I started making smoothies for breakfast occasionally many years ago but thanks to Pinterest, I figured out how to build a smoothie that keeps me full until lunch time by adding oats or (even better) chia seeds. Now I start my day with a breakfast smoothie almost every weekday.
I was hesitant on the chia seeds but decided to splurge once I found ground seeds. I still haven’t worked up the courage to put spinach or other greens in my smoothies but that’s going to change. Since we’ve been on a bit of a “try-new-things” kick of late, and it’s been a while since I’ve done “a-month-of” anything, I thought I would challenge myself to try a new smoothie every day (Monday-Friday) through June.
My biggest challenge will be measuring; I don’t normally measure my smoothies in part because I’m not usually very alert at 6:30 in the morning.
I’m starting on Friday June 1 with a make-ahead smoothie (it needs to set overnight at least and will last 2-3 days in the fridge) then will get into the day-by-day ones the following Monday. I’ve been working on a schedule so that I can buy and go-through the non-standard ingredients more efficiently
Aside from spinach (which is not really non-standard in this house, just in smoothies), I will need to find hemp powder, ground flax seed, pumpkin puree, beet juice, and frozen fruit of every variety (mango, raspberry, cherry…). Luckily, Victoria is full of stores where I can likely find all of this.
To get you started, here’s one of my recipes: the smoothie pictured here is my take on a Pina Colada Smoothie. Roughly, this includes:
1 fresh banana
1/4 to 1/2 cup quick cut oats
3/4 to 1 cup Coconut Dream
1/2 cup pineapple (either fresh cut chunks or canned & drained)
1/4 cup greek yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 tsp shredded coconut to garnish (optional; you could also blend in directly)
Blend all until smooth; garnish with coconut. Enjoy!