My Favorite Breakfast Smoothie
A delicious and refreshing healthy breakfast (or anytime!) smoothie full of fruits and vegetables. We enjoy this every morning to get the day started right!
Well, first of all, let me say that while this smoothie is really healthy, I promise that it actually tastes good.
I’ve come across way too many smoothie recipes in my short life that are beautiful and vibrant and perfectly green…but I can’t even choke them down (there was this epic fail once when I made a popular green smoothie recipe loaded with kale and spinach and lime and all I could taste was grass – like I had just mowed the lawn and inhaled all the clippings).
Which is why this smoothie is brown. I know it’s not the most appealing looking smoothie on the planet, but I don’t really care what color it is as long as it is full of good-for-me-and-you-foods and is delicious enough to look forward to eating it (meaning: it doesn’t taste like grass).
A lot of times with our breakfast smoothies, we just throw stuff into the blender and hope for the best, but over the last few months, this smoothie is the one we’ve made the most (as in, it is my breakfast of choice 6 out of 7 mornings) and I finally jotted down the ingredients and amounts to make it “recipe official.”
I love that it has no added sugar but is plenty sweet from the natural fruit sugars plus it has a lot of great vitamins courtesy of the vegetables (carrots and spinach).
We call this our super food smoothie and it’s basically the reason I buy bunches of bananas at a time and purposely let them ripen (to increase their sweetness) on the counter and then peel them and toss them in a freezer ziploc bag.
My kids love this smoothie, too. And I love that they love it. And we are all one big happy family humming Kumbaya while drinking our healthy smoothies in unison.
Too bad the smoothie effect doesn’t last all day to prevent sibling squabbling and mommy impatience. If anyone has the recipe for those things, talk to me ASAP.
One Year Ago: Banana Pudding Caramel Cream Trifles
Two Years Ago: Blueberry Coconut Cake with Lemon Sauce
Three Years Ago: Mexican Rice
My Favorite Breakfast Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup 100% carrot juice (see note)
- 1-2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1 orange peeled
- ½ lime peeled
- 1 soft ripe pear, cored and cut into quarters
- 1 to 2 handfuls fresh spinach
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 cup frozen blueberries or strawberries
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth (if you have a Blendtec, it works best to combine them in the order listed – liquids at the bottom, frozen at the top).
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
This looks so good! Could I use different kinds of juice instead of the carrot – I know you say you use mango juice, but could I use like apple juice or orange juice?
Yes, you could use orange juice!
This is the smoothie I always come back to and my whole family loves! It’s also the reason I buy spinach…
Great smoothie for a nutritious and delicious start to the day!
This one is great! Thank you.
This recipe doesn’t need it, but as an FYI, grapes are a secret ingredient for sweetening up smoothies without altering the flavor (if you don’t use too many). The best part is they freeze up really well in a big Ziploc and last a long time, so you can stock up.
This definitely tastes better than it looks! I juiced a cup of carrots with my juicer and left the peel on the lime (my Vitamix blended it right up and it adds a little more flavor). For sure making more of this!
So so yummy Mel! Question, have you ever frozen individual ingredients in a ziplock and throw them in the blender with any luck? AKA, how do spinach, pears, and limes freeze??? That would make mornings a breeze! Also, wondering if you could make ice cubes out of the carrot juice and throw those in?
Those are all great ideas, Ashley! I haven’t tried freezing individual ingredients like that but I think it stands a great chance of working.
I buy big tubs of organic spinach and freeze it for smoothies. It prevents the spoilage that I often had if my fresh spinach didn’t get used quickly. Once frozen, you can crumble it and transfer to a ziplock to save on space- or leave it as is.
Wonderful!!! I’ve made this 3 times in two weeks— I love the flavors! I’ve subbed an apple for the pear (because I never have pears on hand) and use the bolthouse carrot juice). Great way to start my day that isn’t cereal! And it tastes really good!! Not just I-know-it’s-heathy-for-me-so-I-will-choke-it-down-good. Really good!!
Glad you love it, Jen – thanks!
As usual, another simple but excellent recipe from Mel. I love to make this smoothie in the morning, especially when I have greek yogurt as additional ingredients, it’s so yummy
Do the leftovers save well? I’m the only one in my house that would drink this, so wondering if I could make a big blender full and drink it over 2-3 days.
I’m not sure – but it might…it just won’t be as cold and frosty.
I have frozen the leftovers in paper cups and microwaved when I wanted them and they come out great.
Just pinned it. I like the idea of carrot juice in a breafast smoothie. Ialso love your use of spices in the slowcooker pork carnitas recipe(I can never have enough slow cooker recipes…lol)
I just made this for dessert tonight. Yum! The lime really does make the difference. Thanks!
Would love to try this based on all the positive comments. Wondering what it would be like if I omitted the banana? It really is my least favourite fruit! What would you recommend in its place?
The banana adds creaminess but you could leave it out.
I made this in my Bosch blender today. My bananas weren’t frozen, so I added a handful of ice too. It was really yummy! Kids wouldn’t eat more than a bite though 🙁 Oh well, more for me!
I love this! I’ve only tried it with orange juice but I’m going to do half orange, half carrot next week. My kids love it too. The lime is awesome.
Thanks for this awesome recipe! We’ve been making it almost every day and my kids and I think it’s delicious! I love starting the day off with all those fruits and veggies.
I’ve made this every weekday for the last 3 weeks for my husband and I and is it great! I feel so good getting that much good for you things early in the morning. I bought a huge bag of limes at Costco so I have been putting in a whole lime each time and it tastes great.
Awesome post! Super food smoothie looks yummy. It is a combination of many kinds of fruits so it is very healthy for all who want to be healthy. I love your post.
For some reason, I decided to buy the clubhouse-sized bottles of carrot juice. It tastes fine, but we just don’t have smoothies every day… do you know what else I can use carrot juice in? (Besides, you know, juice. I really only drink milk and water.)
Diane – You could freeze it in ice cube trays and pull it out for smoothies (let it defrost or use frozen) or sub it in for other juices in muffin recipes (like apple juice, etc.). Good luck!
I am very skeptical of green smoothies, but I made this this morning, and I think you’ve captured the perfect combination of ingredients! These were so much better than I thought it would be – I truly couldn’t taste the spinach or carrot juice – it was just a refreshing fruity taste. Thanks Mel!
I love good filling smoothies! Thanks!
I’m allergic to oranges, do you know what I could sub for that, or do you think it would taste okay to leave it out? Thanks so much! (I’ve been following your site for over 3 years and love it more every day. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to your family!!)
Trisha T – You could probably leave it out but I’d suggest adding a bit more liquid and maybe consider adding another fruit in its place. Are you allergic to grapefruit? That could work. Good luck.
Hi Mel,
I finally got around to making this, and I omitted the orange, and doubled the carrot juice. I have a juicer, so I juiced about 9 carrots which was a little more than 2 cups, and it tasted great! Thank you so much for the suggestion and help! 🙂 (P.S. Congrats on the move, I’m originally from Idaho and loved it there!)
Hands down this is THE BEST green smoothie I have ever tried. I ended up having to use your suggested substitutions based on what I had on hand, but it still turned out delicious. Having made a green smoothie just 3 days ago (and tried several in the past), I was shocked when I didn’t taste the spinach in this at all. And I even added raw carrots because I only had mango juice. We all loved this. THANK YOU!
I order my chia seeds from http://www.nuts.com
They have lots of great products.
The green smoothie recipe is a winner for sure! We actually put way more spinach than I posted because you really can’t taste it in this recipe. Add more if you like, but I promise you don’t have to add less.
I am lucky to have costco, so that’s where I get my chia seeds.
This was great! I really liked the lime. It was worth paying 88 stinkin’ cents for a lime! 😉 Here’s my normal smoothie recipe, which is similar. http://michellesnewrecipes.blogspot.com/2013/09/blueberry-spinach-smoothie.html
Keep up the good work, and I hope all is going well with the puppy! (and the 5 humans you take care of, too!)
I find that my blendtec can do a great job grinding up flax seeds if you can’t find flax meal. I just throw the seeds with some of the liquid and use the “whole juice” setting.
Mel, here’s a green smoothie that I know will not fail you! Trust me!
1-1.5 cups apple cider
1-1.5 cups vanilla coconut milk
2 or more generous handfuls of baby spinach (I swear you can add more and you won’t taste it)
1 small orange
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1.5 frozen bananas
1/2 t cinnamon.
Blend and be amazed!
*I always add chia seeds
Thanks, Lien! I’ll try it, promise (even though my past experience with green smoothies has been less than fun). PS – where do you buy your chia seeds?
Looks great! I make similar smoothies, and they look pretty much the same color. 🙂 I just bought the ingredients to make this one, although I’m subbing orange juice- because all the store I went to had was a 1/2 gallon of carrot juice for $6+. I’ll have to look for that elsewhere!
Man, I really want a fancy blender. My blender would not do these ingredients justice. Thanks for sharing!
We had this for breakfast and it’s my new favorite smoothie!! Thanks so much for sharing something so healthy and delicious!
Love this. Always looking for more smoothie ideas, thanks!
Looks delicious…can’t wait to try it! May I ask…What kind of blender do you have?
Hi Rachelle – I have a Blendtec blender.
Mommy impatience lol. I think that remedy is chocolate.=)
Have you ever tried whole carrots and the “whole juice” function to make the carrot juice or do you use bottled? I have a Blendtech (love it!), but I’ve never tried making the whole juice. This sounds like a perfect recipe to test it out with. I’m right there with you in that I’ve tried some green smoothies that were a little too green for me!
Hey Lisa – I actually haven’t tried that but I’m going to since it would be a lot more cost efficient than buying the bottled carrot juice. I’ll report back when I do!
Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to try this. I too have tried many a Pinterest green smoothie. Sorry for you’re bad experience, but I’m happy to know I’m not alone!
I’ve always froze my bananas with the peel on because if I peel them before freezing they becomes a shade of brown that isn’t appealing, still tastes fine though. When I need to use one I take it out about an hour before and it thaws enough for me to peel them and they are still fresh looking. Do you do something to prohibit the browning or is your picture using a fresh banana?
That’s a frozen banana in the picture. My bananas don’t seem to get any more brown in the freezer than they were when I put them in…this one happened to be nice and pretty when it was frozen but others are definitely less appealing if I wait to freeze them until they are ultra ripe. It all gets blended up so I haven’t worried about the color.
So what makes it brown?
Patrick – I think it’s the combination of the blueberries and spinach and orange.
There IS a way to save a smoothie for later (but only kind of). I pour the smoothie, usually what’s left over from drinking, into Popsicle molds. My son thinks he’s getting a yummy Popsicle treat but I know it’s smoothie-goodness!
Wondering if I can call the brown “chocolate” and get my youngest to try it!
I love all the fresh, citrusy ingredients in this breakfast smoothie, Mel! Sounds like it makes for an energizing and delicious start to the day.
Looks so good! One of my favorite smoothies has spinach in it too and it’s perfectly delicious. Spinach and all. And that’s something to love.
Love these vibrant colors Mel!
Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Do you serve this along with breakfast or is this breakfast? It doesn’t seem to be very protein-y, hence the question. Looks tasty!
Alisha and Erin, good question! You could definitely add more protein to this. It is my main breakfast and keeps me full (I drink a full tall glass). My kids usually have the smoothie in addition to breakfast…they have a much smaller cup but sometimes one of them just wants a lot of smoothie with toast or something like that. Hope that helps!
Hello Erin. This smoothie has a lot more protein than first glance indicates. Flaxseed has around 4 grams protein per serving (not to mention the 5.7 grams of fiber so lacking in our diets). One cup of spinach has 5 grams of protein or 51% of calories from spinach are protein. One cup of carrot juice carries 2 grams of protein. If you switch out the flaxmeal for chia seed (be careful tho this is a thickener) you will get 4.4 grams of a complete protein (all 9 amino acids) with 11 grams of fiber. Your body can only absorb so much protein per serving so when I have a smoothie for breakfast, I eat a couple hours later for a snack a hard boiled egg or a container of Greek Yogurt (12 grams of protein) at 80 calories. My kids love Greek yogurt and hard boiled eggs. This smoothie is a nutritional power packed breakfast. Hope this information helps.
Thanks for posting this!!
Thanks for chiming in, Sheila! Glad to have all those protein facts in one place! (PS: you are a smart lady.)
Love the no dairy in this smoothie. We have a smoothie with a side of nuts for breakfast at least once per week and this will be next week’s recipe.
wow! I am so curious to try a lime in my next smoothie! I could use the recipe to cure sibling squabbling ASAP too!
Yum, I’ll have to try this soon! Love the addition of lime, sounds like it would add a nice kick of flavor.
Yum. Trying this. Is the smoothie “the meal” or in addition to your other breakfast favorites?
Limes…yummmmm! Thanks for this recipe! I am always blending up smoothies to get veggies in my kids. This is cool twist! Thank you!!!
We love smoothies too! I have never heard of or thought of peeling a lime and using in a smoothie. Zesting, yes, but peeling no. Your recipes often have interesting ingredients put together in such a way that “normal” recipes are greatly enhanced. We always use over ripened bananas as sweeteners and include either chai seed or ground flaxseed meal. Sibling squabbling equals mom suddenly remembering some tedious chores that need to be done prompto. It’s amazing how quickly kids pick up on the fact that squabbling equals added chores. 🙂