Let me tell you what I've been eating for breakfast over the past few weeks: smoothies. I realized that I wasn't eating enough fruit and dairy. So, I started making myself some smoothies for breakfast. It has been the perfect way for me to eat fruits and dairy. It helped me lose a few of my baby weight pounds (that had just been HANGING on!). And since I lost those pounds, it has helped me maintain. Plus, it keeps me full until lunch so that I don't snack like a crazy person.
It's a pretty basic formula and really easy to change up to keeps things from getting boring.
I like to freeze my yogurt for a thicker smoothie. I fill up an ice cube tray with vanilla yogurt and freeze it. Then I pop out the cubes and keep them in a zip-top bag until I use them. Each cube holds about 1 tablespoon of yogurt. I also like to freeze my fruit (whether I use fresh or canned) so that it makes for a thicker smoothie too. But it doesn't have to be frozen. I just find that it tastes a little more like a milkshake when you use unfrozen fruit.
Breakfast Smoothies
Ingredients:
1 cup fruit (fresh, canned, or frozen)
1 cup skim milk
4 cubes of frozen vanilla yogurt (about 4 tablespoons--it doesn't have to be frozen)
Sweetener, to taste (sugar, honey, brown sugar, Splenda...whatever you want to use)
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth.
Source: No source really, I had just seen a ton of smoothie recipes on Pinterest and it got me in the mood. Then, when I was at the grocery store, I bought one of those Yoplait smoothie packs in the frozen food section. It was soooo good and really low-calorie. But I was surprised to discover when I opened the package, that all of the ingredients could be easily replicated at home.
Notes: I've tried a lot of different types of fruit. I used fresh cantaloupe--which made for a nice, frothy milkshake. I have used frozen canned peaches (I just drained them, put them in a zip-top bag, and froze them in a single layer). I used cuties/tangerines and added a little frozen orange juice concentrate (about 2 tbsp) for an extra kick. The same method worked when I used an orange. I added a little vanilla that time and it tasted like an Orange Julius. I had some lovely red plums that added such a pretty color to the smoothie. I sometimes add a half a banana to whatever fruit I am already using. I used some canned crushed pineapple (undrained) that I had leftover from a recipe one day. It tasted really good--very similar to our frog eye salad recipe. Really, I think the possibilities are endless.
