Betsy’s Breakfast Smoothie
A great way to start the day!
This may come as a complete surprise to you, but I do most of the cooking in our house. I know. Shocking right?! But one area where Betsy has me crushed is in the daily breakfast department.
Before we started living together I used to not really eat breakfast at all. My breakfast started with a big cup of coffee. Of course, I was starving by lunchtime and would gorge myself on all kinds of snacks and stuff throughout the day.
Betsy on the other hand liked breakfast but she wasn’t much into heavy breakfasts. She used to eat cereal everyday.
These days, however, we are both all about the breakfast smoothie. This is her department entirely. I rarely make one. She’s been trying lots of different mixes over the last few months and she finally landed on one that I think is really solid.
We’ve been having this every morning for at least a month and I’m not sick of it at all. It gives me lots of energy. In fact, I get grumpy now if I don’t start my day with one.
Betsy's Breakfast Smoothie
Yield: 2 big smoothies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1 Cup orange juice
1/2 Cup yogurt
1 banana
2 Cups assorted frozen fruit (we usually use a mix of mangos, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries)
1/2 Cup tofu (silken works best, but anything will work)
1/4 Cup milled flax seedNecessary Equipment:
A good blender (From Amazon. This is the one I've used for over a year now every day. Still runs like a charm.)Directions:
1) Add all ingredients to a blender.
2) Blend.
3) Drink.
Making the Smoothie
Honestly, I don’t even think Betsy measures this recipe when she makes it every morning. I tried to get close to what it looks like she uses.
I know it always starts with these things though.
Frozen fruit is key.
Frozen fruit is definitely key for a good smoothie. It means you don’t have to add any ice at all. We just buy the mixed berry frozen fruit packages and use those so the smoothies have a little bit of everything. We went through a phase were we would buy the individual frozen varieties and try to perfect the mix, but it wasn’t really worth it.
On the order
I’m honestly not really sure if the order matters when adding your ingredients to the blender. I mean, after all, it is a blender. It’s gonna blend whatever you put it in unless you have a really crappy one.
We usually do liquids, then soft stuff, then frozen stuff, but I’m not sure that it really makes a difference.
Order probably doesn't matter too much.
The two ingredients that we’ve most recently added to this mix is the tofu and the flax seed. Some might say that this makes us hippies, but I say that it makes us healthy!
The tofu is packed with protein which keeps you full longer throughout the day (and trust me you can’t even taste it). Meanwhile the flax seed is one of the best sources of fiber out there.
One note on the flax seed. If you want to try it out, make sure you get the ground (or milled) variety and not the whole seeds. You can’t really digest the whole seeds.
If you’re bored, here’s the full nutritional breakdown on ground flax.
That's tofu. Not feta.
If you’ve never tried adding flax to things like smoothies, I really recommend it. And it’s not one of those hippie foods that’s crazy expensive either. You just use a few tablespoons at a time and you can get almost a pound of it for a few bucks on Amazon.
Whole flax would be pointless I guess.
Ok. So that’s the end of my flax rant. And no I wasn’t paid by the Association for the Future of Flax to say those things.
Back to the smoothie
Once you have all your stuff in the blender, just start it up! If it’s too thick add a bit more OJ and if it’s too thin, add some more frozen fruit. That’s all there is to it.
I really like my blender because it’s simple and it works. It only has two speeds: Pulse and ON. I’ve never really understood those blenders with like 12 different speeds.
Old faithful!
Pour it into a glass and serve it immediately! Actually, you can keep it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so without a problem, but it’s best right away in my mind.
Sometimes Betsy has one waiting for me when I get back from a morning run and that’s when I know I’m a lucky fella.
Great flavor and texture.
I’m not sure that I would attribute it entirely to these smoothies, but I’ve lost ten pounds this year which conveniently matches the amount of time we’ve been making smoothies for breakfast every day.
Get on the smoothie train people. Seriously.
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Great smoothie Nick!~ I like to grind my own flax seeds using my coffee grinder. It is even cheaper that way, and the seeds last longer.
I do almost the same thing as you, but I like to add full fat yogurt, a frozen banana, and protein powder for my morning kick. I am going to start adding in flax seeds now that you mention it.
Breakfast is my favorite part of the day, for sure. I am not sure that I want to give up my bacon though… or sausage. LOL
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Looks really good! Hey, how are the Beckites? LOL
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Nick replied: — August 28th, 2010 @ 7:11 pm
I seriously haven’t left my apartment all day. Toooo scared. :)
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I got bored and read how much Omega 3 and 6 just one teaspoon contains. Funny thing, just last night at Trader Joe’s I almost bought flax. Now I realize why I need to. And, I’ll put it in my shake. Not sure about the tofu though, but maybe I’ll get brave.
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Ha! Adam is in charge of breakfast at our house too. Maybe food bloggers aren’t breakfast people?
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Just made this smoothie for me and my husband for breakfast! It was delicious. Still gotta have my coffee, though!
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Nick replied: — August 31st, 2010 @ 12:52 pm
Well yea. Coffee is a given. :)
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Just made one of these for lunch and it’s delicious! Substituted some V8 Strawberry Banana juice for the OJ and flax seed oil instead of the seeds. Yum!!
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I make one of these every morning but I also add vanilla whey protein (26g protein) and a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s “Very Green” powder along with the flax seed. I replace the OJ and yogurt with almond milk or coconut water. I have chopped frozen spinach that I add to it (can’t taste it) and also shove some acai juice (very expensive!!) or gogi berries in it on occasion. When Whole Foods has organic fresh fruits on sale I buy them, wash, cut, dry then mix together in a zip lock bag in the freezer – fresh, local, organic fruits are the best! I try to make mine as much of a powerhouse drink as I can. And I add flax to EVERYTHING – pasta sauce, pancake mix, muffins, etc.
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Nick replied: — September 7th, 2010 @ 4:35 am
Nice. Bets just tried adding a handful of spinach to ours this morning and it's great. Can't really taste it but definitely jams in some nutrients and makes the color a bit darker.
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Any idea if these would freeze okay for a day or two?
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Nick replied: — October 18th, 2010 @ 7:47 am
Sorry it took me many days to reply! But yes… they would freeze fine. You would want to thaw them halfway and reblend them though when you wanted one which would actually take longer than just making one from scratch I think…
You could freeze the mix in ice cube trays though… then throw a few in with some over stuff and blend it.
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Nick, I love your site! I just found it and I'm hooked.
I recently created a delicious smoothie (that includes kale) and realized later that I could have added flax seeds. I bought them a while ago but haven't figured out what to do with them – every recipe seems to call for ground flax so I was starting to think that I had made a mistake in buying them. Thanks Jason S, I'll grind them myself. I didn't know that you couldn't digest the whole seeds… I've been adding them to my cereal the last 2 mornings. Oops!
Anyway, thanks for the great posts. I'll be checking in frequently!
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I just made these today… fantastic!! We don't have flax seed or tofu here in Ecuador (I could buy soy milk and make it, which is what a few vegetarian restaurants told me they do) so I just used soy milk, some oatmeal, and a second banana. Oh also I used fresh squeezed oj (delicious down here and sooo cheap we buy dozens of oranges every time we go to the market).
While I was shopping for the stuff, I bought some quinoa. It's very popular here in the Andes region, but in two years, I don't think I've ever had it. I'm gonna try it next time (i was so hungry and anxious to make the smoothie I didn't want to wait to cook the quinoa and let it cool… haha).
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Brendan replied: — March 4th, 2011 @ 12:19 pm
I'll let you know how it goes with the quinoa. I'm pretty sure you can get it in the states. I believe it has all 9 essential amino acids, making it a great addition to the smoothie (as long as it doesn't ruin the taste, of course). I want to try the spinach too, but one change at a time just to make it a bit more "scientific" ya know…
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