4 Quick & Easy Breakfast Blender Recipes

At least a year ago, I broke our blender… by dropping the center cap INTO the blender… while it was on!!!

Somehow, getting a new blender kept getting pushed to the back of the to-do list. Even though weekly (sometimes more often), I found myself REEEEALLLLY wishing I had a blender handy. I made do with hand mixers and stick blenders, but some things just take a bigger machine!

Finally! Last month, we received a Ninja Duo blender with Auto-IQ courtesy of Ninja brand for a review!

I have been in blending heaven! Everything goes in the blender these days, whether it really needs to or not!

Having several sizes of containers to blend in (pitcher and three cups with pouring lids.

Then one day I had this thought… how much could you make in a blender? A whole meal? Turns out, yes! I set out to make breakfast in a blender and tried out these 4 recipes to share with you! (These recipes mostly came from the Ninja recipe book that comes with the machine, but I tweaked them for my own tastes, and also to size down the portions.

Chicken Apple Breakfast Sausage… in the blender!

• 3 chicken thighs, chopped into 1″ pieces (about 1/4 lb)
• 1/2 Granny Smith apple, chopped into pieces
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• salt & pepper (a pinch each)
• Cinnamon (a dash)
• Olive oil for cooking

Pulse the apple and onion together until small pieces in one of the smaller Ninja cups. Begin to sauté in a cast iron pan (or regular pan) in olive oil until onions and apples are a bit tender. Remove from heat.

Pulse the chicken pieces – mine turned into a bit of a paste, but that was okay, if strange-looking! (The photos just… not great so I will spare you – trust me that the flavor is fantastic!).

Mix chicken with apple and onion sauté. Add salt, pepper and cinnamon.

Form into patties. Brown in cast iron pan.

Serves 4 (you should get 8 palm-sized patties)

Pancake Mix … in the blender!

• I did a little cheat here (I do have 2 kids waiting on breakfast for me!). The Ninja cookbook has a great sounding recipe for buckwheat pancakes, but as I didn’t have buckwheat on hand, I used a boxed pancake mix. But the kind you still add eggs and milk to, so it tastes fairly homemade.

Blend all in the ingredients according to the package directions.

Remove blades and attach pouring spout. Cook on griddle or in pan.

Now, a word: I am the world’s worst pancake cooker. And I think the Ninja has just solved my problem! Because the blender aerates the pancake mix, my pancakes turned out very light and fluffy!! A first! Mine are usually heavy and undercooked. And the pouring spout allowed me to make perfectly round pancakes on the griddle. Usually I just scoop out batter with a spoon and the result are these UFO-shaped, dense pancakes that my family suffers through with lots of maple syrup!

I am so happy to have finally figured out pancake making… (and I’m not even forty yet!).

Western Egg Scramble… in the blender!

• 1/2 pepper, chopped
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1/2 tomato, chopped
• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper (pinch)

Place the vegetables in the larger Ninja cup, and pulse until small pieces. (I should’ve added tomato after a few pulses because it liquified!).

Begin to saute veggies in a little oil or butter in a frying pan.

Place eggs, salt and pepper in the same Ninja cup and blend until smooth.

When vegetables are looking tender, translucent, pour beaten eggs over all and cook until the eggs starts to gel. Use a silicone spatula to make figure 8’s in the eggs to “scramble” them and allow uncooked egg to get to the bottom of the pan. Cook thoroughly over low to medium heat.

Green Breakfast Smoothie… if you’re not making smoothies in the blender, I don’t know what you’re doing!

The Ninja book offers a “lean green ninja” smoothie recipe and this is a riff off of that.

• 2 bananas
• 1/2 cup frozen spinach (frozen from fresh)
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen mango
• 1 cup coconut water
• 1 cup almond milk (optional, if you don’t want a milk base, just use more coconut water)
• 1/2 cup ice

Add all ingredients to the pitcher with the stacked blade. Push the Ninja Auto-IQ Frozen Drinks Smoothies button!!

This button is AMAZING! First it pulses to chop up the larger frozen items. It does this several times. Then it blends on high for a good amount of time. It’s perfect and you don’t have to watch it – it’s automated perfectly to give the right power for crushing all that frozen goodness into a yummy smoothie! LOOOOOOVE this feature!

Breakfast… 4 dishes in the blender!

So there you have it – breakfast in the blender! I felt like I was going through one of those fancy buffets at hotel with so many delicious choices on my plate! And really, although it was longer than my 5 and 2 year old wanted, the whole meal came together in 30-40 minutes. Because the Ninja has the pitcher and three cups, I didn’t have to do any rinsing out before moving on to prepping the next dish. I cook while I blended the next dish, so it was all a pretty fast meal to get together!

Beside the Auto-IQ Smoothie button, this Ninja has Auto-IQ Puree (dips, hummus, baby food), Auto-IQ Pulse (hold down for quick burst of power to avoid over blending), Auto-IQ Blend (for juicing in the Ninja cups instead of pitcher), and Auto-IQ Ultra Blend (for frozen smoothies in the Ninja cups).

I’m SO happy to be back in the world of blending! Summer IS coming and nothing say summer to me than a frozen smoothie on the patio!

Happy Blending!

What’s your favorite blender recipe, tip, usage, or idea!?