Homemade Breakfast Bowls

B Y H A N N A H

This smoothie bowl includes frozen strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. I topped it with fresh fruit, granola, and coconut flakes!

I love fruit! Smoothies are literally dessert for breakfast. They have actually become quite a trend with smoothie and juice cafes popping up all over town. They have even made their way into the food truck industry. Buoy Bowls is a food truck that sells smoothies and bowls on the go. A friend introduced me to it a few months ago and it sparked joy for me. Since then, I’ve found my love for smoothies again.

Over the years, I’ve developed my own idea of the perfect smoothie with some variation here and there. Here is my typical smoothie and some ways to alter the recipe to fit other needs. I have gone through a few different blenders. At first, I had the magic bullet. A year ago I got the NutriBullet Pro 900. And recently, I splurged and now I have a Ninja BL660 Professional Blender. It is the BEST blender yet! It blends my fruit so well and so far I have had no trouble with it so 10/10 recommendations!

In the past, I would put protein powder in my smoothies and it just ruined it for me. I hated the chalky taste and it ruined the fruity taste. So, for a while, I quit drinking smoothies entirely. Then, I started drinking them just as a snack, not really as a meal. I realized there were other sources of protein that I could use in my smoothies. Protein Sources: chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, oats, peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, yogurt, avocado, milk.

Fruit Options: strawberries, blueberries, banana, raspberries, mango, peaches, pineapple, blackberries, apple, cherries

I suggest using frozen fruit if you prefer thicker smoothies like me. A problem I always had with smoothies is I never felt like I was actually eating breakfast. Making the consistency thicker made it actually feel like I was eating food rather than just drinking something. It also helped when I added a crunchy topping to add some texture to my delicious breakfast.

If you are looking to make your smoothie even smoother, try adding frozen bananas. You can also use yogurt or avocado to give it a smoother consistency, but I like the banana flavor so it works for me. Also, I am lactose intolerant so yogurt wouldn’t be my first choice. However, yogurt will boost your smoothie’s protein content so go for it if you can tolerate dairy!

Smoothies are a great way to start my day off with a sweet and refreshing breakfast, not to mention they’re healthy and sustainable!

Ingredients

frozen handful of strawberries frozen handful of blueberries frozen half banana dairy-free Lactaid milk (or whatever milk you have available) 1 tbsp. chia seeds granola coconut flakes cacao nibs fresh fruit

Directions

Add all the frozen fruit into the cup Add in chia seeds Fill milk to just above where the fruit stops or the max fill line Blend until fully combined Pour into a bowl and top it with granola, coconut flakes, cacao nibs and fresh fruit

Like I said before, this is just one option. There are many more different smoothies you could try, but this was just an idea that has stuck with me. You should definitely try out several flavor combinations to see what smoothie will suit you best. Happy taste testing!