Got a Date?

The alarm goes off noisily at 6.30 AM. I wake up grumpy (do you know anyone who is happy and chirpy in the morning…I don’t)…I stumble out of the bed and soon hear a “rumble in the tummy”…I make my way to the kitchen and go to the fruit box in the refrigerator. The past month has been an experiment in breakfast smoothies – Avocado Shake, Pear/Apple in Orange Juice, Pear/Apple/Orange in Almond Milk, Pear/Apple/Kiwi, Banana/Apple/Almond Milk, Mango/ Fat free Yogurt – I have worked at least 20 of these combinations – some of them hits, others near misses. I usually try and get my son’s breakfast done before I get my own breakfast started. I am posting the recipe for a smoothie that makes me smile in the morning (and you betcha that’s a hard thing to do!)…reason for my smiles is it puts enough calories in the morning in my little guy to keep the “little Energizer Battery” going for a couple hours.

Coincidentally there is an event in the blog sphere ("Serve me some Juices, Shakes, Smoothies" hosted by the lovely Madhuri@cookcurry nook) that I wanted to send this recipe to …if you want to know more about the event go here

Note- If you are calorie conscious - this is not the recipe for you. I invented this shake as a high power pow-wow breakfast for my extremely picky 3 year old.

Pow Wow Date Shake

8 Oz Whole Milk
4 Pitted Medjool Dates (Soaked Overnight)
1 tbspoon Trader Joes Unsalted Creamy Almond Butter
1 Medium Banana

Give the above mentioned items a whir in the food processor of choice ( I make mine in a Rocket Blender and it works fine). Pour into a tall glass or in my case son's sippy cup. Enjoy the luscious creaminess of the banana with the sweetness of the dates and the nuttiness of the almonds…makes you want a glass of your own (yup! I snuck a taste). If you are wondering on calorie count – about 500-600 calories – brilliant for early morning breakfast on the go (or in my case K2).
It has lots of good nutritional value with 50% of DV Potassium, 9 gms of Fiber, 32% of DV Calcium and 12% Iron. It is high on Fat content due to the whole milk and almond butter which you could easily eliminate but for my toddler, I choose to keep it high in fats for the time being.

My smoothie of choice is – Nature’s Peak (Paradise Fruit Medley) – this is a blend of kiwi, peaches and mangoes with Almond Milk (I usually don’t even need to sweeten it – I add a teaspoon of raw organic agave nectar to sweeten if needed).

Now if I can invent a dinner option that works as well as my morning short cut for K2 – I will be a happy mom. I think he is warming up pretty well to Trader Joes Ravioli (Chicken Sausage with Sun Dried Tomatoes) and the Black Bean and Mushroom Taquitos…as my Dad says it – Take it one day at a time.

Note - Picture of the smoothie and the smoothie maker (K2) courtesy my Nokia E72