Breakfast Smoothies aka Green Monsters

So now that I'm working out (more to come on that later) I've started making smoothie/protein shakes again. These are so much better than the ones I came up with a few years ago. And probably healthier too. I thought I'd share in case any of you were looking for a healthy breakfast alternative or snack. Though honestly, I have so many calories in this thing it's probably only suitable for breakfast now. 

Yep, it's green.

I do realize that this probably looks completely unappetizing.

You've gotta trust me on this one!

Breakfast Smoothie
1/2 cup (or so) of plain 0% fat greek yogurt
1/4 cup (or so) of 1% milk (soon to be replaced by kefir)
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (I get Whole Foods' generic 365 brand)
Couple TBS of flax seeds (will soon be replaced with GROUND flaxseed. So much easier to deal with)
Large handful of spinach (that's why it's green!)
1 banana
1 cup blueberries
6 ice cubes


I mix the first 5 ingredients together first to make sure all the spinach is really blended well. You definitely don't want to be eating a salad in the middle of your smoothie. And honestly--YOU CAN'T TASTE ANY SPINACH. But you're getting the health benefits of at least a whole serving (perhaps more...I use a lot) such as lots of iron! 

Plus, Finny loves that he gets his favorite treat almost every day now!
He's a weird one.....

Greek yogurt has a TON of protein in it. One cup has about 45% of your daily needs. I can't bring myself to eat it out of the container plain (it's sour and thick and I can't help thinking I'm eating bad cottage cheese...). But this is a great way to incorporate it. 


I also add the protein powder at this stage with the liquids because I've realized that when you don't make it wet, it is puffed up in a cloud all over the sides of your blender and you're standing there wondering what the point of putting it in at all was! 


The blueberries at Whole Foods right now are some of the best I've ever had. And you're getting a ton of antioxidants through them. You could also add some strawberries in there, but I consider them more "dessert fruits" and don't really want the extra sugar. I have some peaches ripening right now and I'm thinking a banana, blueberry, peach smoothie sounds pretty much amazing. 


The cool thing about this smoothie is you're getting 3-4 servings of different fruits and veggies in one meal!! It's easy to consume--you can drink it while you're getting ready in the morning/walking around/on the way to work, etc. And you'll absolutely stay full for several hours.


I mentioned Kefir in the ingredients list. It's something quite interesting that I've learned about recently thanks to the wisdom of Mother Earth News. This article is REALLY interesting. If nothing else read the first page and I guarantee you'll want to continue on. I've thought about getting the bacterial culture to make it myself (you just add the culture to regular milk and it "processes" it for you..) but I discovered you can buy it at Whole Foods (of course you can). So I think I might get some there soon to see if I can stomach it. It's supposed to have a somewhat sour taste and I'm afraid, and probably rightly so, that it's going to be like drinking greek yogurt. So into the smoothie it will go, to be disguised by the wonderful fruits and veggies!!


Any suggestions to make this even better/healthier?