Comfort Food: Breakfast Smoothie
When it comes right down to it, I love my breakfast smoothie recipe because it’s easy, healthy, and quick. I look forward to waking up and having it every day for breakfast.
Comfort Food follows the most practical part of my magic practice—recipes. Here’s what keeps my household healthy.
Recipe first! But we’ll need to make a slight detour—because the most crucial part of my breakfast smoothie recipe is actually my overnight oats. Ingredients for my overnight oats:
8 g or 2 tsp chia seeds
14 g or 2 tsp agave syrup
8 g or 1 tbsp peanut butter powder
30 g or 1/4 cup rolled oats
60 g or 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
80 g or 1/3 cup almond milk
50 g frozen fruit
Substitutions I’ve tried include maple syrup or honey for the agave syrup, organic peanut butter for the peanut butter powder, regular yogurt for the Greek yogurt, and oat milk for the almond milk. They all work! I tend to go with strawberries, blueberries, or mangoes for the frozen fruit.
Miao’s Overnight Oats
To make these overnight oats, I just put everything in an airtight jar. Peanut butter powder at the bottom, then the rolled oats, then the chia seeds. After that, pour in the milk. You can stir the mixture at this point, making the wait time shorter. Add the yogurt, then the frozen fruit—you can chop the strawberries and mangos into about the size of small blueberries, but you don’t really need to if you’re making this to put in a smoothie. Top with the agave syrup, then store for at least four hours in the fridge, maybe a little less if you stirred it enough. Best when stored overnight.
Miao's Breakfast Smoothie
I’d already been having overnight oats for breakfast for weeks—maybe months—when it occurred to me to turn them into smoothies so I wouldn’t need to stop typing to eat. (Yes, I know I could also enjoy breakfast and stop working while eating. But I’m just wired that way. I like to work while I eat.) Ingredients for my breakfast smoothie:
9 ice cubes
1 serving of my overnight oats
50 g frozen fruit
240 g cold brew coffee
Yes, I add even more fruit, even with my type two diabetes. The ice and extra fruit really help with the texture of the smoothie. Usually, it’s bananas—we buy whole bunches and freeze them when they’re ripe. 50 g is about half a banana. When we’re out of bananas, I use mangoes.
As for the cold brew, I know it would be easier to understand if I said “one cup of coffee” or used milliliters for liquids, but I make everything with a small scale set to grams. And I mean black coffee—no added creamer or sweetener. I make a batch of cold brew every few days using a French press. To make the breakfast smoothie, dump everything in a blender.
This breakfast smoothie, made with the typical ingredients I use, is around 375 calories. It contains about 25 g of protein and 55 g of carbohydrates.
Is It Good Enough to Drink Every Day?
Yes! This is probably my favorite recipe I’ve developed over time. Ever since I was diagnosed with type two diabetes and prescribed Ozempic, adjusting my diet and lifestyle has been an often irritating process. Having a consistent breakfast that contains a lot of fiber and protein helps calm my mind. I spend less time wondering whether I should eat or not. And it’s an all-in-one drink—breakfast and coffee combined.
In the beginning, I was trying to copy a drink from MadHouse Coffee here in Vegas—the Monkey Mocha. That’s why the added frozen fruit is almost always bananas.
Initially, I added chocolate syrup and preferred organic peanut butter to the powder. But over time, I eventually switched to the powder to reduce the fat content and removed the chocolate to reduce the sugar.
What Else Can You Put in It?
I’ve tried adding chocolate-flavored whey protein powder to it, which really fluffs the drink up—you would need a boba straw to enjoy it properly. I didn’t like the aftertaste of the protein powder, but I guess that just means I haven’t found a protein powder I like yet.
I’ve also tried swapping the coffee out for more almond milk. It’s good but a little too sweet for me. To improve this particular version of my breakfast smoothie, I would make overnight oats without the agave syrup.
What’s Your Favorite Healthy and Quick Breakfast?
When it comes right down to it, I love my breakfast smoothie recipe because it’s easy, healthy, and quick. I look forward to waking up and having it every day for breakfast. Sometimes, I even have two smoothies in a day—the second one with milk instead of coffee.
What about you? What’s your go-to breakfast when you don’t have the time to cook a grand meal? Or maybe you have any tips for making overnight oats or breakfast smoothies even better. Let me know!
Photo by Amanda Vick on Unsplash
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