Tubby Tuesday: Breakfast Smoothie

I've been on the on-again off-again "diet" thing for a long time.  A really, really long time.  Thus far, two things I've stuck with.  No more cokes (going on three years!) and getting my fruits through smoothies each morning (going on three months!).  So far, I'm fitting into a pair of jeans that I haven't managed to squeeze into in over two years. 

I'm happy.  I'm feeling better.

I've eliminated morning breakfast sandwiches and stopping at Panera or Starbucks for a scone and a coffee.  Well, let's be honest.  It was never just "coffee," but almost always some form of chocolate/peppermint/pumpkin spice/blah blah blah.  So much useless sugar.  So likely to lead to a crash later in the day.  I'm not starving at my desk at 10:30.

Of course, my decision to try going to smoothies came from seeing so many recipes on Pinterest!  Specifically a pin that took me to this page:  How To Make a Smoothie on superskinnyme.com 

Totally easy, right?  All you need is a blender and stuff.  Most stuff you probably buy at the grocery store anyway.  Or, if you aren't buying it, you should be!

Each morning, I load up my blender and make my own smoothie, which goes in my Super Special Smoothie Cup, and I drink it on my drive to work.  This is one of my go to simple smoothies.

Bling, bling!

 Simple Smoothie

 Ingredients:
1/4 Cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
8 oz. 100% apple juice
1 banana
1/2 cup HEB frozen Papaya, Mango, and Strawberries
1/4 cup Bulgarian or Greek Yogurt
ground flax seed
sprinkle of cinnamon or a smidgen of local honey

You can also add in some spinach, but I found that I'm not going through spinach fast enough and it goes bad before I can eat it.

Here's the trick.  Blend in sections unless you have a Nutribullet or something similar.  I have a pretty basic Oster blender.

1.  Combine raw rolled oats, apple juice, and flax seed.  Liquify it!
2.  Add banana, frozen fruits, yogurt, and cinnamon/honey.  Grind it until smooth.  I normally pulse a little bit on liquify as well. 

What I learned very quickly is that throwing everything in the blender at once doesn't get your oatmeal broken down and leaves you with a really lumpy smoothie.  The whole point of a smoothie is that it's smooth, amirite? 

There is a lot you can do with a smoothie.  With frozen fruits and berries readily available at your grocery store, it's super easy.  And it can be cheap.  The bags of papaya, mango, and strawberries I bought at my local HEB (a Texas grocery store) were $1.38/each.  A buck and change!  Bonus is that you can also thaw it and mix it with yogurt for a nice treat.  Make sure that you are buying JUST the frozen fruit, not fruit in sugar or syrup. 

Have a great one!