Monday, March 8, 2010

Breakfast this Morning: Mixed Berry Smoothie and Fruit and Veg Juice


The weather here if finally starting to look and feel like spring. Yesterday we almost reached 60 degrees and it is forecasted to reach 60 on 4 of the next 7 days. Yay spring, I am so happy to see you! I hope this recent weather means we are finished with snow.

Since the weather has begun to turn we were back to smoothies this morning at our house. Today we had a berry smoothie and fruit and veggie juice for breakfast. I love breakfasts like this because they are so packed with nutrition. Here is what I made this morning.

Mixed Berry Smoothie
Serves 3 (double for Dan and a single for me)

Ingredients:

¼ cup oat bran
2 tablespoons flaxseeds, ground
5 cups frozen dark berries (I used wild blueberries and red raspberries)
¼ cup walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups water

Directions:

Place the oat bran in the blender and process to make it finer. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Serve in a chilled glass if possible. I keep two glasses in the freezer at all times for our smoothies.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 290.98
Calories From Fat (28%) - 81.71

Total Fat - 9.65g
Saturated Fat - 0.97g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 12.74mg
Potassium - 94.23mg
Total Carbohydrates - 49.24g
Fiber - 4.32g
Sugar - 0.39g
Protein - 6.86g

Comments:

Variations of this are typical at our house. I added oat bran this morning for fiber assuming it will keep us full longer with the added fiber. If you have a sweet tooth you may need to add a little sweetener to this. We used to until we cut back so dramatically on sweeteners and now it tastes sweet to us just as it is. I like to include dark berries whenever possible for their antioxidants. Walnuts and flax add omega 3 fatty acids and make this a more satisfying meal. Not to mention the fat makes certain any fat soluble vitamins from breakfast get absorbed.

To go with this smoothie we had a fresh fruit and veggie juice. Here is that recipe.



Fruit and Veggie Juice
Serves 2

Ingredients:

8 cups baby spinach
1 Red Delicious apple
4 carrots
2 limes
½ inch ginger
½ cup pineapple

Directions:

Run everything through the juicer and enjoy with a few ice cubes.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 174.92
Calories From Fat (6%) - 9.96

Total Fat - 1.2g
Saturated Fat - 0.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 209.57mg
Potassium - 1397.16mg
Total Carbohydrates - 42.83g
Fiber 11.39g **
Sugar - 20.63g
Protein - 5.91g

** Note: the fiber above has to be overstated since the veggies were juiced. I don’t think it is zero, but it much closer to that than the number calculated by the nutrition program.

Comments:

We make variations of this most mornings. Both Dan and I have decided we like to combine veggies and fruit. The ginger adds a nice zip to the background of the juice that I also think is required. I have specified a Red Delicious apple because they have the highest level of antioxidants. Neither of us likes the texture of this variety to eat out of hand, but when it is in juice it doesn’t matter. We have started buying Red Delicious for our juice and Galas to eat whole.

Each serving of this juice contains approximately 38,000IU of vitamin A, 85mg of vitamin C, 200mg of calcium, 280mcg of folate, 600mcg of vitamin K, 140mg of phosphorus, and 130mg of magnesium. I think this is amazing for a glass of juice. We love to start our day with a big nutritional punch from fresh juice.

Unrelated note:

This weekend was very relaxing. We decided to do absolutely nothing instead we slept late and lounged around all weekend. Dan and I never do this on the weekend we are always working on something, running errands, doing things around the house. It was wonderful to do nothing and have no obligations. We definitely need to do this more often.

When I logged in this morning I had over 200 emails from the weekend and many comments to post and reply to on the blog. I have responded to the blog comments, but the email will have to wait. If you sent one and I haven’t responded, I will respond I promise. But it may take me a day or two to return all the emails. Sorry!

For now I need to get a few things accomplished at home. It is after noon and I haven’t crossed anything off my to do list yet. I have an interesting okara experiment to work on today with dehydrated red bell peppers. I will definitely keep you posted. It seems I am making soy milk today so I can play around with the okara. Doesn’t that just seem wrong?

I am off to work on “project purge” which has grown again, now I adding every drawer and cabinet to the list. If this keeps up I may be purging until fall. I will be back later with a recipe or two. I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great Monday.

16 comments:

  1. The smoothies look great...what color!

    Hurrah for spring...Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rose,

    It is funny you would mentioned the color. I am convinced the more colorful the food the better it is for you.

    I am psyched about spring myself. I hope it is really here to stay.

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am sooo glad you guys got that kind of weekend. I think you totally deserved it! We're having fantastic weather here. Got in a run Sat and another one at lunch today. That smoothie looks really good right about now too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Heather,

    I think we both really needed the time off to recharge. Even thought I didn't sleep well I woke up with a ton of energy today. Good for you getting outside to run twice. If you weather is like ours it must have been a great run today.

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh my goodness...200? speechless! thats a lot!!!
    i love smoothies, yea i never add a swetener to mine. we had a lazy weekend also, very nice:)
    ok well good luck on ll the emails,you are such a help to a lot of people.

    michelle and lil

    ReplyDelete
  6. Michelle,

    That was my reaction to my email box as well. I normally respond right away and archive them. I had no idea that many would pile up over the weekend.

    Glad to hear you and Walter had a relaxing weekend too!

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  7. You are in such high demand!! You just have to turn it off sometimes though.

    I don't think I have ever seen oat bran in a smoothie before. What's that like?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sarah,

    Because I ground the oat bran in the blender before adding the other ingredients we couldn't tell it was in there. It didn't change the taste or texture of this smoothie. I decided to add it since 1/4 cup has 9 grams of fiber. My thought was that it would keep us full longer. It seemed to work for me.

    I think you are right, I do need to take a little more time to relax.

    Before I forget, I have another Wii fitness game that I hope to use this week. It is suppose to be similar to the other one we both like. I will let you know what I think when I get a change to use it.

    When do you leave for India?

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh cool, I'm definitely up for more suggestions.

    My airport ride is picking me up at work Wednesday afternoon. Still so much work and packing to do between now and then EEK! I'll have plenty of time to forget about all that though on the 15 hour direct flight, haha! Lucky for me, it is 16 coming home.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sarah,

    You will have a great time. I loved India and should have taken some cooking classes when I was there (great idea on your part). I am fortunate to have a good friend from India and her mom taught me a lot of Indian techniques over the years. I can't wait to hear what you learn and experience. It will be like going back for me.

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have been really into smoothies lately- like every morning! I am so excited to try these. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mary,

    Except when it is really cold out we have smoothies most every morning too. You can't beat them for nutrition. There are at least 20 smoothies (probably more) on my blog if you have time to do a search for "smoothie". I think you will find a couple that appeal to you.

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  13. Where in India did you visit? Wonder if I will be in any of the same areas

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sarah,

    We spent majority of our time in Southern India (Chennai, Madras) but also hit most of the tourist spots. I really liked Mumbai and Bangalore. I was fortunate to be traveling with a friend from India which made things very easy for me. I had a wonderful time, I know you will love it. The food is amazing!

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  15. The food was the initial inspiration to plan this trip actually (go figure!). This is the same friend that I traveled to China with last year, and the Chinese food was so terrible that we found Indian restaurants to eat at in every city. It was then that we decided that India should be our next trip. She is a great friend to travel with, she is so well traveled. She is a commercial pilot and hops flights anytime she likes and goes all around the world--often vacationing alone. She takes a dozen trips like this a year! I told her, sign me up for once or maybe twice annually.

    We will be in Northern India only, but I do hope to go back someday to see the southern part of the country. So much to see!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sarah,

    Sounds like a wonderful trip. You are lucky to be going with a good friend. Have a wonderful time! I can't wait to hear all about your trip.

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete

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