Start the Day with This Delicious Breakfast Smoothie

A protein-rich, healthy smoothie is a great way to start the day; this smoothie will make you feel like you can lift buildings. It includes a couple of nutritional supplements, but these supplements are foods in themselves, and are a great way to meet nutritional requirements. You'll need a blender to make this drink.

Ingredients

8 to 12 ounces of low-fat or fat-free milk (or use soymilk, rice milk, or almond milk)
½ fresh or frozen banana
1 to 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast or brewer's yeast
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil
1 teaspoon clover honey
½ cup fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt, or vegan equivalent (Rice Cream, Tofutti, Sinfully Delicious, etc.)
¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract

Blend all the above ingredients in a blender until smooth, and drink immediately. The fat-free frozen yogurt makes the smoothie deliciously cold.

What do the various ingredients do?

• The milk provides protein, plus some needed Vitamin B-12, a nutrient that is hard to get unless you eat meat, eggs, or dairy products. If you use soy or other vegan milks, read the nutritional label to if it is fortified.
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• The banana provides fiber and potassium.
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• The nutritional yeast or brewer's yeast provides a good helping of B vitamins and other nutrients (some varieties are supplemented with vitamin B-12, while others are not, so read the label). Lewis Lab's Brewer's Yeast contains about 5 percent of the RDA of B-12, plus chromium, a trace mineral that helps normalize blood sugar, and has a mild flavor. Nutritional yeast is often found in bags in the refrigerated section of natural food stores; if the bags aren't labeled with the nutritional components, which they often are not, see if you can get the nutritional information from the store manager.
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• The flaxseed oil offers omega-3 fatty acids, which have been found to be protective against heart disease, stroke, and even Alzheimer's. (Other sources of omega-3 are salmon and walnuts.)
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• The honey sweetens the smoothie, provides a few trace minerals, and is absorbed more slowly than simple sugars, so it has a less dramatic impact on your blood sugar.
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• And, of course, the fat-free frozen yogurt provides more protein, lots of taste, and a great super-cold quality.

Most frozen yogurt and other frozen desserts do contain sugar, so read the ingredients and decide whether you want to add that amount of sugar to the smoothie. (Check out the Sinfully Delicious brand of ice cream, made of coconut milk and guava juice for a low-fat, low-sugar version.) Another way to avoid added sugar is to substitute an equal amount of fat-free plain yogurt or its vegan equivalent. If you use a frozen banana, you may be able to skip the yogurt, frozen or otherwise, altogether.

Cheers!