Breakfast smoothie with Peanut butter and almond

In these days, my son has grown up or at least behave like a grown up but he has become a picky eater too. Earlier milk and Cornflex (especially Kelogg's Chocos) were a stable combo which he liked and we were also sure that it has good amount of nutrients. Now he says Milk is Yak!!!! And corn flex is like grass. So I started exploring for some breakfast ideas which is full of all the nutrients but tasty too. Internet is everybody’s friend in any search and I landed on to few breakfast smoothies which I did some mix and match to make this one.

A breakfast smoothie is essentially blending a number of healthy foods in right proportion. With the right blend of ingredients, a smoothie can be a nutritional powerhouse—full of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and protein. The tough part is to mixing proportions which makes it tasty. There can be a whole lot of variants to my recipes and I have mentioned some of them with the optional tag. I hope you can easily earn the love and respect of your younger ones by providing a strong start to their daily diet with my recipe. My hubby also likes this one as he finds it interesting too.

Preparation Time: - 10 min

Cooking Time: - 5 min

Servings: - 2~3 persons

Ingredients:-

1. ½ cup or 100 ml Whole cream milk ( you can use toned milk or almond or Soya milk if you are calorie conscious or want to go casein free)
2. ½ cup or 100 ml Yogurt / Curd (Greek yogurt is better as it contains more protein and less sugar and carbohydrate). I used plain curd as its availability is more in India.
3. ½ cup oats, soaked in ½ cup water. Quaker oats is my choice here.
4. 1~2 banana (I preferred Yalakki banana as it is sweeter and has more nutrients packed)
5. 2 tbsp peanut butter (Again you can use any nut butter but my personal preference is peanut)
6. 1 tbsp Chia seeds. Chia seeds are among the healthiest foods on the planet. You can find the benefits of this one here.
7. 5~6 almonds
8. 3 tbsp Honey.  My personal preference is Dabur but you can use your favorite brands as well.
9. ¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)
10. 1~2 tbsp cocoa powder (optional). I used it as my son is a born chocolate freak.
11. 1~2 tbsp strawberry syrup. This is also optional and you cannot use it with cocoa powder – the taste would be awful. I use Hershey brand which is favorite of my husband.
12. A small apple cut into small pieces (again optional but you cannot use it with cocoa or strawberry)

Preparation:-

1. Soak the oats in the water for 5-10 minutes. You need to do this so that it makes them soft and easy to blend
2. Put the almond and apple, if any, in the blender / mixer and grind them into a smooth paste
3. Pour the milk in the blender
4. Pour the curd / yogurt
5. Add the banana (chopped) and oats with water. Now blend for 1 min or so.
6. Now add honey, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and Chia seeds.
7. Blend for 1 min or so in high setting. Everything should be smoothly blended and frothy.
   

Refrigerate and serve chilled. It is a good idea to make this in night and put it in fridge. You can just take it out in morning and your child / hubby would be happy to start breakfast with this. Wait for 5~10 min if you feel the temperature is too low.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.