It’s now been a few months since I weaned myself off cereal and now I frequently enjoy a smoothie as part of my weekday breakfast. Thanks to the combination of berries, spinach and bananas I’m finding myself fuller for longer as well as more clear-headed and energetic. Back in the days of fruit and fibre I was reaching for the ‘mid-morning’ snacks about 9.30, now it can be 11am before I even feel remotely hungry and whip out the carrot sticks or raw cashews.
However after three months of more or less the same ingredients I’m starting to tire of my usual combo and I’d like to shake it up a bit and have a few recipes on rotation.
I stick to a formula of a cup of unsweetened liquid, (mine is usually almond milk), followed by a large handful of spinach and/or kale. I then throw in a banana and a handful of frozen berries, perhaps a teaspoon of seeds and whizz together in my nutribullet. My ‘handfuls’ are usually a little larger than the ones shown in the image above but I had run out of bigger measuring cups! These copper ones were a gift from my husband from Anthropologie.
I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth so the natural sugars in the banana and blueberries are my sweet kick for the day. I prefer to keep a good dose of the leafy greens in there rotating between spinach and kale rather than overload on fruit. However I have to ask – what is it with with supermarket kale? All those stalks?! I’m seriously tempted to start growing my own.
Yesterday I slightly adapted my usual smoothie to include oats and chia seeds as per Healthy Eating guru, Deliciously Ella which filled me up even longer.
To get me in the summer spirit I’m adding avocado to my shopping list next week to try out Madeline Shaw’s Green Avocado Mango smoothie however I don’t think it’ll be feasible for me to knock up this beauty each day as it could get quite spendy. I considered using frozen mango but tried it in my breakfast smoothie the other day and wasn’t enamoured by the taste.
Moving away from the more expensive vegetables, I stumbled across this recipe the other day on Gimme Some Oven using the humble carrot. Possibly a touch too sweet for brekkie but one to add to my list to try.
Any other smoothie drinkers looking to shake up their breakfast? What’s your favourite combination and how do you avoid getting stuck in a rut.
I usually exercise in the evening but would love to hear what you stuff in your blender if you’re heading to a morning workout.
We’ll be back this afternoon with another post so don’t forget to stop by. Happy Friday!
A few weeks ago we bought ourselves a Breville smoothie maker. It is probably the best kitchen gadget we have bought in years!!! My husband does a really good protein shake that includes, strawberry protein powder, milk, a good squirt of honey, 1 banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It is absolutely delicious.
We’ve also done a few variations with frozen fruit and fresh blueberries all of which have worked well. I’m really keen to try adding greens to them, the husband needs some convincing though (he jokingly says all green food is off).
Ha ha Alex! Might be best to sneak in a bit of spinach first. I’m sure he won’t even notice!
Firstly, all credit to your husband Lauren – what a great gift those Anthropologie cups are! I’ve never really been able to get into this smoothie business but I do feel like I should try it. I’m very much a morning workout person, but will usually do fasted cardio and stuff, before eating a protein bar straight after. I do feel like there’s probably quite a lot of rubbish in them though, so I might try and get involved in the smoothies soon. Also, really glad there’s a second post today – I’ve missed the 2pm slot! x
Hope you’re enjoying our weekend spots too Sian. We’ve got Saturday and Sunday posts for you this week! x
If you have the Green Kitchen Stories app, they’ve just launched an extra bit that JUST smoothies (I think the app is free but you have to pay for the smoothie bit, I think its only a couple of quid though)
http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/smoothie-bonanza-14-new-recipes/
Brilliant, thanks Claire – will check it out x
I love my nurtibullet. some favourite combinations
oats, apple, frozen pineapple, banana, dates, almond milk
apple, celery, lime, cucumber, spinach, ginger and spirulina with coconut water.
Loving your combinations Sarah. Where do you get your frozen pineapple from?
I am sooooo in love with those cups Lauren! I am a big smoothie drinker, and a morning exerciser. Like Sian I tend to do a fasted workout, but then enjoy a nourishing protein smoothie afterwards. I keep it interesting by sticking to what is in season (and what needs eating in the fridge!). Hubby is the chief smoothie maker in our house, and he never follows any of my recipes…just throws in all sorts of crazy things like broccoli, courgette, carrots etc. My favourite is a nice fresh-tasting green smoothie with cucumber, mint and lemon or lime.
Hi Bron, Looking forward to sharing some of your recipes very soon!
Your green smoothie sounds very refreshing. I’ll definitely give it a whirl next week.
Slightly on an off tangent – I am loving all the equipment in today’s post Lauren. The measuring cups, the nutribullet which I’ve heard so much about. Is it worth the investment?
Best piece of kitchen equipment we’ve ever bought Lolly. Our smoothies are so, well, smooth!
Lots of folks in my office have cheaper equivalents though which they rave about but I’m a big fan of the bullet x
I have a mango smoothie a couple of times a week after swimming with almond milk, chia seeds and a dash of honey. I tried it once with frozen mango and decided that the price difference wasn’t worth it at all as the frozen mango was horrible. I’ve yet to add veg to mine though.
Lolly, for me the nutribullet was definitely worth the investment.
Sarah – I can’t quite put my finger on how to describe the way the frozen mango tastes but it’s so odd isn’t it?!
You won’t be able to taste spinach if you whizz it up in there but unfortunately it takes on a whole new colour!
Frozen mango is awful, I bought some for my morning yoghurt -ick! Aldi’ pre- packaged Mango chunks are about £1.89 for a good sized tray, much cheaper than other supermarkets. It’s always really ripe & tasty too. X
Gotta love Aldi fruit and veg Carly! x
I’m teetering on the edge of ordering a nutribullet this very day! My friend at work has one and has been using it for some months – she is glowing, has lost weight adn has SOOOOO much energy its amazing! I guess the thing to remember here is you need to put good stuff into it – i.e. organic where posiible – otherwise what is the point? For that reason I do spend a bit on organic detox juices from time to time with radiancecleanse.com which is convenient as its all pre-made and delivered to you but it can be spendy. I am a health nut myself – adding beel pollen, chia seeds and a host of other wonder powders (cacao, spirulina, lucuma, matcha!) to anything and everything! Coconut oil is a staple in my kitchen. I also recommend the Super Foods book by Julie Montagu is great source of recipes. So now the question for me is ‘do I buy a nutribullet?’ I work out in the morning so am always hungry afterwards, this I’m certain would be a good way to do brekkie but I guess my reservation is that it would require a little more organisation on my part in terms of shopping the ingredients and prep time in the morning (which are already a rush!). Phew, sorry for long post!
Hi Sarah, thanks for the Julie Montagu recommendation, will definitely be checking out.
I find it takes longer to make my other half a cup of coffee in the morning than it does to prepare a smoothie so hopefully it shouldn’t take long if you do go down the bullet route.
We (in reality my husband!) prep our smoothie ingredients the night before, when we are making our evening meal, and then just whizz them up in the morning. It’s saved us so much time and I’ve read that it’s better to soak some ingredients (i.e. chia seeds) before you consume them.
I am addicted to smoothies! Ive found a couple of things which take them to the next level.
The first is almond butter – adds a ton of flavour and ups protein level but isn’t overpowering or salty (which peanut butter can be).
The second is vanilla powder. This stuff is my magic delicious dust. A sprinkle is all you need.
Also, last week my local food shop had pineapples on sale. I chopped the whole thing into cubes and chucked them in freezer. Now I can add just a handful for totally tropical taste (without any waste)!
Such a good idea Sarah! I’ve been looking for bags of frozen pineapple when I really should just do it myself.
I am obsessed with peanut butter but yet to move on to almond butter. Which one do you go for? x
Meridian Almond Butter is nice – I buy it from waitrose.
Thanks Sarah, I buy their peanut butter but they didn’t have the almond in my supermarket. Will hot foot to waitrose.
Holland & Barrett do it as well I believe.
And of course Costco also do the 1kg tub of meridian almond butter 😉
I reckon I could eat a kg of almond butter in three months 😉 I need a Costco card!
I get my Meridian in waitrose or a local health food. I have no Costco. Sad times!
I like a raw cacao, avocado, banana and almond milk one as a treat, or baby spinach, pea shoots, carrot, apple and orange 🙂
Great combos Nikki x
[…] use since last spring and have been shaking up my recipes recently. There’s lots of ideas in our smoothie post from the archives […]