Smoothie Love

Who doesn't love smoothies? Even though there's snow on the ground, I still love drinking a smoothie. I won't eat ice cream in the winter but smoothies are A-OK!

Every morning I've been having a smoothie along with a small bowl of oatmeal topped with dried cranberries and nuts (either almond or walnut). I add a teaspoon of brown sugar to the oatmeal just to give it a little more flavor because lets face it, oatmeal is bland.

Anyway, the combo keeps me full until I take my lunch break at 2:00!

Here's the smoothie recipe I created by combining the Kickstart recipe with a recipe from the book "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch." (Which is a hysterical vegan cookbook if you don't have it!)

Samm's Smoothie

1 cup plain or vanilla almond milk (or 1 container of rice yogurt)
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup strawberries
2 tbsp flax meal (Gotta get those omega 3's!)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup ice (use only if berries aren't frozen)

Put in a blender with the berries on the bottom, especially if they're frozen, and set to "chop." Once the berries are finely chopped set the blender to puree and run until smooth.

You can use any combination of fruit you want. It all seems to go together. Sometimes I add a bit of mango pulp to the mix for a bit of a tropical flavor. If you like your smoothies more watery add more orange juice, or less if you want it thicker. The great thing about this recipe is that you can have fun and experiment!