Breakfast boredom!

I could try different recipes for lunch and dinner and never seem to get bored.  Where I get tripped up is breakfast.  I want something easy, healthy and quick.  I typically eat in the car on my drive to work in the morning.  I need something that is safe to eat in the car, not messy and doesn't use up half of my days calorie limit.  I am creature of habit when it comes to breakfast for some reason.  I eat the same things over and over again and it gets old quick.  I work out in the mornings so I need something that has enough protein to help me recover and to keep me full until my morning snack.  This week I have tried two different things.  One is absolutely more appealing than the other but I wanted to share both.  The first is a delicious blueberry oatmeal muffin and the second was a green smoothie.  I will discuss the muffin first.  These were pretty yummy and easy to eat in the car on my way to work.  I had frozen blueberries that I had purchased over the summer at a local farmers market and just enough oatmeal left to make a full batch of these.  The recipe calls for the oatmeal to be ground up which I thought was a little odd.  I didn't notice a difference while eating them with the oats ground to almost a powder.  These muffins are fairly low in calories and seemed to keep me pretty full throughout the morning.  Overall I would say they are a winner.  The picture on right is literally straight from the oven.  I couldn't resist.  I promise if you let them sit they will not be this messy :)

My second change for the week is trying a green smoothie.  I have been wanting to dabble in this new "trend" for a while but was always intimidated with the thought of putting veggies in a smoothie.  This does not sound yummy to me.  I am a lover of smoothies in the morning.  My favorite being oatmeal, chocolate protein powder, banana, powered peanut butter and coconut milk.  So yummy.  So veggies....yea not so much.  I am obsessed with reading about different healthy options and this one keeps coming up.  Most recently a friend of mine from college discussed it in her newsletter.  My friend Penina is a certified health coach through the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and has a wealth of knowledge about following a healthy lifestyle.  Follow her blog or subscribe to her newsletters to find out more about her and learn new healthy tricks.  I asked her about these green smoothies and learned a couple of her favorite recipes.  This morning I tried what she calls her "basic recipe"  It consisted of 

• 2 large kale leaves (stems included)
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup of water

Blend to your desired consistency.   I used an immersion blender because its easy to clean up and I don't have to mess with the blade from a blender.

This blended smoothie did not taste terrible however is not as enjoyable as my normal smoothie I make.  I definitely think this is an acquired taste.  I will absolutely keep trying to make these though so stayed tuned.  Kale is a bitter green and I almost felt like I had to chew this smoothie.  Strange, but by 9am I already had 2 servings or fruit in veggies in me.  You can't deny the health factors in these smoothies.  I think the trick is finding a blend you like and changing up your blends to avoid the breakfast boredom.  I will keep everything posted on my journey to find a blend I like :) 

Nutrition facts for the blueberry oatmeal muffins:

Calories: 190, Fat: 5g (sat 0.6g,mono 2.4g,poly 1.2g), Protein: 4.2g, Carbohydrate: 33.3g, Fiber: 2.4g, Cholesterol: 23mg, Iron: 1.6mg, Sodium: 248mg, Calcium: 74mg

Nutrition facts for kale and banana smoothie:

Calories: 144.9, Fat: 1.1g (sat 0.4g,mono 0.4g,poly 0.2g), Protein: 3.6g, Carbohydrate: 35g, Fiber: 5.4g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 31.1mg