Over winter break I decided to finally face my irrational fear of blenders.

When I was 11 or 12, I was visiting my uncle on his ranch and I accidentally broke his blender in front of a dinner party of 20 people. It was a little traumatizing and I hadn’t gone near one since.

But on a trip to Costco I saw a really cool Bluetooth blender and decided to go for it. If you’ve never had the pleasure (or horror?) of watching me cook, then you don’t know that I have a habit of eyeballing everything. I’m not exaggerating. I mean everything.

This blender’s greatest feature is that you don’t have to measure anything. It connects to an app and tells you how much of each thing you’ve put in, so my eyeball amounts are now accurate measurements.

Truth be told, an impulse purchase did not get me over my fear. I left that blender in its box in the corner of my kitchen for well over a month after buying it because I was scared to touch it.

It took just about everyone I know giving me 24/7 blender moral support for me to make that first smoothie. Now I’m here to share some of the recipes I’ve tried in the last three months.

Mango-Pineapple-Strawberry

This one is my go-to and the reason I haven’t tried all that many smoothies. It’s also helped me design a good base to make experimenting with smoothies easier. I use frozen fruit so I don’t have to blend any ice, and I almost always use light apple juice for the liquid.

Milk makes for frothy smoothies, and plain water will water down the taste, but apple juice works great. Coconut water is another popular choice but I’m allergic to coconut so I can’t comment.

For all of these recipes you’re welcome to change the ingredient amounts willy-nilly. Really the only thing that matters is making sure you use enough apple juice to almost-but-not-actually cover your fruit in the blender. If you don’t it’ll be too thick to blend and too thick to drink effectively.

The recipe for this smoothie is something like:

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 cup frozen mango, diced
• 8 ounces light apple juice

Raspberry-Blueberry-Blackberry

This one I wasn’t a big fan of. The biggest downside was the amount of seeds in the smoothie because the seeds from these fruits are too small to blend. I also found this one to be bitter, so adding honey to taste might be good.

Remember to take my unfavorable opinions with a grain of salt. If you don’t mind seeds then you’ll probably like this smoothie.

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen blackberries
• 8 ounces light apple juice
• Honey, to taste

Apple-Kiwi-Kale

I am possibly the world’s biggest kale stan. It’s delicious and it has so many health benefits. Plus, its flavor almost disappears when blended so I’m tempted to throw it into every smoothie I make.

Fair warning: if you plan on using kale in your smoothies regularly or just eating it regularly, it’s good to cook it ahead of time then throw it in the freezer. Raw kale has a chemical that disrupts the thyroid’s ability to absorb iodine. In small amounts, it’s not really anything to worry about, but it’s definitely something to think about if you plan on having it regularly.

This is one smoothie where I advise against using frozen fruit. I buy each of the ingredients fresh and chop them up right before blending. I hate the sound of ice blending almost as much as I hate warm smoothies, so I toss a couple ice cubes in just to keep it cool.

This is another smoothie that has the potential to be a little sour or bitter. If that’s not your taste, consider adding honey or Greek yogurt.

• 1 and 1/2 cups kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup apple, diced
• 1 cup kale, stemless
• 1/3 banana, sliced (optional)
• 8 ounces light apple juice
• Honey, to taste (optional)
• Ice