Green Smoothie Success Without Vitamix or Blend Tec Blenders?

I used to blend my smoothies with an Oster blender, which did a really good job. It was still a little chunky, though. I bought the Vitamix and it does an amazing job of getting the smoothie really smooth. It takes less time because it is more powerful. You have more options with speed control and it blends everything frozen easily. I buy frozen kale and it makes it very convenient to make fast smoothies. My favorite combo is a banana, small apple, frozen blueberries, kale and a little water.

Although many people believe that raw kale is better for us, actually cooked kale makes it more digestible. The cooking method is important, though. Don't boil it. Trim the leaves off the tough stems, and steam them until they're tender.

The reason I say this, is because then you can put the steamed leaves in an ordinary blender with water or almond milk or pomegranate juice or whatever liquid you're going to use in your smoothie, and blend up the kale until it's a smooth mixture. You could freeze that in ice cube trays and just add a couple to your smoothie mixture, or just store it in the fridge and add the desired quantity to your other smoothie ingredients. A regular blender can handle tender steamed leaves with a liquid.

That way you can use a standard, inexpensive blender and still have the kale that you want. Those Vitamix machines are amazing, but really outside a lot of people's budgets.

I just use a regular Waring Pro blender to make our smoothies. I found the best order to put in ingredients to be: liquid, yogurt, banana, frozen fruit.

As someone else mentioned, I usually make a big batch of kale ice cubes (although I make mine raw). I chop in up in my food processor, but it could be chopped by hand. Then put it in ice cube trays with just a little bit of water to make it hold shape. I then pop thses into smoothies, spaghetti sauce, soups, meatloaf, etc. No one even realizes that I put them into these things.

Boat motor! :p Okay we call them boat motors but they are really those stick type blenders that you hold in your hand and can be used in a lot of different vessels including cups.

The problem with making blended drinks is until you get rotation you have spots that aren't getting blended but you don't get rotation until those spots are blended, nice catch 22 don't you think? The only way to overcome this with a blender is a powerful motor to give you rotation regardless of content. That would be your Vitamix and Blend Tec.

A hand blender or boat motor overcomes this because you can move the blade to where the unblended bits are not wait till they come to the blade. As such you don't need as powerful a motor or the high price they come with. Do not get the bottom of the line mind you. You can pick one up for less than 20 and it will blow up the first time you use it. Don't get the rechargeable ones either unless you are willing to spend eight hours to get one drink.

Oh if you are going the blender route go with the Blend Tec, they are freaking amazing. Never tried but I am sure the you can blend a rake handle is a truthful statement.

I simply use our Oster blender from Walmart to make smoothies. Drop the $15 to try it out. It works great. My hubby is a smoothy fiend and I really like it (when he makes it). I have even used this blender to make salsa, puree veggies and soup bases.
Not a bad tool for the discount aisle.
Also, before our blender we used a hand blender and it worked extremely well . . . until the motor went out:)

Ninja! I love mine and I make green smoothies all the time!!! :)

I bought a Vitamix and love the smoothies it makes but do not love the way much of the smoothie stays in the container. I've tried a Bullet and didn't like that either. I've read reviews and talked with owners for a Ninja and wish I'd bought that instead of a Vitamix. It costs around $100 instead of the $250 for the Vitamix and does the same things. It also has a smaller container as well as a larger one which would make getting a single smoothie out of it easier.

I've not heard of the Blend Tec but if it costs $400+ I'd certainly look into the Ninja first.

I also have a stick blender and never thought to try making a smoothie with it. I'm going to try it. The stick blender is so versatile. You can chop onion, nuts, etc. and blend soups right in the pot.

Jessica,
While a Vitamix or a BlendTech would be the best options, I totally understand your desire to wait until you e tried them before spending that kind of money! My suggestion would be to blend the liquid base of your smoothie with the greens before adding anything else. Then add your fruit and whatever else you want in your smoothie and blend again. You certainly don't want chunks of greens while you're drinking it so by blending the greens a couple of times, you've got a better chance of eliminating those.
Have fun! This is a great step to take. I LOVE my green smoothies each morning!

Several years ago my husband (then boyfriend) and I went to Costco...saw the demo and came home with a Vitamix. We were not into healthy eating like we are today...we made homemade peanut butter (amazing) and some soups. Then we started having buyers remorse since we had a $400 "blender" and didn't know what to do with it. We returned it to Costco about a week later.

Fast forward to today...we've been ttc #2 for a while...in the process of it all we've changed our eating habits and gotten healthier. After reading Clean (great book plus great recipes), we wanted to start drinking smoothies (green and other colors :) so did some research and decided to go with the Blendtec blender this time. We LOVE it! The cost is high but we use it every day so its worth it. When we bought the Vitamix we didn't know what to do with it so it wasn't worth having such an expensive machine. Now it is.

Also the blenders come with a recipe book...you can make smoothies, juice, ice cream, etc. Its healthy and yummy! We made spinach ice cream for our 3 yr old and she loved it.

My husband does more of the making than I do but honestly I think you have to try several recipes and then see which you like best. He puts in whatever fruit we have in the house and adds spinach or kale...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We eat it (or try to) and then move on.

Hope this helps!

We started having green smoothies (1/2 banana, 1/2 frozen blueberries, couple handfuls of spinach, hemp seeds, yogurt and a splash of juice) a couple years ago and just bought the knock off bullet blender from Target. I works fine for those, but I am envious of my friends who can blend up red peppers and cashews in their Vitamix to make a "cheese dip" with no lumps whatsoever. It is on my Christmas list, but only for the luxury, I am "getting by" just fine with my 25-50 blender.