Maria Nasir“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, ” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.
I’m a breakfast person too. In fact breakfast determines my mood for the day, it has to be something exciting to motivate me to get out of the bed. It has to be filling to keep me working around the house nonstop till lunch time. And most importantly, it has to be delicious to satisfy my tastebuds.
Now I’m not really a fan of strange-tasting, green/alien-looking/yucky smoothies with protein powder. Also if I only drink a smoothie for breakfast, I’m always hungry again soon after breakfast. The smoothies must look and taste appetizing for me to be able to include one in my most important meal of the day. Thankfully nature has provided us with so many colourful, nutritious and delicious fruity options to choose from, blend together and create new exciting flavours.
I love this Strawberry Oatmeal smoothiebecause honestly it’s so delicious I can drink a whole jug full all by myself and it’s really filling. A glass and a half keeps me going easily, without another thought about food for half a day. And I can add any of my favourite seasonal fruits for flavour boost – oranges, mangoes, peaches. Bananas and oats make it thick, creamy and an all round complete and filling meal.
There are so many ways to include oats in your breakfast, other than the usual warm cooked version. In a muffin, smoothie or pancake, the kids don’t even suspect that they have been fed oatmeal. You can add them raw( as is) , ground or cooked, depending on the texture you like of your smoothie. If you choose to cook them, do it a night before so that cooled oatmeal is ready to make a smoothie in a jiffy in the morning or add extra ice cubes to cool down freshly cooked oats in the smoothie.
Chia seeds add a protein boost to the smoothie and loads of omega-3 fatty acid content to our smoothies and drinks. If you are adding chia seeds to your smoothie, always serve immediately because if it’s left too long, the fibre in the seeds might soak up the liquid and turn your smoothie into a jelly like glob which won’t be pleasant to drink.
Or you can pre-soak chia seeds in water to make them easier to blend and digest.
Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
12 strawberries
2 oranges/peaches or mangoes
2 bananas
1 tablespoons honey (optional)
2 tablespoons chia seeds
2 cups dairy milk, coconut milk or almond milk
Lots of ice cubes
This Is What You Do:
The Three Ways to Add Oats to Smoothies :
1- You can add raw oatmeal to an electric dry mill/grinder and grind them to a powdered texture for a smoothest smoothie.
2- You can simply add oats with other ingredients in the blender and blend everything at once if you don’t mind a chunkier smoothie.
3- You can pre-cook the oatmeal in a little water till it’s soft and swelled up. This will make thick and creamy smoothie.
Whatever way you choose,prep the oats accordingly.
Peel bananas and oranges/peaches. Remove seeds/stones. Cut the green stems off strawberries.
Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.
Serve immediately.
Serves 5