Ginger pear green smoothie

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Ginger pear green smoothie: an easy portable power breakfast packed with protein that's also low in calories, gluten free, dairy free, vegan ... and delicious!

Pears are one of my favorite things about fall. I'm less about pumpkin and more about pears. And lately I've been kind of obsessed with the pairing of ginger and pears (pairing pears -- ha ha! -- I didn't even plan that). And it's not just in recipes: I recently went a little cray cray when I found a ginger-pear hand lotion.

So when I was asked to incorporate Vega Essentials shake powder into a recipe, I knew it would be a ginger pear smoothie. (Which only makes sense because you shouldn't eat hand lotion, no matter how awesome it smells.)

I've really gotten into a smoothie groove lately. When you're trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, smoothies can be so helpful. They make eating a healthy breakfast easy and are a perfect afternoon treat when I'm in the mood for a little snack. Way better for me than answering the siren call of cookies!

Watermelon strawberry yogurt smoothie

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This delicious yogurt smoothie is loaded with protein, probiotics, fiber, fresh fruit and even some secret veggies: healthy breakfast never tasted so good!

While I love fall and the cool weather it brings, I try not to rush it because it also means the end of summer -- which means the end of bountiful, healthy, delicious summer veggies and fruits.

Other food bloggers may have already gotten started on PumpkinFest 2015, but not me: I'm still buying as much ripe fruit as I can get my hands on!

Which means I knew exactly what ingredients to use when I was chosen to create a smoothie recipe using Chobani Greek Yogurt for Smoothie Week, being celebrated at the Kroger Family of Stores this week. Even though it's September, it's still the perfect time to enjoy watermelon, which will be in season for a little while longer.

For this watermelon strawberry yogurt smoothie, I used fresh watermelon but, once the cooler months roll around, you can use frozen watermelon instead; it's a great way to get the feeling of summer back any time of the year. Because of its high water content, watermelon freezes beautifully. I cut it into chunks, spread them on baking sheets, freeze until just firm, then store all the chunks in zipper bags in the freezer. Freezing them individually means you can easily remove only as many pieces as you need.

Easiest fruit and oatmeal breakfast smoothie

This super-easy, four ingredient fruit and oatmeal smoothie is a fast, delicious and healthy breakfast ready in just minutes -- perfect for crazy hectic mornings.

Still moving. (Note to self: Stop accumulating so much stuff!)

Which means that quick-and-easy is still my number one mantra.

While that's proven to be pretty easy for weeknight dinners, thanks in large part to the slow cooker, it's proving harder for breakfast, without falling into a rut of eating the same thing every day.

Smoothies have increasingly become my go-to breakfast -- if I've cooked up a batch of quinoa for the week, I opt for a quinoa protein smoothie with whatever berries are in the freezer. Otherwise, I rely on oatmeal to make my smoothies a nutritious and filling way to start the day.

This fruit and oatmeal smoothie is by far the easiest one I make. And it can pretty much be different every day if you mix up the type of fruit.

For the best consistency, you definitely want to use a mix of frozen and fresh fruit. If I've got bananas on the counter, I'll use those with frozen berries. With warmer weather and strawberry season on the horizon, I'll mix fresh strawberries with frozen bananas.

(Tip: You can get less-than-beautiful looking bananas -- still perfect on the inside, where it counts -- for a song in many grocery stores when they put them on the "reduced produce" rack. I buy a ton and then freeze the slices so that I always have a huge supply of smoothie bananas on hand in the freezer!)

Just be sure to keep the ratios of fresh to frozen the same. For the smoothie in this photo, I used frozen raspberries and fresh banana.

Blueberry quinoa protein smoothie

Skinny blueberry and banana quinoa protein smoothie: made with soymilk, it's dairy-free, gluten-free and refined sugar-free.

I never get tired of smoothies. How about you?

I swear there are an infinite number of good-for-you ingredients that can be combined to make smoothies so that you rarely need to drink the same flavor twice. Which is great, because I love drinking them both for breakfast or as an afternoon "snack", and usually what my taste buds are craving are pretty different at those two different times of the day.

This blueberry quinoa quinoa smoothie fits the bill for either time of day, as it's super-simple to make, with only five ingredients. Also, it's easy to create new flavor variations simply by changing up the kind of frozen fruit you use in this smoothie recipe. I've swapped out the blueberries for peaches, mangoes, strawberries, grapes -- you name it, I've tried it.

In addition to tasting great, this skinny smoothie is also loaded with energy-boosting protein. I work in all that good protein by first substituting Silk soymilk -- with 8 grams of plant-based protein per serving and no cholesterol -- for dairy milk. I like to use organic unsweetened Silk soymilk, but be sure to check out the full offering of Silk soy products.  Then I also add cooked quinoa, much the same way that I like to use old-fashioned oats in my favorite breakfast smoothie.

Plus, this smoothie is dairy-free, refined sugar-free and gluten-free, making it a great no-guilt, good-for-you snack in that long stretch after lunch but before dinner. Just say no to sugary snacks and say yes to this blueberry banana quinoa protein smoothie instead!

Green power smoothie (to share with your dog!)

Love your dogs? Then share this kale, spinach, peanut butter and banana green power smoothie with them for breakfast.

Yesssssss! I'm so excited to share this smoothie post with you because I assume that you, like me, are a crazy dog person. In a good way. Meaning you love dogs. So much so that you may have been known to cook for them.

Chicken jerky, sweet potato chips, doggie meatloaf -- all part of my cook-for-dogs-repertoire. But now I've got a doggie breakfast specialty as well, to round out Smoothie Week: a kale and spinach peanut butter smoothie that is not only for them, it's also for you!

This easy-to-make smoothie is loaded with healthy ingredients that are good for you but also good (and perfectly safe) for your favorite poochie. And the slightly larger portion size accommodates you both: pour a little bit (start with 1/4 cup for a medium-sized dog) into a bowl for your pal and save the rest for yourself.

Oatmeal breakfast smoothie

Swap your favorite morning oatmeal for a delicious, filling oatmeal breakfast smoothie, loaded with fruit and naturally sweetened.

Smoothie Week continues with this super-filling and delicious oatmeal breakfast smoothie.

Earlier this week, I got you prepped with all my best tips and tricks. Did you make some nut milk? And then turn it into ice? Freeze some bananas? Great: You're all set to whip up one of the yummiest, healthiest smoothies around.

If you're like me, breakfast can get to be a little boring after a while. It's tough to keep it creative every single morning, isn't it? And as much as I love love LOVE my morning oatmeal (especially when it cooks overnight in the slow cooker), I need to change things up so I don't get into a rut and grow weary of my faves.

Which is why I love that this oatmeal breakfast smoothie. It's basically my favorite morning oatmeal -- complete with a whole heap of good-for-you fruits, some natural protein and no refined sugar -- in a delicious, drinkable form.

Perhaps the best thing about this oatmeal breakfast smoothie is that it is incredibly filling. When I have one for breakfast, I never get the eleven o'clock munchies; it keeps me full and energized until it's time for lunch.

Nut milk ice (plus 5 more smoothie tips and tricks)

Learn how to turn nut milk into ice and get other time- and money-saving tips and tricks for making the best smoothies ever.

Welcome to Smoothie Week!

During this year's Detox January, I've been making a lot of smoothies -- and not all of them are green! I know I'm late to the smoothie party (I seem to be late to every party lately), but I'm loving having them for breakfast.

One of the reasons I never entirely jumped on the smoothie-a-day bandwagon was because I don't like to clean the blender. SERIOUSLY! I mean, how lazy can you get, right? Last year I discovered (again, apparently this was only news to ME) the mason jar blender trick, which helped a lot; using mason jars means I only have to wash the blender blade -- the jars can go right in the dishwasher.

Booyah!

Another reason I wasn't fully embracing smoothies? Smoothie prep. I never seemed to have the right ingredients on hand when I really wanted a smoothie -- namely because they always seem to call for milk or yogurt or some other dairy product I didn't have in the fridge.

So one of my new favorite tips for making smoothies easier is nutmilk ice. (Again, if this is not news to anyone but me, keep it to yourself and let me have my little moment of glee, mmmmkay?) By freezing my favorite nutmilks into ice, I kill two birds with one stone -- nutmilk ice makes the perfect substitute for ice and/or milk in my favorite smoothies.

Pumpkin maple smoothie {$100 gift card giveaway}

This healthy pumpkin maple smoothie, made with silken tofu, is gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free. A creamy, delicious, on-the-go fall-flavored breakfast or afternoon treat.

You'd have to be living under a very, very large rock not to have encountered some kind of Pumpkin Spice Whatevs this fall. While this craze may seem -- well -- more than a little cray cray, there's a reason why we all tend to get so worked up about pumpkin in October -- other than Halloween and jack-o-lanterns, of course. One whiff of pumpkin and cinnamon and nutmeg together can conjure up all sorts of memories of cool weather, falling leaves, cozy sweaters and crackling fires.

Which is probably why pumpkin spice is such a coffee house favorite -- you need a comforting beverage to keep you warm as you site by the crackling fire in the cool weather in your cozy sweater, watching the leaves fall.

But since I'm no longer a coffee drinker, I wanted to come up with a way that I, too, could enjoy Pumpkin Spice Whatevs this fall, without falling too far off the healthy food bandwagon.

As luck would have it, I got the opportunity recently to try some Mori-Nu Silken Tofu, which inspired me to focus my pumpkin spice attention on smoothies.

Now, before you freak out that I added tofu to my smoothie, let me explain. Mori-Nu is different because it's silken tofu, which has a very smooth and custard-like texture, so it adds a great creamy texture to smoothies (with no bananas required!). And it never needs to be pressed or drained, so you can use it as-is, straight out of the box -- you know The Ninj is all about speed and simplicity in recipes.

Chocolate berry black bean Mason jar smoothie

Attach a Mason jar to your blender to whip up this healthy chocolate-strawberry-black-bean smoothie -- dairy-free and naturally sweetened, it's the perfect good-for-you afternoon snack.

OMG, y'all: The Mason jar blender smoothie is not an urban myth! I still cannot quite believe that something crafty I saw on Pinterest actually worked.

This is a smoothie game-changer for me.

I love smoothies as much as the next person. I really do. Heck, I've got a bunch of smoothie recipes on this site. But I hate hate HATE to clean the blender. Did I say hate? I mean REALLY hate. Hand-washing is not my thing, so I don't make smoothies nearly as much as I'd like.

I know, it's sadly, pathetically lazy but hey, we've all got our issues, right?

Enter the Mason jar blender smoothie. (Again, I'm still reeling that this is not a lie.)

If you separate the blade attachment thingy from the pitcher portion of your blender, you can screw the blade attachment thingy right onto a Mason jar! And then, after you whirl it up, you can drink it directly from the jar! Not even an extra glass to wash! ERMERGAHD: Lazy person's dream!

I kid you not: I have photos.

DIY almond milk and a bonus fruit smoothie recipe

Learn to make your own almond milk (it's easy!) -- plus how to use it in a delicious fruit smoothie.

I've always been a little freaked out by nut milk when I see it in the store. Is it nuts or is it milk? And since there's no milk in nuts, what the hell is it?

Plus nut mlk always seemed a little too non-mainstream for me. You know, like it's something only vegans or latte-ordering hipsters would drink. Right up there with soy milk.

But I'm happy to report I stand corrected. Nut milk rocks. Specifically, almond milk rocks. And is wicked easy to make, which you know is criterion number one for The Ninj's favorite recipes.

Other than planning ahead the night before, making a homemade quart of nut milk takes about three minutes. Not kidding. It's simple: soak the nuts, pulverize the crap out of them, mixed with water and a little natural sweetener, strain the whole thing and -- VOILA! -- nut milk.