Recipe Week! - Breakfast Smoothie

Hello all, I was recently talking to my sister about how I have a certain stable of recipes that I always keep the ingredients on hand for in case need or if we don't have a meal plan. She doesn't cook that way and consequently has less of a pantry stash. Looking over our pantry just now it is way too full. Therefore, I'm going to save us some money on groceries this week while paring down our food stash and sharing some of those "rotation recipes" with you. If it turns out to be a fun project I may repeat quarterly so you get exposed to my collection and my pantry remains under control:) I will add the WW point totals at the bottom if I've calculated for those participating in WW.**

It seems appropriate to start with breakfast. As you probably noticed during my obsessive "this week" postings. The boys pretty much live on cereal for breakfast, but I really don't. My current go-to yummy breakfast is adapted from Pam Anderson (no not that one's) book The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great. There are chocolate and vanilla options below. She uses soy milk instead of regular milk here as it is a bit sweeter and I've found that to generally be true when I tried the chocolate soy lite soy milk.

Chocolate Base: 1 c. light chocolate soy milk, 2 tsp. cocoa powder

Vanilla Base: 1 c. fat free or low fat milk or light vanilla soy milk, 2 tsp. honey

To the base of your choice: add 1 c. frozen berries, cherries, or other fruit + 1 frozen banana + 1/4 tsp Almond extract (or other extract of choice).

Toss all this in a blender, food processor or use your Immersion Blender (What I use).

It is so delicious, cold and wonderful in the morning and packed with fruits and healthy things. My dad and brother add things like flax or protein powder to their smoothies. I haven't tried that yet, but might be interesting. My favorite combination is chocolate with banana and cherries. So fabulous! You may be wondering about freezing bananas. I just peel them break them in half and add them to a bag in my freezer. They can also be used for baking bread and other treats. This has proved a very useful trick for my fickle little guy when he suddenly decides he doesn't like bananas (randomly for say a week) and I have a bunch on my counter that needs a home.

Weight Watchers Points: 6 (roughly)

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**That reminds me that I owe you an update on the WW lose for good challenge. I didn't quite make my 10 lb goal by Oct 17, but am donating $25 any way to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. I fell a little off plan in my recent travels, but am mostly back on plan and increasing my exercising which feels good.