Shake what your momma gave you...

Somebody reminded me recently that I had promised to talk about my infamous morning smoothies.  And since Nick and I have nothing to do but wait...and apparently there's an audience of at least one person just dying to know more about what I eat for breakfast (which, by the way, you people must be hard up for entertainment).  And who am I to deny you that pleasure?  Someone who couldn't go back to sleep after her 5:45 am progesterone shot in the butt.

About two years or so ago, I was trying to figure out a way to get more fruits and veggie servings in my diet.  I read about Green Monsters here and decided to give them a try.  The first recipe I tried was very simple...


Basic Green Monster
1 banana (my recommendation is to let the bananas get pretty brown, cut them in half and then freeze them...I typically stick them in a microwave for a few seconds to defrost before dumping them in the blender)
2 cups of spinach (organic, preferably...spinach is on the Dirty Dozen List)
1 cup of milk (cow's, almond, soy, coconut, goat's, whatever)
A few ice cubes
1 tablespoon of flax seed (flax seed is great for digestion and Omega 3s)

Blend and behold the green-ness!

It was indeed...green.  But it tasted surprisingly good and I got three servings of fruits and vegetables in right of the bat in the morning.  Over time, I started playing around with the recipe and got to my current normal shake.

Sarah's Slightly Scary Looking But Incredibly Good For You Breakfast Shake
4-6 oz water
4-6 oz plain lowfat kefir (kefir is kind of a fizzy yogurt milk...I know that sounds awful, but it's got a lot of probiotics in it.  It also comes in a range of flavors which can be a good place to start)
1 banana (they don't need to be organic...bananas are pretty low on the 'dirty' list)
1-2 cups organic kale
1-2 cups organic spinach
2 cups of organic berries (I typically by the frozen ones and skip using ice cubes)

Then, I dump in a packet of add-ins that I make once a month in batches, assembly-line style (I have to thank my mother in law, Rose, for this brilliant idea).

Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1-2 Tablespoons of Chia Seeds (if you're not using chia seeds, start.  They provide energy, aid digestion and again, have a lot of Omega 3s, 6s, and 9s.  They also make your skin look great)
1/2 cup of dried oatmeal
1-2 packets of stevia (Stevia is an all natural sweetener that doesn't affect your blood sugar.  In fact, I think it's the only sweetener that doesn't affect your blood sugar)

Those are the standards.  I never really make a batch of packets the same way...other things I've included are:
Amazing Grass
Bran
Miralax
Hemp seeds

Throw everything in the blender and blend for 30-45 seconds.  Et voila! (I tried to find a little cocktail umbrella or even a strawberry to make this look slightly more tempting, but sadly we were missing both.)

I've grown to enjoy the taste of these every morning and it feels great to get that many servings of fruits and vegetables in to start the day.  I have to admit, the picture above belies how much this recipe actually makes.  I'd say it's about 28-32 ounces, which I basically nurse all morning, but I'm rarely hungry before lunch anymore (whereas before I would sometimes start to eat my lunch at TEN AM because I was starving).  But, as you can see from the picture, it ain't pretty.  It gets even less pretty as the morning progresses and the raspberry coloring loses out to the spinach and kale.

But, on a good day...I'm getting seven servings of fruits and vegetables!  Before I started doing this, I'd be lucky to get that in during an entire day without feeling like a rabbit.  I wasn't able to eat these for about a week between the egg retrieval and starting back to work...my stomach was pretty upset.  But I've been drinking them for a few days again and I've lost 5 lbs of all the water weight I gained during IVF and that is with a trip to Stroud's.  (Sidenote: I had a trip to Stroud's for fried chicken and all the fixins planned on Friday for lunch with two beloved co-workers.  The timing wasn't great given my recent massively inflated belly, but really, I have Stroud's about once every 3-5 years, so I decided to go for it.  Nick and I went to see Horrible Bosses that evening and during the movie, he leaned down to kiss my forehead, gave me a strange look and then moved away.  Later, I asked him what that was all about and he said my hair smelled like chicken.  These are the things you have to suffer through for fried chicken.)

So, there you have it...my manifesto on breakfast shakes.  I understand if you don't share my passion for smoothies...I mean, we probably won't be able to be friends anymore, but I understand.  Actually, I'm lucky to have two people in my life that love talking about smoothies as much as I do, if not more - my best friend Jenni and my mother in law.  And my shakes look tame in comparison to theirs.  I envy how horrible theirs look.  Someday, (shakes fist), someday!