Blend Me Something Good

Sorry breakfast buffs, but I’ve never really been a huge proponent of your favorite meal. I’ve always held a firm belief that it should be acceptable to eat any food for breakfast, within reason of course. I mean I love bacon and home fries as much as the next person and would never down an ice cream sundae at 8 a.m., but leftover beef teriyaki and fried rice? Why not? They’re both meat and carbs anyway.

I remember one time in middle school when I had fish sticks and milk for breakfast (gross, I know), and at some point in college, I had ramen and microwave chicken nuggets fairly regularly. (Dark times for me, clearly….) When I actually tried eating something resembling a real breakfast, it came in the form of microwaveable Jimmy Dean egg sandwiches (hooray, sodium!).

Somewhere down the road I started eating real breakfasts in the form of cereal and homemade egg sandwiches, just to give it a try, but that didn’t last. I still violate the sacred unwritten code of first meals but have toned down my rebellious habits, swapping processed foods for smoothies in the morning. They don’t really count as a conventional breakfast but aren’t nearly as blasphemous as what I used to eat. They’re nutritious, filling, very easy to make and are a great morning fix to start the day, not to mention tasty and helpful for beating the heat (it’s finally warm today!).

Here are the ingredients for and the benefits of the smoothie I make:
1 banana for potassium
1 cup strawberries and 1 cup raspberries for their antioxidant properties
1 cup soy milk for calcium and omega-3 fatty acids
1 cup ice cubes for consistency and to keep it cold
And sometimes, 2 teaspoons peanut butter for an extra boost of protein.

That’s just my preference, but there’s no rulebook for smoothie-making. If you have a blender, the possibilities are endless; I’ve even heard about smoothies with kale. That said, you couldn’t pay me to drink one made of fish sticks and milk…Happy blending!