Breakfast has never really been my thing. My schedule for the last few years hasn't allowed for a sit-down enjoy your breakfast type of morning. In college my shift at Best Buy started at 6am. That was a drag yourself out of bed, stop at the closest Wawa, grab yourself a coffee, and get to work type of morning. My next job I probably could have sat for a few minutes to have breakfast, but I guess by then I was a creature of habit so it was let me sit down for a cup of coffee and I'll be on my way. Now-a-days I start work at 7am; which is totally of my choosing because I'm most definitely a morning person by this point in my life. The comedian Mike Birbiglia explain it best:
"I have a hard time waking up in the morning. Some people don't get it. They get out of bed like they're getting off the bench at a basketball game. ALRIGHT! Let's do this! Hands up! or whatever. But I'm like a lame cow in the road, I'm like 'meeeaaaahhhhhhh meeaaaaah mah meeaaaaaaaahhh." (There is a great visual here when he performs the joke, watch the first minute of the video below.)
Re-cap Me = basketball player, coincidentally my husband = lame cow
The only difference is now I'm actively trying to be healthier and I know breakfast is 'The Most Important Meal of the Day'. For the past couple of months I've been making myself green smoothies in the morning. I know this is becoming a popular trend, but it's actually really working for me.
1) It's nutrious
2) It keeps me pretty full til my snack time
3) And believe it or not in general they taste pretty good
I've tried out a few different recipes over the months. In the beginning there were quite a few I tried to see what I really liked. I did find out that no matter how many ingredients you combine with kale, I still don't like kale. I started off with simple combos (Smoothie #1). After I got used to drinking smoothies in the morning I started using more exotic ingredients, and by exotic I mean pineapple (Smoothie #2). That combo lasted a whole month until the price of pineapples started to go up. My favorite recipe so far (Smoothie #3), and it's been a few weeks, includes PB2 which is one of my new favorite discoveries.
Til this point I strayed away from recipes that included peanut butter. I have a small issue with peanut butter in that between regular and reduced fat peanut butter the calorie difference is maybe only 10-20. Why not 'indulge' and have the regular kind? Or simply do without peanut butter. Which is what I ended up doing for a long time. Recently I heard about this product PB2. During the process they slow-roast the peanuts and then they're pressed to remove the oil. You're left with the same great taste but leave behind 2/3 of the calories. You can mix it up with water to make a traditional peanut butter mixture. For the smoothies I just add in the powder.
Smoothie #1
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup strawberries
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 3/4 cup water
- Handful of spinach
Smoothie #2
- 1 cup pineapple chunks
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1 cup water
- Handful of spinach
Smoothie #3
- 1/2 peach
- 1/2 banana
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp of PB2
- Handful of spinach.
Bottoms up! What combinations have you tried?
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