Recipe: Better Breakfast Smoothies

Better Breakfast Smoothies

In our house as in many I’m sure, we fall prey to the convenience of cereal for breakfast most mornings. At the weekend we will often have eggs, pancakes or French Toast. It doesn’t happen very often on school mornings but if we are up extra early I like to make something nutritious and healthy to kick start the day. Sometimes it’s a simple as a boiled egg which the boys love with ‘soldiers’, scrambled egg if we’ve a bit more time and if I’ve the right mix of fruit available I love to give them smoothies. It’s great to start the day containing  1 or 2 of their five a day, extra calcium from yogurt or milk, and they love the novelty factor, especially if they get a straw.

The smoothies usually consist of whatever is in the fridge and fruit bowl at the time. There is usually banana or yogurt to thicken it, sometimes both, orange juice, milk alternative, fruit, veggies, seeds and berries. Blueberries and strawberries are my favourites so the smoothies are nearly always purple or pink. I’ve been experimenting lately with adding such ingredients as kale and chia seeds and the boys still love them.

While we haven’t ditched the cereals completely, we choose the lower sugar containing ones mostly and we are gradually moving towards getting both parents and little ones out of the habit of cereal every morning. And a habit it is. I grew up on a Weetabix or Corn Flakes choice in the mornings and my boys are doing the same, although I have succumbed to buying a wider variety including Cheerios which are a shocking 20% sugar! Having a 6 year old who sometimes is too busy talking to his friends to eat his lunch at school, means that it’s super important to try to get a good breakfast into him. I am a lot happier dropping him off at school if I know he’s had more than a bowl of Cheerios or Corn Flakes in him. Now that both the kids and I are off for the summer I hope to do a balance between cereal days and other options. I was delighted to see that the lovely Nicola from Simply Homemade has sent up a linkup around Better Breakfasts for our families and children in particular. Here are two of my smoothie recipes.

Banana, Mixed Berries and Kiwi Smoothie

125g mixed berries – strawberries and blueberries

1 kiwi

1 banana

100ml Plain yogurt (I use Alpro Plain with Coconut)

1/2 teasp chia seeds

Whizz together in your blender or smoothie maker.

Blueberry and Coconut Smoothie with a hint of Cucumber

125g blueberries fresh or frozen

250ml coconut based milk alternative (I used Koko)

1/4 cucumber

1 banana

1/2 teaspoon Chia seeds

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender or smoothie maker.

Have a look at the other Better Breakfasts in Simply Homemade Link Up for more breakfast ideas.

What are your family’s favourite #BetterBreakfasts?