I eat breakfast in the car. I know I should just get up half an hour earlier, but I don’t.
. I’ve also tried to enjoy a bowl of yogurt and berries — safely, of course, only at stoplights. And then there’s the scrambled eggs toasted in a tortilla, with leftover green chile, quesadilla-style. What can I say, I have a long commute.
As you can imagine, my breakfast game changed when I bought a reusable wide straw. (Note: also buy a brush that can clean said straw.) This meant I could now add smoothies to my canon of breakfast classics.
Ah, smoothies. The creamy concoctions that blend multiple flavors into one complex slurp. Breakfast that fits in my car’s cup holder.
The smoothie experiment
I began experimenting with flavors. Fresh herbs and roots are a game-changer in smoothie flavor. I never liked green smoothies until I tried one with fresh ginger. Fresh turmeric root adds a slight kick — although too much made my tongue numb. Fresh basil, mint and cilantro can freshen smoothie flavor profiles.
Sometimes adding just a little bit of sweetness can bring the flavors of your smoothie together. For example, the chocolate oat smoothie (recipe below) was rather bland, but a splash of maple syrup brought out the chocolate and blueberry flavors. Maple syrup, honey, figs, dates, vanilla paste, molasses and fruit jams are ways to sweeten smoothies.
Consistency was another issue I tackled. I like my smoothies creamier. I want more out of the experience than feeling like I’m drinking juice, but I don’t want the smoothie so thick that you need to eat it with a spoon. Ways to achieve this? There’s the standby banana or yogurt, but also try avocado. Your first reaction may be repulsion, but avocado has a very mild flavor. It adds texture, and you can barely taste it.
Oats soaked overnight also create a nice thick consistency, as do chia seeds. With oats, make sure they are fresh. The first time I tried this, I grabbed the old can of oats forgotten in the pantry. When cooked, the staleness is hardly noticeable. But raw stale oats in a smoothie? Not good. In my experience, raw oats from the bulk section of the grocery store seem to be the freshest. If you forgot to soak them overnight, blending them dry in the blender or a coffee grinder to create a kind of flour is also a nice base for a smoothie. I tried cooking the oats before adding it to a smoothie, but the texture was slightly slimy and did not blend as well as raw oats.
Cooked starchy veggies, like sweet potatoes or carrots, are another way to thicken smoothies. They work well with fall flavors, like cinnamon and pumpkin spice. Also try pumpkin or butternut squash. Their sweetness makes it taste like dessert … but if the smoothie gets too thick itap almost like drinking bread batter.
Finally, the smoothies had to have sticking power — as in, will it stick to my ribs? Adding nut butters to smoothies kept me from being hungry before lunch. I’ve had success with peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter and even sunflower butter. Just beware that nut butters have a strong flavor. This can be great if you love sunflower seeds, but if you don’t, itap hard to camouflage.
Protein powders seem like cheating and can add a grainy texture. Plus, do we really know whatap in there? Quinoa is a more tangible protein and adds sticking power to smoothies. It does add a slight texture and a starchy flavor, but it blends well. Combining it with strong flavors, like those in Greek yogurt, will help the quinoa from taking over the taste of a smoothie.
Here are some of my favorite combinations and recipes.
Tips:
- Help your blender: Order matters. Liquids, then greens, then frozen, then creamy leads to easy blending.
- Keep it cold without watering it down: Use frozen fruit or milk frozen in ice cube trays before blending.
- For hot days: Freeze your smoothie in a popsicle mold. (Harder to eat in the car — I’ve tried.)
- About those popsicles: Most people want popsicles to be dessert. When I had my family taste-test for me, they often liked the smoothie in liquid form but wanted them to be sweeter in popsicle form.
Recipes:
Chocolate oat smoothie
Ingredients
1/2 cup raw oats
1/8 chia seeds
2 tbsp coco power
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup almond butter
1 cup almond milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup ice
Directions
Soak everything except the blueberries overnight.In the morning, blend with ice and fresh blueberries. (If you’re using frozen berries, you may not need the ice.)
Raspberry quinoa coconut smoothie
Ingredients
1/2 coconut milk
1 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup coconut flesh (can find in freezer section of most grocery stores)
1/3 cup quinoa
2 tbsp honey
1 cup fresh raspberries
Directions
Blend all ingredients and enjoy, or switch it up and freeze it in popsicle molds. Blend, but reserve the raspberries. Pour into molds, then push the raspberries down into the smoothie mixture in the mold. Freeze overnight and enjoy.
Banana nut smoothie
This smoothie was inspired by a recipe I found at .
Ingredients
1 cup of almond milk
3 tablespoons of almond butter
1 frozen banana
half an avocado
Splash of maple syrup
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Directions
Blend all ingredients except the cinnamon, which goes on top of the finished smoothie.
Kale and pineapple smoothie
Ingredients
1 cup water
½ in of fresh ginger root or fresh basil or cilantro leaves
3 leaves of kale
½ cup pineapple
½ cup mango
1 banana
½ an avocado
Directions
Blend everything together. Enjoy.
Sweet potato and carrot
Ingredients
¼ cup orange juice (could sub for milk if you want it creamier)
1/2 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup raw carrots
1 tsp cinnamon
½ inch fresh ginger root
½ tsp tumeric ground, or ¼ inch fresh tumeric root
Directions
Blend well and enjoy.
