No time for breakfast?

Not with this recipe up your sleeve.

Oats and I have had a difficult relationship. Growing up, I tried so hard to like them but did not. In 2022, I decided to give them another chance. I was bored of all my breakfast options and needed something else. I started off with Overnight Oats that I’d top off with fruits in the morning. You can read all about how that went by below. Spoiler alert: it’s going great!

It’s been over a year since I added overnight oats to my life so of course I couldn’t just let it be. The gigantic jar of rolled oats in my kitchen was as bored as I was, so I looked into what else I could do with them. In the winter, I played around with baked oats—because I did not enjoy cold overnight oats on chilly mornings. I’ll talk about those another time.

Today I want to talk about oat smoothies like the one pictured above. These were another oat revelation. Before I tried them out the first time, I was fully prepared with a back up breakfast in the fridge in case I needed to throw the whole thing out. Thankfully, I didn’t need to.

My favourite thing about these smoothies is that they are a really quick no-fuss breakfast that require no preparation besides washing up some fruit. They take all of 5 minutes to make in the morning, and the thing that shocked me the most - they kept me full until my usual lunch time. No sudden hunger pangs or blood sugar crashes.

Here’s how you can make my version of a mixed berry banana smoothie:

1. Add 1/2 cup of rolled oats to your blender jar. Pulse for a few seconds so it turns into a coarse powder. (I haven’t tried this with any other type of oats, I always have rolled oats around. And no, I don’t soak them in anything beforehand.)

2. Add the following into the blender and blend until nice and smooth.

   1. 200 ml milk (I use regular cow’s milk. Use whatever you have. If you want a runnier smoothie, you can increase the quantity of milk you use, but I’d recommend doing that once you’ve tried it out with these proportions.)

   2. 2 tbsp curd (I use regular dahi, if you have Greek Yogurt, you could use that but I find no difference in taste or texture.)

   3. 1 large banana - break it into a few pieces before you toss it in (If you want a creamier smoothie, I’m told a frozen banana works great. I haven’t tried it yet because even though I meal prep quite a bit, I somehow never remember to freeze bananas.)

   4. 1 cup of mixed berries (When I made this smoothie, strawberries were still in season so I’d use a few strawberries and a handful of blueberries. Now I use only blueberries.)

   5. A drop of vanilla extract (I’m yet to find a sweetish breakfast that isn’t improved with a little vanilla extract.)

   6. A squeeze of honey - if you want this sweeter. (I find that the bananas are usually sweet enough.)

   7. A few ice cubes - if you want this super chilled. (Since most of the ingredients I use are cold, I find the smoothie just the right temperature for me, so I tend to skip ice.)

That’s it. Blend this up and enjoy a super quick breakfast that should tide you over until lunch.

Not a fan of the flavour combo above? Here are a few other variations you may enjoy:

1. Drop the berries and use 1 tbsp cocoa powder for a chocolate smoothie or 1 tbsp peanut butter for a peanut butter smoothie. Add both if that works for you.

2. Skip the banana and berries and add a whole alphonso mango for a delicious summery version of this smoothie.

3. Add 1 tbsp of your favourite instant coffee or a shot of espresso to the banana and you’ll have a coffee smoothie. Add 1 tbsp cocoa powder as well for a mocha!

The next time you find yourself running late in the morning, whip this up. Let me know how it turns out for you and if you discover any other flavours. See you in the next one.