My morning smoothie recipe

I get bored eating leftovers the next day, but somehow, I’ve been having the same exact breakfast for the last two years and still love it. It’s great because it doubles as a breakfast for Moseah. Plus, it’s filling and it’s healthy!

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups frozen berries

1 cup kefir

1 ripe-ish banana

3 tbl peanut butter

1 tbl raw cacao powder

2 scoops collagen peptides (I use Vital Proteins)

1 cup cashew milk (adjust if needed, depending on your blender’s ability to blend frozen stuff)

Directions:

Put it all in a blender. Hit go. Add more cashew milk if your blender doesn’t do frozen stuff so well.

Why these ingredients? A couple years ago when Cimorene was almost one, I had debilitating upper GI pain that might have been gallbladder related, but no one could say for sure. What ultimately fixed it was nutrition. The nutritionist I saw recommended fermented foods every day to promote a healthy gut, and so I drink kefir daily. Tastes a lot better in a smoothie than by itself! She also recommended collagen peptides because there’s some (although very limited, here and here) evidence that certain amino acids found in collagen may be beneficial for gut health. The berries make it tasty, the banana makes it sweet, and the peanut butter makes it filling. The cacao is a bonus for its flavor, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties (comprehensive review of research here).

I make it first without the cacao and collagen, pour my 16-month-old a serving, and then add my special stuff. He sucks it down every morning like its apple juice – it’s incredible! Cimorene did the same thing at his age, though she’s since moved on to requesting banana pancakes every morning.

 You can definitely tweak this recipe and make it your own. Don’t like berries? Try frozen mango and peaches. Think the peanut butter is weird? Skip it. Need a green boost? Add some spinach or greens powder (though perhaps don’t do this if you’re relying on the smoothie as a calcium source, since the oxalic acid in spinach may interfere with calcium absorption). Happy morning smoothie making!