Disclosure: I received a High Performance Blender from Wolf Gourmet for review purposes. All opinions remain wholly my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that rock my world!

Is it possible for a kitchen appliance to be so beautiful that you can’t bear to hide it away in a cabinet after using it? I didn’t think so, until I received my Wolf Gourmet High Performance Blender to review. Now? Despite my vow to not add any more appliances to the limited space on my countertop, I rearranged everything to provide a space of its own for this beauty. It deserved this special treatment; I’ve been using it near-daily anyway.

A blender is a blender is a blender, right? Wrong. Without Wolf Gourmet even knowing it, they were the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle of my quest for the perfect smoothie-making, pancake-batter-blending, chopping-everything appliance. Up until now, I had been coming up short. Bent blades, chipped jars, underpowered performance, and inability to sufficiently chop ice had been my prior experiences. It was terribly frustrating (and taking up too much space in my cabinets–so many rejects!). Then, this gorgeous Wolf Gourmet High Performance Blender showed up on my doorstep, and my quest was over.

Aside from great looks, there’s a lot of functionality packed into this machine. Thanks to the emulsion cap, you can slowly drip in oil to make your own mayo at home. The tamper helps you when making smoothies to move around the ingredients inside the blender jar if it hits an air pocket. No missing fingers! (Ha…alright, you already knew not to put your hand in the jar…) The cutting blade assembly is permanently affixed to the blender jar, offering you fewer pieces to take apart and potentially lose. But the settings…oh, the settings are what make me love it so much.

You can use the manual dial (dial!!! so much smoother than buttons!) to move from LO to HIGH or select one of the settings geared toward what you’ll likely use this blender for the most: SMOOTHIE, ICE CRUSH, PUREE, or SOUP. SMOOTHIE has been my favorite so far and what’s really neat about that is there is a 45-second countdown during which it first moves the ingredients around a bit with lower speed pulses before it moves on to a high speed blend. The final product–so beautiful. I mean it! No funky bits of greens, no chunks of fruit it couldn’t work its way through, just a delightful puree that’s easy to drink. And it chops ice like a dream! (Thank goodness, because my refrigerator DOES NOT!) I haven’t had a chance to check out the SOUP function yet, but I am very intrigued by it. Soup? From a blender? But it’s possible! You start with cold or room temperature ingredients and after 5 minutes, 45 seconds, you have a perfectly pureed soup heated to just under the boiling point. Now that’s POWER!

Today I’m sharing with you a smoothie recipe that is a little bit indulgence and a lot of YUM. The best part about using the Wolf Gourmet High Performance Blender to prepare this smoothie is that it chops up the chocolate chips so perfectly that it’s like getting one of those frozen blended drinks from an overpriced coffee shop. But better, because you made it at home and didn’t have to change out of your athleisure you wore all day yesterday and then slept in last night. Wins all the way around!

Mornings are hectic and I don’t usually have the time to eat until I get to work. But if I wait until then, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll be eating some sort of toaster pastry that really isn’t very good for me. Smoothies, however, are pretty quick and easy. Pour into a travel cup and you’re ready to go. I like to add hemp hearts to my smoothies to boost the protein and Omegas, as well as yogurt for better texture. I started with vanilla whole milk yogurt this time so I wouldn’t have to add any sweeteners, but you could swap that for plain yogurt and a 1/2 teaspoon or so of vanilla extract to cut down on the sugar. Chocolate chips? Yeah. I know. But they’re dark chocolate, which is good for you, right? I tell myself that, anyway. I’m not losing any sleep over it.

In literally just 45 seconds, you have breakfast. Quicker than a bowl of cereal, and tastier, too. Double for 2 servings, but don’t make them ahead. I know other bloggers tell you that’s possible, but in my experience, the texture suffers when you save smoothies. And who wants to start their day with a sad smoothie? Not me!

I bet you want to start your day with your own Wolf Gourmet High Performance Blender, though!

One of my favorite retailers, Williams Sonoma, is a trusted source for Wolf Gourmet products, including the High Performance Blender. Find it online by clicking here and get it shipped right to your door.

You can win one right here, too!

Thanks to the folks over at Wolf Gourmet, I have 1 (one) High Performance Blender to give away to one of my lucky readers (valued at $599.95!)!

Tell me in the comments something fun you’ve done recently. That’s all there is to it. Good luck! This giveaway is sponsored by Wolf Gourmet. Giveaway is open to residents of the United States only. Void where prohibited. Entries must be received by 11:59PM Eastern Time on August 28, 2016, in order to be eligible. Winner will be chosen at random via the Pick Giveaway Winner plugin and emailed upon completion of the contest period. Winner will have 24 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen. Full giveaway rules can be found here.

