I came up with this recipe accidentally. When my son was around 24 months, I wanted to give him cereal for breakfast. My husband and I eat the Fiber One, Honey Cluster cereals. It tastes too good for a fiber cereal, with 13 gms of fiber per cup serving. I also wanted my son to start with that one itself right from the beginning, instead of starting with the regular sugary cereals and then trying to move on to the healthy stuff. So one fine day morning, I put little cereal, milk and couple of slices of banana. He started eating it, but he was having trouble with chewing the honey clusters. I panicked that he might choke on that. I neither wanted to eat it myself nor throw it away, so I put the entire contents of the bowl in the blender and made it like a smoothie.Wow! It was DELICIOUS. The sugar in the bananas and the cereal gave the perfect amount of sweetness to the smoothie. The cereal although powdered nicely gave a crunch and the smoothness of the banana together gave a nice texture to the drink. I gave it to my son in a cup with a fancy straw and he just gulped it. From then onwards it's his favorite breakfast. Then I started modifying the basic recipe, by adding dates, almonds, apples, flax seed meal etc. In any case you need not add sugar at all. If the fruits are not sweet enough just add a teaspoon of honey it should be fine.After reading Mansi's definition of a balanced meal only it struck me that I was covering all the food groups in this one smoothie. Actually this smoothie is light yet satisfying. It can be enjoyed by adults and children as well. I tried it with the All Bran variety of Fiber One cereals too. That cereal has 14 gms of fiber in ½ cup. But it did not taste as good as the Honey Clusters one.
Ingredients:
Banana - 1 small or ¾th of a large banana
Fiber One Cereal (Honey Clusters) - ¼ cup
Milk - 1.5 to 2 cups (depending on the consistency you want the smoothie to be)
Almonds - 1 tablespoon (slivered)
Flax seed meal - ½ teaspoon (This one is optional. I add flax seed meal in anything and everything. Being vegetarian the sources of getting Omega-3 is restricted to flax seed meal and walnuts. So I sprinkle it in all my dishes including cereal, salad, curries, and soups and even in my chapathi dough.)
Procedure:
1. In a blender first add the cereal and almonds and powder it.
2. Then add the sliced bananas and milk and blend it smooth.
My Notes:
1. You can add the flax seed meal while powdering the cereal itself or just sprinkle it after blending the smoothie.
2. If you want to add dates, just soak it in warm milk for a couple of minutes and then blend it.
3. This smoothie is stomach filling by itself.
This is my entry to Mansi's WBB#20 - Balanced Breakfast.
Update:
1. I use 2% milk for this smoothie. The organic milk's taste is better than the regular. I have tried it with fat free milk also, but I didn't like it.
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christine simoneau says
i am really concern about a small child eating food with aspartame in otherwise Nutrasweet the cereal fiber one has this in it most people don't know this this is why i am letting you know this i wrote to the company to ask if they could make an alternative leaving it out.
Thank you very much for letting me know Christine. I'll also look into it.
Johanna says
Thanks for visiting my smoothie - I have finally got across and was quite fascinated by yours - I like the idea of adding flaxseeds I have some that I am always wondering what to do with - I guess I should be more generous with them! And like the cereal and banana combination - sounds great and would probably work with oatmeal
Madhuram says
Thanks Dhivya and Vaishali.
Vaishali says
Such a cool idea, Madhuram. I'd have never thought of adding cereal to a smoothie, but it makes perfect sense!
dhivya says
indeed a healthy one madhu!looks so yummmmmm
Madhuram says
Akay, you have to taste it to believe that it's delicious. My mother in law also was skeptical before trying it yesterday, but after drinking it she agreed that it was very tasty and also filling.
Akay says
I add flax seed in almost all my food dishes too for the exact same reason that you mentioned. I am not a fan of milky smoothies, but this one sounds yummy.
Madhuram says
Thanks Hima.
hima says
Love the smoothie.
Madhuram says
Mansi, thank you for giving us an opportunity to think about what we are eating for breakfast.
Cham, DiVya it's very yummy indeed.
Kaykat, I think you got it wrong, I did not mention oatmeal, it's flax seed meal, it's nothing but powdered flax seeds. Eating whole flax seeds does not do any good because it is just passed out of the digestive system, so try using the flax seed meal readily available in all grocery stores in the natural foods aisle.
Sowmya, Sushma, SS, Roma it's very filling. You don't even need bread, we just had it for the photo.
Roma says
Wow! Thats one filling energy drink. Can keep you going till lunch time.
SS says
All my favorite ingredients in one 🙂
sushma says
looks very tempting.. and i guess one glass of this smoothie in the morning will be suffice..
sowmya says
nice entry...something filling and indeed a balanced breakfast
Kaykat says
Whoa! I've never tried using oatmeal in a smoothie - now you've got me intrigued.
DivyA Vikram says
Wow..this breakfast looks realy yummy..Am going to try it with my cereal tomo for breakfast
Cham says
Great entry for a balanced breakfast ! Yummy banana smoothie 🙂
Mansi says
Thanks for a wonderful entry madhuram! it looks great:)