For goodness sake!

How else would you finish that headline than with "I love my hippie hippie shake?" Time for a little (blue)berry love.

This shake/smoothie is so great, it's like breakfast nirvana. If I've missed it in the morning for some nutty thing like an early appointment, I've made it for lunch, or dinner. I have even fallen asleep at night thinking, "Oh goodie, in the morning I'll get my yummy shake." That's addiction, folks. Also, a tad pathetic.
Here's how it happens, daily. In our house we make it to serve two. It gets whizzed up in a Vita Mixer; if you have a regular blender, you'll definitely want to halve it (as I've listed the portions below), unless the smell of a small appliance motor overheating adds an extra-special dash of joy to your morning...

Start with the apple (1, cored, not peeled) and half a banana (peeled, duh!).

Add OJ (1.5 cups) and start the whizzing.

Have your flax seed ground and ready to go (2 T.). You can buy it ground, or do that deed yourself. The benefits of the omega-3s are best with the seeds ground; whole flaxseeds are not absorbed with the same efficacy. Just saying.

I add the wheat germ (2 T) and oat bran (1/3 cup) and the aforementioned flax seed one at a time to the blender while it's going. Depending on your blender strength, you may want to stop, add, then put the lid on and keep going--it's a lot to add at once. I have had a couple of oopsie moments with the blender sending smoothie all the way to the ceiling! Lids are good.

Next, add the frozen blueberries (1.5 cups) (or mixed berries--we've alternated depending on the Costco price, and right now the mixed are somehow back to being more expensive) and the soy milk (1/2-1 cup, depending on your desired consistency) and turn the blender on high. It might take a bit of poking around (carefully) to get the berries pulled down into the rest of the mixture, but once you get it started it should blend well.



My basic approximations put this gem at a little over 600 calories, which, granted, is a hefty breakfast. But, it also has about 24.5 grams of fiber, which meets females-my-size daily nutritional fiber needs. So the rest of the day I can eat cheese and Twinkies... or not.

Total credit for this recipe goes to the husband, who tweaked and fiddled with the ingredients for about a year before he talked me into trying it. Instant convert! If I haven't persuaded you here, just come visit. I have been known to "batch" this to feed more than two; shakes for everyone!