Cream of Vegetable Smoothie

Sounds gross?  Yes, it does, but it tasted like banana and honey.  My smoothie this morning contained not one, but two serves of veggies.  How do you put 2 serves of veggies into a smoothie I hear you ask? Easy! Just choose bland, fairly flavourless veggies to add and you can't taste them.

I had my first milk based smoothie today, the main reason being that I got some Protein Powder yesterday and I thought the milk would go better with a vanilla flavour and make it creamier.  Luckily I have been stalking the protein powders waiting for them to go on sale.  I can't justify spending nearly $22 for a 400g tub, when there are a lot more important things to buy at the grocery store.

Finally, I saw the sale sign.  The "sale" tag actually said $26.98 reduced to $22.59 WHAT!!  Two days ago it was $21.98 full price!!!  Fortunately for me, the original price tag was still under the sale tag and when I questioned it at the checkout, which took about 15 mins of whispering and going back to the aisle a couple of times, I ended up getting the protein powder for free.  It's store policy that if you are overcharged for something you get it for free :)

Cream of Vegetable Smoothie

Into the blender :

• 250 mls Skim milk
• 100g frozen Banana
• Handful of Baby Spinach leaves
• 50g No Fat Greek Yoghurt
• 1 tsp Honey (7 grams)
• 20g Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
• 50g Mushrooms

I know that mushrooms in a smoothie sounds worse than disgusting, but I promise you, just like the spinach, you can't taste them.  All I could taste was the banana and honey.  I couldn't taste any vanilla from the protein powder, but I did only use half a serve.  Also, I don't think the milk made the smoothie any creamier, but I did find it a little more filling that the water base.  The frozen banana always does a great job of thickening up the mix and making it creamy.

I don't think I will buy the protein powder again, there are a lot of other cheaper ways to incorporate protein into the diet.  Who knows, there may even be a tofu smoothie round the corner? Maybe not?  We'll see!

Speaking of cheaper protein sources............

Egg & Cheese Muffin 

Multigrain English muffin with low-fat cheese wedge

1 dry-fried / no added fat egg 
(I used an egg ring to get the perfect muffin shape)

egg & cheese muffin with 1/2 an avocado

I am loving these little cheese and egg muffins.  They are so quick and easy to make and they taste delicious.  I love my avocado as well and when my son cracked one to have on his sandwich, I just had to have some.  I know they are fatty, but it's the good kind and as much as I would like to, I don't eat them everyday.

I recently stumbled upon a blog called Diary of a Nutritionist, which I am loving.  I also found a post called The Avocado - A Healthy Fat.  I am so glad that I found this avocado post cause it explains the health benefits of the avocado and makes me feel better about eating them.  Here's a sneak peek -

"Avocados are incredibly delicious, versatile and nutrient dense.

They are rich in potassium (higher than bananas)

High in Vitamin K- (allows your blood to clot normally, and helps to protect your bones)

Fairly high in the B-Complex Vitamins,

Contains Vitamin A, C, E, and,

Are rich in magnesium, iron, calcium and other trace minerals"

If you are having any concerns about the foods you are eating, I highly recommend you check out Diary of a Nutritionist, it is full of great information about all the foods we eat.

*Weigh-in*

Good weigh-in this morning with a loss of 1.1 kg (2.4 lbs).  I have found lately that I'm not really counting calories, but I am being consistent with everything I am doing.

Early morning workouts are slowly becoming habit / routine and I am really enjoying them and regretting when I don't do them - both good signs.  I am eating 4 - 6 smaller meals a day rather than 3 big ones and I am putting a lot more effort into my meals.  My meals aren't fancy with 1000's of ingredients, but I am really trying to focus on the ingredients - grainy breads instead of white, adding proteins where I can to keep me fuller longer and being really aware of portion sizes (Tweety Bird plate, I also have Winnie the Pooh).

I have sort of taken the weight loss out of it all and am just trying to be as healthy and active as I can be and it seems to be working.  I've lost more weight in the last few weeks than I did in all of last year.  I think I have finally found my winning formula :)

Share your winning formula.....

• What works best for you? 
• Do you eat 5 - 6 smaller meals?
• Would you ever try mushrooms in a smoothie?