Make a Smoothie in an Instant Without the Fuss. Here’s How

We’ve all been there: You’re running late and rushing to get out of the house in the morning, and you don’t eat breakfast. You either skip breakfast entirely or opt for a fast food meal — and if you do that your healthy eating habits are out the window. While waking up earlier could solve your problem, I found a solution that allows me to hit the snooze button and still have a nutritious morning meal I can have at home or take with me.

The trick is doing a bit of prep work for my breakfast smoothie the night before. What’s great about this tip is that I don’t even have to worry about cleaning up a mess. Here’s why: I’m blending the smoothie in a Mason jar, which acts as my single-serving to-go cup. No more using my blender pitcher or container and pouring the contents into a cup, and possibly spilling some smoothie all over your countertop. 

This story is part of Try This, CNET’s collection of simple tips to improve your life, fast.

Grab some fruit or veggies, your blender and a Mason jar to get started with your smoothie. For more ideas, here’s how to cut a cake with dental floss and how to stop junk mail for good.

How to prep your smoothie in a Mason jar

Safety first: Before using the Mason jars, check to make sure the jar is perfectly intact. Any blemishes to the glass, such as a crack, can make it easy for your jar to break. Also, you always want to make sure the blades you’re using fit inside the Mason jar with plenty of clearance from the walls of the jar. If the blades touch the glass at all, they could cause the glass to shatter. Finally, it’s important that you’re using a real Mason jar brand since other canning jars may not work.

Prior to adding fruit and veggies to your Mason jar, make sure the blade assembly fits properly on the mouth of the jar. A mouth on a regular-size Mason jar should work with most standard blenders, like Oster and Tribest. But for larger blenders, you may need a wide-mouth Mason jar. Note that some blenders, like Ninja and Nutribullet, may not be compatible. Test your attachments on a Mason jar before adding your ingredients.

Add your smoothie ingredients

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, start adding the smoothie ingredients, such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, a banana, fresh spinach, avocados, yogurt — anything you like in a smoothie. Once you’re finished, seal the Mason jar with its original lid and place it in the freezer overnight.

If you don’t have time to let your smoothie freeze, you can always use frozen fruits and veggies instead. If that’s not an option, throw some small pieces of ice into the jar with your fruit to get the right consistency.

Blend your smoothie in a Mason jar

In the morning, take the jar out of the freezer and remove the lid. The contents in the jar will be frozen in preparation for that perfect smoothie texture. Next, add milk, juice or water to help make the fruit and vegetables easier to blend. Screw the blender blade assembly onto your Mason jar and flip the jar upside down. Now it’s time to put the jar on the blender base. 

Blend the smoothie until it’s… well… smooth and you no longer see any chunks of fruit, veggies or ice. Once it’s blended, remove the jar from the blender and twist the blade assembly off. That’s it! Now you can add a paper straw or drink directly from it. 

For more, here’s how to open your beer bottle without a bottle opener. Also, here’s how to start a campfire with Doritos.