Two Tips for Quick and Easy Smoothies

Bella Rocket Blender

Trying to prepare a healthier breakfast for you or your family?  Consider fruit and yogurt smoothies as they can be a quick and easy alternative to making a full breakfast and are definitely healthier than donuts or pop-tarts. 

Here are two tricks I discovered when trying to make smoothies in a small sport blender like my Rocket.  The first tip will help get your smoothies to blend better.  The second tip gets you colder smoothies in less time!

1. In the blender cup put fruit, ice, and liquids in first (will be top when inverted into blender).  Next add yogurt, follow it with flavorings and nuts/seeds.  Why? The fruit will push the yogurt toward the blades for blending, if it is on top it will stick instead of dropping down.  Putting nuts or seeds closet to the blade will insure they get pulverized.  Otherwise, the seeds or nuts will be in chucks inside the smoothie and may stick to walls of cup.  NOTE:  Reverse the order if you are using a larger traditional blender like Ninja.
2. Also, if you are using frozen fruits, set them out to thaw slightly while you do something else.  Hard frozen fruit will not shred, instead the blender will just whir and do nothing. If you are using ice from the refrigerator, go for crushed since cubes don’t break up well and will take longer to blend.