I am a busy geek, and I have no time for your complicated salads, nor do I fancy Soylent. This gadget—buy it on Amazon for $80—is an especially great model for college students in dorms, so consider shipping one to the freshman on your list.
Eating healthy on a busy day can be a challenge. I love cooking, but I'm an efficiency junkie, and don't always want to use up valuable time in the kitchen. My go-to solution when I'm hungry and busy with work is generally fast food, protein bars, or caffeine, but they all make me feel like crap later.
I needed something better. What I ended up getting for myself is a gadget that produces quick, plant-based power-meals whenever I'm hungry and short on time.
Eating right for me these days means a plant-centered diet. The beneficial effects are too numerous and too well-documented to ignore. Proponents argue benefits around obesity, cancer, and even the environment.
But industrial processed food and sugary drinks are everywhere, as is seductive street meat, and protein shakes with complicated ingredients.
Researching around, I re-discovered MagicBullet. I remembered the product from their old-school infomercials, but MagicBullet is also the name of the company and they have a few models now. Checking them out, I realized one model might be exactly what I was looking for so I ended up purchasing the NutriBullet 12-Piece High-Speed Blender/Mixer System on Amazon for $80.
NutriBullet is a personal sized super-blender billed as a "nutrient extractor":
Nutrition Extraction is the mechanism the NutriBullet uses to break down fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and other plant foods down to their most absorbable state. Unlike juicers and blenders, NutriBullet nutrition extractors break down the cell walls of fibrous plant foods, releasing important vitamins and minerals contained within.
The 12-Piece set comes with a 600 watt power base (models go up to 1700 watts). It's heavy with a durable plastic build. The design is is both smart and minimalist: suction cup feet on the base lock onto countertops, no buttons or switches to deal with, and the interchangeable blending containers are also the serving/storage cups. It comes with one "tall" (24oz) and two "short" (18oz) BPA-free cups . The cups have two storage lids, one cup-lip ring and one cup-lip/handle combo ring. They also pack in a recipe book and pocket guide to get you started in the kitchen (which count as pieces 11 and 12).
The recommended process of making a smoothie (err, NutriBlast!) is simple, just add your desired ingredients into the cup like so: greens in first, then fruits plus whatever else you want, then add liquid up to the marker-line on the cup to prevent leakage when blending. Now screw the blade onto the cup to seal it and you're ready. Pressing the cup into the base activates the motors safety switches turning it on automatically.
I was pleasantly wowed by the power this thing packs the first time I put the bullet cup into the base. It liquefied the ingredients immediately. The engine is quieter than you'd expect a blender to be and it only needs a few minutes to finish the job (run-time depends on your ingredients and desired viscosity). Greens sometimes get stuck in the cup– just remove it from the base, give it a quick shake to dislodge them, and return to blending it.
I've been using the NutriBullet for 6 months now and I haven't looked back. I tend to use the Extractor blade with the tall cup for a single servings, but my girlfriend is using the Milling blade more and more as an alternative to a larger food processors.
With this thing, I finally have a working system for quick, healthy food: just keep a stock of frozen berries, fresh greens, and some simple plant protein (usually chia/flax/hemp seeds) around. I can get creative by adding yogurt, honey, kefir– whatever. Hunger pang? Stuff some goodness into the NutriBullet to get a healthy meal replacement. It's only a minor interruption with major benefits.
It's small enough to tuck away in any home or office kitchen and cleanup is easy: just rinse when you're done. That cleanup issue is key if you're thinking of buying this for a student who lives in a dorm setting (my only option when I was one was a crusty hotplate, and ramen every day isn't pretty).
MagicBullet offers some specialized models too, for things like baby food and desserts. They also have the original or Pro version for those who want a bit less or a bit more power from their machine respectively, or, for our top-of-the-line fans, their latest high-end offering: NutriBullet-Rx.
The Magic Bullet NutriBullet 12-Piece High-Speed Blender/Mixer System is available on Amazon($80) along with many accessories and replacement parts.
