Sunday, December 5, 2010

Good Morning Smoothie

For the past few years I have been drinking a smoothie for breakfast. It fills me up, tastes good and for me, doesn’t upset my stomach. Having no gluten in my diet tends to remove a lot of breakfast foods from my selection. I have found too that sometimes eggs right away in the morning aren’t my friend even though I can eat them later. So, smoothies are a great breakfast!

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I thought I would share what I make that has kept me happy for the past 2 years and counting.

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The heart of every good smoothie is the protein powder. I found this Aria powder at Trader Joes once. It is a great value at $9.99 per can, especially with 17 servings per can. What I love is that there aren’t a million ingredients to get the 80 calories and 14 grams of protein that it offers. I don’t go to Trader Joes too often, but I definitely grab a number of these cans when I do.

The next thing is of course frozen fruit. I use some of the frozen fruits from Sam’s Club since their fruits are some of least expensive. I vary between Triple Berry Blend, a Dole mixed fruit blend (peaches, pineapple, strawberry, and mango), and Blueberries. They sell a huge bag of strawberries too, but I don’t usually buy just plain strawberries. My favorite is the Triple Berry Blend.

My next ingredient is green tea. We have all heard the amazing health properties of green tea, but do we do anything to make sure we get a cup each day? Well, I found that if I take hot water in my glass and then put my green tea bag in that I can let it set for a few minutes and use and I have thus gained my health properties each day. I don’t use a sweetener in my smoothies since the fruit is sufficient for me but I am sure that honey, stevia, etc. would be sufficient too. What I did realize is that if I use a green tea with a flavor (they come in blueberry, peach, lemon, pomegranate, cherry, etc.) that it gives the illusion of a sweetener and keeps the calories down. Wild I know. Today I used the Candy Cane Green Tea from Trader Joes (I bought it per Simply Dawn’s recommendation) and oh my word is that a tasty treat! I never would thought that it could be great in my smoothie, but it is AMAZING! It is good on it’s own, but I think I should have bought more than three boxes. If anyone goes to Trader Joes anytime soon and can grab me a few more boxes, I would be super thankful!

Anyway, I make the tea, remove the tea bag (silly step, but I did forget once ;( ), add the two scoops of protein powder, and frozen fruit. I whip it up in the trusty Magic Bullet. That is it. With the warm water being the base, my smoothie isn’t frozen anymore. For me it just means I can drink it up faster so it doesn’t bother me. It is a cool temperature though since there was frozen fruit used. If you really like it icy you can make the tea earlier and have it in the frig maybe. This of course doesn’t have to be breakfast, it could be snacks or meals whenever it sounds good.

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I personally think it is just perfect for me and I really enjoy it!

Thanks for listening Smile!

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