As the mom of a 1 year old, I, like many moms, do not take the time to make myself a proper breakfast or lunch. I say to myself, "I'm not going to cook a meal just for myself." It feels like a waste of time and energy to do anything but warm up leftovers or eat some cereal which doesn't always make for a well balanced diet. And, since the little man gets the majority of his nutrition from me, I know I need to step my game up. My diet lately has been close to horrendous...I have my excuses but I won't bother you with them since there really is no good excuse for a poor diet. Especially in our country where healthy food is at our fingertips.
Cutting out junk and adding in as many fruits and veggies as possible is my strategy and one really easy, super yummy way for me to accomplish this has been by adding smoothies to my dietary line-up. We have a little blender that allows me to make one smoothie at a time and drink it right out of the cup I blended it in. This makes it a little easier for me to make one concoction for myself and a slightly different blend for my husband. If you don't have one of these, never fear! Any blender will do the job! One thing I started doing when our little guy was a newborn was add spinach to whatever smoothie I was making. You really can't taste it and spinach is chock full of SO many important vitamins and minerals. I have also been trying to keep lots of different produce in the house which helps us stay excited about our fruits and veggies.
With my husband's busy schedule and a mobile baby, I feel I can dedicate about 5-10 minutes to meal prep for breakfast and lunch. That means, if there is any chopping, slicing, measuring, washing or anything other than "throw in ____.", it's not going to happen for these 2 meals. That's why smoothies have been so great for us lately.
Here's my basic go-to recipe right now:
1-2 bananas
a handful of frozen fruit
appx. 1/2 cup of liquid (water, almond milk, juice, apple sauce, etc.)
appx. 1 cup of organic pre-washed spinach
I throw the banana, frozen fruit and liquid in the blender first and get it nice and liquefied. Then I stuff (when I say "stuff", I mean cram in as much of that goodness as possible!) the rest of the cup with spinach and blend it in. Insert a straw and voila! You are holding 2-3 servings of fruit and a serving of vegetables in one hand! Enjoy!
Tips:
1. All measurements are approximations because remember, measuring is not a part of this recipe :)
2. For your liquid, use almond milk if you want a milkier smoothie, water if you don't want to add extra calories, juice or apple sauce to sweeten it a little more. We are trying to cut back on our dairy intake since there is more and more research that suggests that dairy isn't a great source of nutrition for us, but if you have dairy milk or yogurt on hand and you feel ok about using, feel free! The liquid really just helps the fruit blend more easily. If you have a super powerful blender, you may not need it. If you like a thicker smoothie, use less liquid, if you like a thinner smoothie, use more liquid.
3. This gets its own point because I think it is great and I don't want you to miss it! Cranberry juice is the liquid I use most often right now for my smoothies. There are many health benefits associated with drinking cranberry juice. When I got a UTI, my doctor's office told me to try drinking cranberry juice since I wanted to avoid taking antibiotics if possible. It helped tremendously. I would recommend buying a juice that is just cranberry if possible since you use very little in each smoothie. Most 'cranberry juices' have much more apple juice or grape juice than cranberry juice. Check the label. Straight up Cranberry juice is VERY tart so you will probably want to add a little more sweetness than normal to your smoothie if you use it.
4. The number of bananas you use is based on your desired sweetness and the other ingredients you choose. For example, my typical smoothie has 2 bananas since I use cranberry juice as my liquid. If you are using other fruits that have a lot of sweetness, like peaches or mangoes, you'll be ok with 1 banana.
5. In my opinion, it is totally worth it to spend a little more to get organic pre-washed spinach. I don't usually buy things pre-washed, pre-sliced, or pre-anything if it means I have to pay more, but in this case, doing so means I will actually use it before it goes bad since I have it ready to go and I've learned the hard way that wasting food wastes money. I also rest better knowing there are no harmful pesticides or fertilizers in my smoothies.
6. From time to time, I will find a good sale on fresh produce and stock up. In that case, I take some time during nap time or on a weekend to clean, slice and freeze my fruit. I love when I am able to do this, but when I can't, I find the best deal I can on frozen fruit. Some of our favorite frozen fruits have been a berry blend with raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries as well as the bags that have peaches, pineapple and grapes. The latter is a bit sweeter so I only use 1 banana when using those. I love these bags because you can get a little bit of a few different fruits in every smoothie. In the morning, I don't have the patience to prepare a quarter of a peach, 4 grapes and 5 pieces of pineapple for 1 smoothie, but since these are already sliced and frozen in one bag, I have the luxury of getting all of those flavors at once. Again, for us, the convenience means we will actually eat the food therefore saving us from wasting money.
What are some of your favorite smoothie combos?
