Smoothie, yogurt, and oatmeal weekday breakfast trifecta (gluten free and vegan)

It’s Sunday! (Or if you are reading this on a different day, it very much is NOT Sunday).

Regardless of what day it is, you’re going to need to be prepared to nourish yourself each morning with a proper, nutritious, FIBER RICH breakfast. If you work 9 to 5 and you’re not a morning person, like me, you’re not going to be whipping up omelettes and pancakes on weekday mornings (though for days you do have the time to indulge, I’ve got you covered).

More likely (again, if you and I are alike at all), you will be eating your breakfast in the car on your way to work because somehow, you cannot just get up 10 minutes earlier and allot the time needed to eat at home. (I do not encourage this strategy, but I want to show everyone reading that I am not some perfect goddess of food just because I create recipes — I struggle to maintain healthy habits just like the rest of us!).

If you do not live under a rock, you have likely heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And y’all, I am here to SAY THAT AGAIN. Your brain needs this boost of nutrition in the morning. As a person very familiar with the destructive impacts of appetite suppression and binge eating, I can guarantee that a healthy breakfast is a crucial measure in promoting your total health. I feel SO MUCH BETTER eating breakfast daily than I did when I skipped.

While the pressure on breakfast to energize your day and promote healthy eating habits for the rest of the day is real, it should not be difficult. That is why I share here with you my 3 incredibly easy and nutritious go-tos for weekday breakfasts. Please, for the sake of your gut and brain, skip the sugary donuts! Below is my smoothie recipe, and please check out pages 2 and 3 for the yogurt and oatmeal (spoiler alert: the oatmeal is my number one savior of the three when my gut is needing a reset).

Vegan Strawberry Chocolate Smoothie

The texture, flavor, and nutritional value of this smoothie is fantastic. A great reminder that indulgence can be healthy! Feel free to substitute the strawberries with another fruit of your choice. I would recommend consuming this immediately, within 15 minutes of blending, as the texture is absolutely on point when it is coming out of the blender.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 0 minutes mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 1

Equipment

• Blender (I cannot recommend Ninja enough)
• Rubber spatula

Ingredients

  

• 2/3 frozen banana
• 1/3 small frozen zucchini*
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed*
• 2 tbsp almond butter
• 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder*
• 1 cup plant based milk
• Dark chocolate chips for topping

Instructions

 

• Add ingredients (except for chocolate chips), in order listed, to a blender. Blend until smooth. You will likely want to blend for a few seconds, open the blender to scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula, and blend again.
• Use the rubber spatula to transfer the smoothie to a mason jar or container of your choice. Top with your desired amount of dark chocolate chips. Feel free to experiment with other toppings as well, like shaved almonds or coconut flakes. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

*I like to stock up on a few small zucchinis, chop them into thirds, and freeze them. I also like to chop a bunch of 5-6 bananas into thirds and freeze them as well. The 1/3 zucchini piece stands in for the remaining 1/3 of a banana. Subbing the zucchini piece for a banana piece decreases the sweetness of the smoothie in a very pleasant way, and the flavor of the zucchini is not noticeable.

*Feel free to sub in chia seeds or anything else that sounds good to you!

*The flavor of the smoothie is more indulgent with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, though keep in mind that 2 tablespoons of Chatfield’s cocoa powder (my favorite kind) will be over half of your daily fiber needs (and this does not account for fiber present in the other ingredients)! Hershey’s cocoa powder, for some reason, has much less fiber.

For the majority of Americans who are sorely lacking in fiber, getting this level of nutrition at the beginning of the day is likely to be a refreshing change (not to mention filling), but it is just something to be mindful of if you are not used to a high or even adequate fiber intake.

Keyword chocolate, easy, fruit, healthy, indulgent, smoothie, strawberry, vegan

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