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.