Simply Healthy | Breakfast Smoothie 101

Starting your day with a healthy breakfast isn’t as easy as folks make it out to be. Most of us just do not have the time to sit down to a warm bowl of oatmeal or even to scramble an egg or two.

Enter the smoothie. These delicious drinks are game changers. Throw in a few fruits, maybe some veggies, a little honey and you’ve got a quick breakfast any health nut would say yes to.

Chock full of nutrients, a good smoothie can replace that quick swing through the drive-thru or last-minute unhealthy choice as you run for the door in the morning.

At our house, we’ve successfully switched our breakfasts throughout the weekdays to our own recipe, the Blue-Green Banana Dream. Cheesy name, but very fitting.

The Blue-Green incorporates green veggies, vitamin-rich fruits, protein, fiber-filled oats and more. What’s even better is how easy it is to make a big batch and freeze.

You can do as much as you like in a batch, but I’ve listed two methods – a single smoothie and a two-week supply. Freeze in portion-sized containers then thaw out the next morning’s smoothie before you go to bed. It will be ready to pour into a glass when you wake up!

Blue-Green Banana Dream Smoothie

Makes two servings

• ¾ cup almond or coconut milk
• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• ½ orange, peeled and sectioned
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 cup chopped spinach, Swiss chard, or kale
• ¼ cup rolled oats
• 1 tbs. honey

Soak your oats in the almond milk and yogurt for 30 minutes.

Place all ingredients into your food processor of blender and pulse until smooth.

Pour into a glass or freeze for later.

For 10 days worth of smoothies:

You can either make 10 separate smoothies following the above recipe, or you can make in bulk with the measurements below.

• 3 ¾ cups almond or coconut milk
• 5 cups Greek yogurt
• 5 oranges, peeled and sectioned
• 10 ripe bananas
• 10 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 10 cups chopped spinach, Swiss chard, or kale (or blend all together)
• 2 ½ cups rolled oats
• ¾ cup honey

In a large bowl, mix liquids, including yogurt, and incorporate well with your oats. Let this sit for about 30 minutes.

In another bowl, chop bananas and add to other fruit and veggies.

Add equal amounts of liquid and fruit and greens to blender, about 2 ½ cups of liquid to 2 ½ cups of fruits and greens.

For each batch, add 1 tbs. of honey. Blend until well-mixed and pour into containers to freeze.

Thaw in refrigerator the night before drinking. If your smoothie hasn’t completely thawed by morning, pulse quickly in the blender to make it smooth.

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on Food Network's “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic lifestyle content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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