I would have loved the Vitamix, but the Ninja we got is great and sooo much better than our old blender which essentially chopped up food and ice instead of blending. We got the Target one that has an individual cup option like the Magic Bullet. Very easy to clean, but a large footprint.

You can freeze almond milk into cubes or yogurt to help make your smoothie cold.

Anonymous wrote:Not the OP and not to digress, but what setting does one use on the blender? There are so many options like blend, chop, frappe, crush, whip, etc. on my blender.

And does it matter what goes in first? I put ice in first and it seemed to jam everything (although maybe I used the wrong setting).

I have a blender that has a special smoothie setting. It was like $35 at Target. That setting basically does a few blasts and then purees for 45 seconds. It's usually enough, unless there's not enough liquid.

If I'm doing a smoothie with spinach or kale in it, I put that in first to make sure that it gets properly pureed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just given a blender and now I want to become a smoothie person.
I like melon, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.
I don't have ice.

Can you suggest some smoothie recipes based on the above info? The easier the better. My idea of a fancy dinner is frozen ravioli instead of a pb&j sandwich.

How can you not have ice?

Well, when I moved into this there were no ice cube trays. I never bought any. And this building has VERY old pipes which causes the water to taste and smell awful (I actually feel like showering makes me smell WORSE). I buy bottled water to drink and cook with. But only for foods that absorb the water, like oatmeal or rice, not for foods like pasta.

Wow. Get a brita and save yourself a lot of money and all those stupid plastic bottles.

I tried a Brita - it still tasted weird.

Wondering what small blender you have that handles ice and frozen fruit?

I have a magic bullet and I have to thaw everything first. I love it but it isn't powerful enough if there is frozen fruit in it.

I would love a powerful and EASY TO CLEAN blender. not interested in something with many parts that has to be taken apart and washed each time I use it.

I think a lot of the recipes would depend on the blender you have. We just bought a Vitamix specifically for everyday smoothies as our old blender just couldn't handle things like spinach and kale (it still came out pretty chunky). My go-to recipe, so far, is 1 frozen banana, 1 cup frozen mango, 1 cup frozen spinach, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup pomegranate or sometimes coconut juice. We don't find that we need to add any yogurt or milk, though we did try in our more experimental stages. Apple juice is also a pretty easy filler if you need more liquid. Frozen fruit will require more juice than fresh fruit. Cucumber is also an easy way to liquify the smoothie more. And then it's easy to toss in other berries as wanted. But you should really experiment to see what suits your tastes - it's actually a lot of fun. DH likes smoothies that are more tart while I like them sweeter. And we've found that mango will make just about anything sweet - it kind of overpowers other flavors a bit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just given a blender and now I want to become a smoothie person.
I like melon, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.
I don't have ice.

Can you suggest some smoothie recipes based on the above info? The easier the better. My idea of a fancy dinner is frozen ravioli instead of a pb&j sandwich.

How can you not have ice?

Well, when I moved into this there were no ice cube trays. I never bought any. And this building has VERY old pipes which causes the water to taste and smell awful (I actually feel like showering makes me smell WORSE). I buy bottled water to drink and cook with. But only for foods that absorb the water, like oatmeal or rice, not for foods like pasta.

Wow. Get a brita and save yourself a lot of money and all those stupid plastic bottles.

Not the OP and not to digress, but what setting does one use on the blender? There are so many options like blend, chop, frappe, crush, whip, etc. on my blender.

And does it matter what goes in first? I put ice in first and it seemed to jam everything (although maybe I used the wrong setting).

Still working on proportions, it's the hardest part. I do one cup frozen berries, one banana, two cups of greens (kale mixture from Costco), a half cup water and about teaspoon mixture of cacao/maca/chia seeds.