There are several healthy breakfast options I have embraced such as Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding (recipe HERE). I really enjoy it - well around 10 a.m. - as I fill it with fresh melon and berries. What's not to like? Oatmeal is another and it's warm, which is a nice benefit in winter. There are several recipes for overnight oatmeal that use the whole seed. Very healthy and done the night before.
All became old news after a while. I suspect the answer is simply mixing it up more. If I don't, my answer is either to skip it all together and have a larger early lunch or to have toast. I love toast whether it has butter, nut butter or a slice of cheese on it. Certainly some mornings that is fine - all in moderation. But as I am struggling to lose a few pounds, I'm trying to not make this my regular morning choice.
More and more of my friends are embracing some form of green smoothie in the morning. Some were using this as a meal replacement, some as a way to get more fruits and vegetables into their daily routine and some in response to challenging health issues. I decided if I could do a larger batch to use over 2 days it might be a great change. The question now was what the focus would be. Why a green smoothie?
I decided it would be a healthy meal replacement incorporating many smaller ingredients I've been wanting to work into my diet like greens, turmeric, flax meal and protein (honestly not a big meat eater). I was visiting a friend near Whole Foods, so decided to pop in and snag some organic vegetables and explore the shake powder options. I settled on Vega One - an all in one shake that covered a lot of bases - 50% daily intake of vitamins and minerals, 15 g protein, 6 g fibre, 1.5 g, Omega-3, Antioxidants, Probiotics and Greens. I chose to use FROZEN peaches as I thought their taste would pair well with the greens and would add a nice chill to the drink.
The next morning I pulled out my Cuisinart food processor as I wasn't going to buy any more gadgets until I was sure this is going to be a long term part of my diet. In went the ingredients and the pureeing began. The look was honestly a little weird. I was sure it would be awful but it wasn't. Not like a fancy drink that was WOW, but the flavour was fine. You'd probably get the greens smoother in a proper juicer, but the little bit of texture was fine for me. Best of all was my bodies reaction. I struggled for the last couple years with fatigue, but after a few days I could feel my energy rise to a better place. As this is the only change I made, I felt it was a part.
Below is the combo I put together and it covers 2 days of drinks. I put half in a large travel mug with spill proof lid in the fridge and half in a glass to have right away. I highly suggest you play around and come up with ingredients until you find the combo that suits your goals and tastes. Will I keep this up? Who knows, but for now it's working beautifully for me and I feel better.
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Marilyn's Green Breakfast Drink
2 servings
2 Scoops Vega One All-in-One Shake (I use the natural flavour)
1 C Frozen Peach Slices or your fav fruit (guessing on this one, as I wing it)
1 Mini Cucumber, skin on and cut into chunks
1 Handful Baby Organic Spinach
1 Handful Baby Organic Kale
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 - 1/3 C Flax Seed Meal
3 C Water (or my new fav - 1 cup Mango Kefir and 2 cups water)
Note - Liquid can be what you want it to be. Water is always great for your body. If you want it creamier a non-dairy milk would work. I love the almond/coconut milk. Also like adding Kefir. Or you could add greek yogurt. Adding these make it more creamy but do affect the taste, so you'll just have to experiment.
Wash the cucumbers and greens. I struggled with chunks as I didn't have a proper blender/juicer, so what work for me was putting the frozen fruit and cucumber in first and running it until they were finely chopped. Then I added all the other ingredients and ran until smooth. Separate into 2 glasses, drink one and save the other for the next day.
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