I've been doing a lot of cooked breakfasts lately, but we got off to a slow start today so I took a slightly different tack and went with these smoothie bowls instead. The original recipe was for a banana-date smoothie, but I just added some extra banana and dates and a bit of yogurt to make a somewhat thicker smoothie and then topped them with almonds, coconut, and granola for an easy, no-cook breakfast.

Chocolate-Banana Smoothie Bowls

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 bananas, frozen
• 12 pitted dates
• 1/4 c. almond butter
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 c. milk or almond milk
• 1/3 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 Tbsp. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa
• 3-4 Tbsp. toasted almonds, chopped
• 3-4 Tbsp. shredded coconut
• 3-4 Tbsp. granola

Directions

1. Combine bananas, dates, almone butter, cinnamon, milk, yogurt, honey, and cocoa in a blender and purée until smooth.
2. Divide the smooth among two or three bowls.
3. Top with almonds, coconut, and granola. Sliced bananas, dried cherries, and/or chopped dark chocolate would also make excellent toppings.

I've never really gotten on board with the whole green smoothie/puréed vegetables for breakfast thing. Mixing a little bit of wheatgrass or whatever in is one thing, but if you're putting in enough greens to make it look like a St. Patrick's Day special, I am immediately dubious. It starts seeming like one of those health food fads that tries to pack in "superfoods" and forgets that food is actually supposed to taste good. So, I generally avoid the recipes that call for you to drink a kale-spirulina-avocado-superfood-of-the-month slurry sweetened with positive energy and sunshine. But... I'd already made all the other smoothie bowls in the book. And this one at least called for a decent quantity of banana and almond butter. So it seemed like those would hopefully end up as the dominant flavours, with the spinach and avocado just lending a bit of colour and bulk. And, I have to say, it did work out rather nicely! I was quite happy with the results and would definitely make it again.

I did add a bit of honey to my smoothie. And I also bumped up the quantity of almond butter a bit. And I think it did need that to get the flavours balanced right. But, having done that, it was great!

I also decided to add a little bit of toasted coconut to mine (not pictured). Which I think was a good combo. I think pineapple would also work well as a topping if you happen to have some on hand.

Green Smoothie Bowls

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 55g baby spinach
• 1/2 an avocado
• 2 bananas
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 3-4 Tbsp. almond butter
• 1 mango, sliced
• 150g blueberries
• 2 Tbsp. pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted
• 1 Tbsp. oat bran¹, toasted
• 1-2 Tbsp. toasted coconut (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the yogurt, spinach, avocado, bananas, honey, and almond butter in a blender and purée until smooth.
2. Divide the smoothie into 2-4 bowls depending on how big you want your servings to be. (I found 1/4 of the batch to be plenty for me.)
3. For small bowls: top each with 1/4 of the mango, ~35g of blueberries, 1/2 Tbsp. of pumpkin seeds, 3/4 tsp. oat bran, and ~1/2 Tbsp. of coconut. For large bowls: double all the topping quantities.

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¹ I couldn't find my oat bran, so I just omitted it. The Kidlet probably wouldn't have liked it anyway. ^Back

I'm way behind on write-ups and have a huge backlog of older recipes left to do, but I wanted to get this on in before I forgot. Especially since everyone liked it so much! TF and the Kidlet were both very enthusiastic about these bowls for breakfast.

The recipe as written calls for 2 c. of yogurt and 2 bananas and said it made two servings. I did this and served half of the resulting smoothie to the Kidlet and TF and I split the remaining half. So, I guess it makes either two or four servings depending on how hungry you are. Personally, I think a half serving of smoothie with a full serving of toppings is just about right for me.

The recipe below makes half as much smoothie as the original recipe (so, 1-2 servings depending on your appetite), but I've left all the toppings at their original quantities (because I like less smoothie and more everything else in my bowl). And I've actually suggested a range for the granola (because I really like granola, especially when it's a nice home-made) batch!

Protein Smoothie Bowl

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. almond butter
• 1 banana
• 1 c. raspberries
• 1/4-1/2 almond granola (or store-bought granola)
• 1 Tbsp. cocoa nibs
• 1 Tbsp. Rice Krispies

Directions

1. Combine the yogurt, almond butter, and banana in a blender and purée until smooth.
2. Pour into a bowl (or two) and top with raspberries, granola, cocoa nibs, and Rice Krispies.