Have you ever RSVPed for a party after the party has already happened? It’s like you dropped the ball AND missed the ball entirely?
Sometimes that’s how I feel when I discover a cooking trick that’s been around for a while, but I somehow completely missed it. I saw the little mason jar blender hack that I use in this post on Pinterest and thought 1) What a cool trick and 2) That’ll never work!
Then I noticed some of the pins were from cerca 2013.
But, I would imagine that there are still many people out there that don’t know about this trick so I figured I would spread the word (and also I just wanted to try it).
Turns out the hack for mason jars and blenders completely works and makes morning smoothies beyond easy. Because you can freeze the ingredients in the mason jar and drink the smoothie out of the jar, you just blend it up and breakfast is ready!
Mason Jar Smoothies
Equipment
- 1 blender
Ingredients
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 2 cups packed spinach
- 6 ounces blueberries
- ½ pineapple, chopped
- 2 bananas, chopped
- ¾ cup Greek yogurt
- 6 tablespoons flax seed
- 6 cups OJ, for blending
Instructions
- Peel and roughly chop carrots. Divide them between six mason jars and add a handful of spinach to each jar.
- Peel a pineapple, cut it into quarters and cut out the core from each quarter. Chop up two quarters and save two quarters for something else (eating). Add sliced bananas, blueberries, and chopped pineapple to mason jars in an even distribution.
- Add 2 tablespoons greek yogurt to each jar and top with a tablespoon of ground flax. Seal the mason jars and freeze.
- When you’re ready to make a smoothie, open a jar and add a cup of orange juice.
- Remove the blade, washer, and housing for a blender and assemble it on the mason jar. It should screw on in place of the mason jar lid and be a water tight seal.
- Stick the mason jar on the blender and blend until smooth!
- Unscrew jar and enjoy!
- TIP: Before you add a bunch of ingredients to the jars, assemble one on the blender empty to make sure it fits correctly.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
- Need more smoothie ideas? Try my double almond smoothie or my creamy PB banana smoothie!
Mason Jar Smoothies
The Ingredients
The smoothie world is large and while I gave the recipe I use a lot for smoothies for this recipe, I would recommend you make it your own. If you have leftover fruit or veggies in the fridge, they will almost certainly work in a mason jar smoothie. I would maybe stay away from spicy stuff or really aromatic stuff (garlic smoothie?!), but otherwise it’s a free world.
Carrots and spinach are always a good, cheap smoothie base though. You can chop stuff pretty roughly and just toss it in the jars.
I always like blueberries in my smoothies. Normally I buy the frozen kind, but since I’m going to freeze these, I used fresh which were actually cheaper on this day.
If you have any bananas that are about to go bad, toss them in also.
Pineapple adds some nice citrus to the smoothie. I just cut the peel off and diced up about half of the pineapple which was enough for these six jars.
If you want to get fancy, you can try this spiral method of peeling your pineapple, which looks awesome but is a bit unnecessary for a smoothie.
Pile in all the fruit!
Other Add-ins
I added two other things to my mason jar smoothies: Greek yogurt and flax for a little extra fiber and creaminess. You could add chia seeds, honey, or any number of other things. Fill up the jar, but make sure to leave enough room for some juice so you can blend the thing on day two.
Ready for a Mason Jar Smoothie?
Put a lid on the mason jar smoothies and freeze them overnight. They would keep fine in the freezer for a few weeks. I’m not sure I would leave them longer than that though or they might develop some off flavors.
When you’re ready to make a smoothie, add about a cup of orange juice to the mason jar. You could use any juice or just water, or a mix of juice and water.You do need some liquid though because everything in the jar is frozen solid!
The Blender Hack
This is so cool.
Remove the bottom from your blender jar along with the blade and gasket. It should look something like this!
Amazingly, if you have a regular sized mason jar (not the wide mouth), this will screw right on to the jar and be a water-tight seal!
Cool stuff.
BIG FAT TIP: Before you make up a huge batch of these, take apart your blender and actually make sure yours will work on a mason jar. It would suck to make these jars and then just be stuck with jars of frozen ingredients because your base won’t fit on the jars.
Assuming it does though, you can screw the mason jar right into the blender and blend away!
My favorite part of this method? You don’t have to clean the blender container! It’s so much easier to clean out the mason jar and the base!
Having these ready, you can make a breakfast smoothie in literally about two minutes. It’s awesome and the finished smoothie is in its own glass!
Let’s talk about how great mason jar smoothies are. Leave a comment!
Cathy
My blender/food processor, which I got over 30 years ago came with little blender jars. I’ve used mason jars on my blender to make salad dressings. Next time you are in a store that sells canning supplies, look for the plastic storage lids and you can take your smoothie with you or easily store your salad dressing in the fridge without using metal canning lids.
Nick
Awesome tip Cathy! That would make it easier than the metal canning lids. Thanks!
MaryLou Cook
Trader Joe’s peanut butter lids fit 1/2 pint and whole pint Mason jars. When I make preserves for gifts, I always include a recycled lid. Probably, other product lids would also fit.
Jason Sandeman
Wow, this is ridiculously awesome Nick. I can see all kinds of variations.. I only worry a bit about having glass in the freezer. (I guess that’s because I would have been fined for it in a professional kitchen.) The answer to that could be to use a plastic mason jar.
Either way, super awesome kitchen hack man. I had to share this all over!
Holly | Twisted Tastes
I’m one of those folks who haven’t seen this yet, but I’m sooo about to try. My kids are home for the summer now and love breakfast, but I can’t even form complete sentences by the time they are up and begging for grub. I can prep this beforehand, put on my headphones (my blender is as loud as a mythological Greek siren), and give it a go. Thanks for the hack! Cheers!
Onion Chef America
I was a late comer to this trick too, but love it. Smoothies are so easy in the mornings now. I like to use coconut water and milk to blend yogurt, banana, powdered peanut butter, oats, chia seed, and unsweetend coconut.
Jason
Definitely check to see if your blender fits. My blender is a Black n Decker – it does not fit :(. Now thinking on finding a new blender just for this hack.
Tried an Inversion blender – that will work but need wide mouth jars instead! Still works.
lori
Which blenders actually worked – sadly i didn’t check first and i have 6 frozen jars i’m dying!
Nick
Hey Lori! I used the Oster series blender (there’s a link to the exact model below the recipe), but it’s a pretty standard blender bottom. You might have to try a few different jar/blender combos before you find one that works. Good luck!
Stan
I have digestive problems sometimes and I have wanted to try something like this. How about some tips about which blenders would work?
Nick
Hey Stan, the model I used is linked below the recipe. It’s the Oster beehive series which has a really standard blender base. I think other models will work as well, but that’s the one I use. Good luck!
Hiram
Don’t buy a new blender for this. Check out your local Goodwill and pick up a used one for a couple of bucks.
Martha
Grated Parmesan cheese lids fit perfectly in place of canning lids, and you have a flip top you can open and close and straws fit quite conveniently in the holes!