little Coconut Flour adds quite a bit of fiber and Coconut Sugar tastes fantastic too.. (both of which you can find at your local health food store, it is a little pricey, but if you're on this GF diet you know it's expensive). Add 3 Cups of Coconut Milk, about 3 Tbs of Coconut Sugar, a 1/4 Cup of Coconut Flour (for Fiber), and about 2 Cups (to taste) of frozen mixed fruit and you have a fantastic smoothie on your hands.
This is MY Latte recipe, I didn't take it from any company, my comparison is simply that it tastes like a very well known brand. I do fiddle around in the kitchen and I do have a lot of great recipes I've come to love just by playing around with ingredients.
Vanilla Latte Recipe: 2 Servings, about 16 to 20 oz each +/-
Large Ninja Pitcher
Large Dough Paddle (Black one)
1/3 Cup of Ground Dark or Medium Coffee
2 Cups of Water, or to 4 Mark on your coffee machine
3 Cups of Milk
2 Tbs of Pure Vanilla, or imitation, it doesn't really matter
2 to 3 Tbs of Sugar in the Raw sugar, NOT HEAPING (we use nearly 3, about 2 & 3/4 Tbs), you could also use regular sugar, although I'm not sure what the variation would be, it's finer so be careful you don't make it too sweet.
In the Microwave bring 3 Cups of Whole or 2% milk to a boil, about 3 & 1/2 to 4 Minutes
Pour the Milk into the Large Pitcher
Add Vanilla and Sugar
Turn Ninja on DOUGH!!
** BE careful of the speed here, you will end up with hot milk shooting out the top if you use any faster speed** I will not be liable for failure to follow my directions.
Let that mix for about 3 to 4 minutes or while you brew your coffee
1/3 Cup of Ground Dark or Medium Coffee
Fill your coffee Maker with water to the 4 mark, which is I believe 2 cups give or take
Once you've Made your coffee in your Coffee Maker, and You've made your milk in your Ninja
Pour 3/4 to 1 Cup COFFEE (depending on your taste, start with less you can add more but you cannot take away) into each Cup
Open the Ninja and remove the Dough Blade leaving the lid off
Pour the Milk on top of the Coffee equally going back and forth between the two cups until you reach foam, then pour the foam equally into each cup spooning or using a spatula to get it all out and viola, Vanilla Latte.
Careful, it is HOT!
Add more Coffee to taste if you want..
All in all the positives of this product outweigh the danger of the blades in my opinion, as long as you're careful, keep the blades locked in the pitchers at all times I think you'll be extremely satisfied with your purchase.
That's all I have, I hope to have helped you with your purchasing decision. Please don't forget to use the review voting buttons if my review was helpful to you.
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Ninja Kitchen System 1100 - Model NJ602
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