How to Do the Morning Smoothie When You Have No Time

I have to regularly break my addiction to coffee. Not caffeine, coffee. And this is only partially because of lack of willpower 😉

I work for the most recognized corporate coffee shop in the U.S. I’m not gonna say which it is directly in case it somehow gets me in trouble. We get coffee for free. For our entire shift. … And I have to be there, 5 days a week, at 4:45 A.M. Talk about your recipe for addiction disaster!! I have tried to quit cold turkey drinking anything except tea from work many times since declaring my raw veganness. Oh, and did I mention sometimes free food is available too? And none of it is vegan. Because of this constant free source of non vegan eatables and drinkables I have hit many many bumps (and taken a few detours) on my road to my diet goals. I wasn’t even fully vegetarian until 2-3 months after this blog got started. I had a rough time giving up chicken from Chipotle.

So basically the point of this is:

1. Rarely does anyone go vegetarian/vegan overnight. I was gung-ho about going cold turkey, even while I was still eating meat! I was in love with the ideal but I didn’t know how to transition. I read all the books, all the blogs, knew the necessary kitchen equipment, wanted to try all kinds of new recipes… but I didn’t know what to eat to stay full; I didn’t know how to make meals out of legitimate raw vegan food. For me, this was a learning-by-doing process. Changing my diet so radically was a learning experience and took time. It still is. Raw uncooked foods are only 30-40% of my daily diet, at best. But, I am 100% vegan now and I am proud of myself for reaching that goal. Slowly, day by day, I am making myself aware of what I eat and how I can change the vegan snacks and meals to raw vegan snacks and meals. If you are reading this and you haven’t reached your diet goals yet, realize that you will make it there, no matter how long it takes. You are already amazing for wanting to reach those goals.

Now, onto the point of the title! When I drank green smoothies every day for breakfast I had so much more energy, I was much more likely to eat vegan and raw for the rest of the day, my skin was clearer, etc, etc. The last few weeks I’ve had black and white americanos every day. Granted, they’ve been decaf, but the coffee dehydrates me and the sugar has been SO bad for my skin. It’s comforting in the morning to have hot, sweet coffee but I have to break this bad habit and start making green smoothies again… which is what I did this morning bright and early at 4:15 A.M.

Ingredients! =)

If I can make smoothies at 4:15 A.M., 15 minutes before I have to leave for work, then anyone can do it.

How to Make A Smoothie In the Morning When You Have No Time

1. Find yourself a fabulous to go-cup. I bought mine at Wal-Mart for like 5 bucks. It’s around 30 ounces, BPA free, spill-proof, insulated, with a built in straw and a loop to hang off of a backpack. It was everything I was looking for in a cup.

You want your to-go cup to give you as much convenience as possible. This  means spill proof, a suckable straw, and double insulated so there’s no condensation. If you prefer, something to enable attaching to a backpack or bicycle. If you are health conscious, you will want BPA-free plastic, or stainless steel. Glass is probably the healthiest material to drink a smoothie out of but because of breakability, will not work for your to-go cup.

2. Set up EVERYTHING, down to the last detail, the night before.

• Put everything together in a giant baggy, prechopped and peeled as needed, in the fridge or freezer. If your blender can’t handle frozen items, pre-chill your cup by putting it in the freezer overnight. This is what I did, since I have a $250 Cuisinart and not a Vitamix.
• Put your blender where you blend in the morning. Plug it in. Have the lid handy. Put every non-chilled ingredient right next to the blender, pre-measured if so desired. Personally, I don’t really measure ingredients so I just set the bags out.

3. If you don’t have a Vitamix or a Blendtec, only you know your blenders capabilities. If you can throw everything in with some liquid and put it on a low setting and leave it while you get dressed and brush your teeth, then awesome! Do that to save yourself from time. If you know your blender will need some coaxing set aside 3 extra minutes and follow your blender’s manual as to order of ingredients to blend. Some blenders recommend that you blend liquid and non-frozen things first, and then add in the frozen stuff.

Some other tips: If you are making a breakfast smoothie, for god sake’s make a breakfast smoothie. Make it dense and thick and caloric and DELICIOUS!!! Good ingredients to make it more caloric and thick are frozen bananas, hemp milk/seeds, nut milk/seeds, dates, and apples.

Yum!

This morning, mine had hemp milk, a banana (I should have put 2), some frozen strawberries, cacao powder, maca powder, and TONS of greens. It was chocolatey and delicious!