Breakfast Shakes

Strawberry Vanilla and Chocolate Banana Cinnamon Breakfast Shakes

As the school season is now upon us, I have decided to start a new series focusing on quick, healthy breakfasts. I know I’ve said this before, but I still believe that breakfast is the hardest meal of the day for parents. It is difficult to think of something healthy to serve to your hungry kids when you’re still groggy and half-asleep. This dilemma is magnified 10 times when the school year starts and the morning time-crunch sets in. Even without having to get any children to school, I all too often resort to feeding my daughter (and myself) a bowl of boxed cereal. Not that there’s anything wrong with boxed cereal, but I personally get sick of eating the same old thing every morning and long for a healthy, fast alternative. I have addressed the breakfast dilemma before in this post, with a recipe for breakfast couscous and some other quick options. I wanted to expand on those ideas during the next few months with some other healthy breakfast recipes.

So, to kick off, I have two recipes for breakfast shakes. “How are breakfast shakes different than a smoothie?”, one might ask and I really don’t have an answer except that I like the name better! Also, these two shakes are less fruit-based than many smoothies I’ve had.  I really don’t like yogurt in smoothies, as I think it makes them a bit too sour, yet yogurt seems to be the thickener of choice in many smoothie recipes. I found a great, milder tasting alternative to yogurt, in the form of frozen bananas. I now keep a few bananas (cut in thirds) in my freezer just to use as breakfast shake thickeners. The two recipes below rely heavily on frozen banans for bulk and thickness, but you could definitely substitute 1/2 cup of yogurt for the bananas, if desired. I have used alternatives to regular ol’ cow’s milk in these recipes because soy and almond milk both contain fiber, in addition to providing calcium and protein. The choice of flavored soy and almond milk is an attempt to add sweetness to the shakes without adding a ton of sugar. I noticed that most smoothie recipes use honey as a sweetener, but when I compared the grams of sugar, I found that a cup of sweetened soy or almond milk has about the same amount of sugar as a tablespoon of honey. Add to that the fact that most recipes call for 3 or more tablespoons of honey, and the sweetened milks actually add less sugar to the shake than honey would.

Chocolate Banana Cinnamon Breakfast Shake

I have also tried this recipe with 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder in place of the cinnamon. It added a rich flavor and a welcome shot of caffeine!

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 frozen banana, cut in thirds

1 cup chocolate soy milk

1 dash cinnamon

6 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

 

Strawberry Vanilla Breakfast Shake

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/2 frozen banana

1 cup vanilla almond milk

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

6 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.