I prefer to eat my calories rather than drinks them- I find chewing my food more satisfying than sipping it! That said, many people find shakes and smoothies a convenient way to enjoy breakfast on the go. The trouble is, that pureeing foods makes it harder to visualize your calories and how many of them youre adding to your finished product. Some “healthy smoothies” sometimes end up containing your day’s worth of calories and then some.
The basic “ingredients” of a balanced breakfast are:
1. Whole grains
2. A good source of protein (roughly 25 grams)
3. Fruit or vegetable
So as long as you make sure your smoothie hits all those marks you have yourself a balanced breakfast.
Fruit is a pretty simple one to include, whole grains as well but when eating dairy free, achieving enough protein can be difficult without the use of protein powders.
Now, there is NOTHING wrong with using powders. However, especially in individuals who are avoiding dairy for GI issues protein powders can cause bloating, diarrhea or constipation.
That said, it is definitely more tricky to achieve adequate protein without the use of dairy or powders.
3/4 cup greek yogurt has 100 calories for 18 grams of protein. For the same amount of protein from peanut butter you’d be running up 450 calories!
That’s why I love adding PB2 to smoothies or oatmeal. For just 2 tbsp of 45 calories if provides an additional 5 grams of protein.
For some other great protein additions is using soy milk (8 grams of protein) as your liquid of choice instead of almond (1g) or rice (1g).
You can also top up your protein by adding
