Ninja Ultima Review

*Full disclosure: I was given this blender by Ninja to try and review, but the opinions are completely my own.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am an extremely picky eater.  I mean a seriously, super picky eater.  For many, many years the only veggie I was willing to eat was carrots.  Since finding out I was pregnant with Miss A, I have made pretty big steps in improving my eating habits.  I have expanded the veggies I eat to include spinach, broccoli, asparagus and a few others.  I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm working on it. 

When I attended HLS13 in September, I had the opportunity to talk to the people with Ninja and try a few of their smoothies.  When they offered to send me a Ninja Ultima Dual Stage Blender to try out and review.  Of course, I jumped at the chance!

For a long time I've been seeing posts about smoothies on Pinterest and Instagram.  I thought that smoothies might be a great way to increase the number of servings of freggies my family consumes during the day, but my normal kitchen blender just wasn't cutting it.  I've had my Ninja Ultima for over a month now, and I can honestly say I'm LOVING it!

With the Ninja Ultima Blender, I'm able to toss a bunch of ingredients together and know that I will end up with a silky smooth drink.  When I first told E that I was going to put spinach in our smoothies, he was a little skeptical (and I have to admit I was too).  As we made our first green smoothies, I was very happy to see the spinach all but disappeared!  Some smoothies keep a little bit of a green color, but for the most part you wouldn't even know it was there.    

Now that I have my Ninja Ultima, I take a smoothie to work nearly every day.  In order to make my busy weekday mornings easier, I make big batches of smoothies on the weekend days, and freeze smoothies for the rest of the week.  I grab one in the morning, and keep it in my lunch bag until I need a snack.  The smoothie is usually thawed out by 10am, which is exactly when I need a little something at work.  These smoothies have been an excellent way to boost my servings of fruits, and especially veggies!

The smoothies pictured here have spinach, bananas, raspberries (frozen from our garden) and vanilla yogurt.  They are so yummy... probably my favorite combo so far, which is good because we have a freezer full of raspberries to use this winter.

I initially thought the girls didn't like the smoothies...
turns out I just needed to make sure they were pink!

While smoothies have been my major use of the Ninja Ultima, there is so much else you can make.  The Inspiration Guide that came with the Ninja Ultima has recipes for salsa, soups, sauces and even dessert.  I'm excited to try some other things with my Ninja Ultima soon, including this salsa from Kelly!  Another thing I love about the Ninja Ultima is that it comes with 2 single serving cups that can screw right on to the blender, mix and be ready to go.  I haven't actually had a chance to try these yet, but I'm really excited to use them this summer when I'm home more.

The only thing that has been bugging me about the Ninja Ultima is the size.  The blender base and pitcher are both large, which is great for making large batches, but a little tough for storage.  I've mentioned before that our house is starting to feel a little small, and our kitchen space is especially tight.  Ideally, I'd have the Ninja Ultima out all the time, but for now I bring it out on the weekends (and other times I need it), make my big batches of smoothies, then store it in the basement.  A little bit of a hassle for me, but still well worth it to have have a blender that makes such amazing smoothies.

A big thank you to everyone at Ninja for sharing this amazing product with me!