Satisfying Smoothies
This is how I start my day– with a delicious, low glycemic and satisfying smoothie. After I have a shake, I am not hungry until lunch! I like both a whey based and a soy based shake – they taste equally good to me.
I do tend to add things to my shake unless I’m on the go. Most of the time I use frozen ripe bananas in my smoothies because they are a sweet and offer a great base that blends well with other flavors. But I also buy frozen organic blueberries and strawberries from Aldi discount grocery store as well. They are inexpensive and very high quality. Unfortunately berries are part of the dirty dozen and are best when organic. See here for more info.
Since heart disease runs in my family, I am always conscious trying to get more omega 3’s. So I tend to add chia seeds for added protein, fiber, and omega 3’s along with ground flax seed for fiber and omega 3’s.
To make it really, really easy for blending the frozen bananas, I cut them up into little slices, put them on a cookies sheet and place in the freezer until frozen (1-2 hours). Then I put them in a plastic bag and use approximately half a banana for my shake. Super simple, and easy to blend with an immersion blender or “NutriBullet”. You don’t need a fancy blender such as a Vitamix. I find takes up a lot of room and is more of a clean up issue, but if that is what you have, use it!
Enjoy these great smoothies. I lost 9 pounds during the holidays in 2015 and I started the week before Thanksgiving. Even with all the temptations of holiday food, I stuck with a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and had bars in between. Today I still have a shake for breakfast at least 5 days out of 7 days a week and enjoy one snack bar per day. As a result I have maintained a 12 pounds weight loss since January 2016. You can do this too!
Here are some of my favorite custom flavor variations. Let me know what are your favorites>
My Base Shake Ingredients:
12 oz purified water or unsweetened almond milk
1/2 frozen banana
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
1 serving vanilla protein powder (I use this one)
Flavor Variations:
The chocolate and cappuccino flavor optimizers are my favorite ones when I’m on the go. But I like these as well when I have time to blend a shake.
Peanut butter chocolate smoothie: 1 Tbsp Unsweetened coconut flakes, dollop (1 rounded tsp peanut butter), 1 heaping tsp cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon (Ceylon).
Mango/Banana: Add equal parts of mango and banana, 1 Tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes, 1/2 tsp lemon extract
Banana/Blueberry smoothie: equal parts of blueberries and banana, 1/2 tsp lemon extract.
Cherry/Banana: 1/2 frozen banana and 1 Tbsp concentrated Montmorency tart cherry juice (you can find this at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or your favorite health food store).