Food for Thought: Fruit for Breakfast

Last January, as a first step toward eating more healthfully, I started serving fruit for breakfast.  It started out as a few strawberries, some orange slices, and a banana.  

A couple of things happened:

1. We were surprised to learn we did not feel hungry again until lunchtime.

2. This new practice helped us begin losing weight.

3. My husband said he could not eat another orange or banana again...ever.

So we might have overdone it with the bananas.  (Itt was winter--not a lot of "in season" fruits!)

But I definitely noticed that eating fruit for breakfast made me feel much better than anything else, particularly cereal.  When I ate a bowl of cereal (even "healthy" cereal) with any kind of milk (even almond milk), I found myself getting shaky-hungry around 10:30 later that morning.  I could not make it until lunchtime without having a snack--whereas with the fruit, I was fine until lunch, without any shakiness.

Then came along another gamechanger: the Blendtec.  I cobbled together some money in our budget this past summer to purchase a high-powered blender.  I debated and researched Blendtec vs Vitamix vs Ninja vs Magic Bullet, and Blendtec came out on top for us.  Yes, it is on the pricier side, but it was well worth it.  I chose Blendtec because it was higher-powered than Ninja or Magic Bullet--I decided that meant something to me, because the power to make a whole juice or blend my own almond milk appealed to me.  I chose Blendtec over Vitamix for several reasons: it sits lower on the countertop and thus fits under my cabinets, its blades were not sharp like Vitamix's--they are blunt and just spin at a very high speed, there was no fiddling with it during blending--no tampers, and it had settings that allow me to push a button and walk away from it as opposed to standing there and pulsing it until blended.  And it looked cooler.  Just kidding.  Kind of. 

You guys, I LOVE this blender.  And it took my fruit-for-breakfast habit to the next level--I was able to add spinach and other vegetables, ice, and chia seeds or berries with seeds and end up with a super-smooth drink.  I wasn't just eating a few pieces of fruit--I was eating a lot of fruit PLUS veggies & seeds.  Triple the nutrients!  

If you can budget for a high-powered blender, I highly recommend it.  And even if you can't, I used my inexpensive Black & Decker blender for several months (before the rubber seal broke and the bottom fell out!) with adequate results. 

Depending on what you put in your smoothie, it can save you money on breakfasts.  For 3 of us to eat cereal everyday for a week, we used up about 3-4 boxes of cereal plus a carton and a half of almond milk.  I've done more "elaborate" smoothies some weeks, with lots of different kinds of produce--or even a different kind of smoothie every day.  But what works best for us is something simple that we have everyday for a week...then, I switch it up to something different the next week.  In the picture above, I made fresh spinach + frozen strawberries + fresh pineapple (that I cut up and then froze) + frozen banana.  The pineapples were on sale that week at Aldi for 99 cents--I bought two and they lasted me all week and into the next.  I buy packages of overripe bananas on clearance for 40 cents a bunch at EasyWay every few weeks.  I almost always use plain old (free) tap water for our liquid.  

No blender and no money to budget for one?  Buy a bag of oranges & a bunch of bananas at Aldi (usually around $3 a bag & 44 cents/lb for a bunch) and get started with some fruit for breakfast!  It's the cheapest, healthiest way to get the most nutrients and the lowest calories into one meal!