Smoothie Fix

It's been hard recently for me to have the motivation to cook and eat by myself because it's simply not very fun. When I was teaching and had a regular schedule, I had to plan my meals ahead of time and they were all pretty set. Now that I spend most of my time at home, I skip breakfast a lot (since I wake up around 10ish), eat a small lunch, and then eat something "real" for dinner. When I'm home by myself and usually engrossed in a wedding/craft project, I tend to lose track of time and eating just seems to get in the way of my finishing the project. I've tried to eat while I work, but this takes me so long that I end up still hungry by the time I'm finished!

After realizing that I've been losing a bit of weight doing this, I've resolved to eat healthier! In fact, I am trying to gain about 10 lbs for the wedding to hit my magic number - 98 lbs. Actually, to make up for the 3 lbs. I've lost recently, I really need to gain 13 lbs. I'm trying to make the weight gain healthy, so I'm concentrating on eating more proteins, dairy, and fruits & vegetables.

As part of my daily eating regimen, I've been making myself fruit smoothies every morning! I've grown to enjoy them quite a bit. This has really helped to increase my daily fruit & dairy intake. I've reverted back to whole milk and whole yogurt to give me extra calories!

Here's my recipe for the perfectly yummy berry smoothie:

1/2 c. whole milk
1/4 c. whole milk vanilla yogurt
1/2 banana (broken into smaller pieces)
a handful of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and/or blackberries (these can be used alone or in any multitude of combinations)

Put everything in the blender and blend! This makes about 2 cups (I use a big coffee mug because it can hold the full 2 cups). You can also easily replace the whole milk for skim milk and whole milk yogurt for fat free yogurt.

Enjoy!