Protein Smoothie & Portions

First up, breakfast!  After a good swim this morning I was ready for something cool when I got home and I don't think you can get much better than a protein packed fruit smoothie. 

Banana Honey Protein Smoothie

You will be happy to know that this morning's concoction did not contain mushrooms, but it did have cottage cheese - mmmmmm.

Into the blender :

• 250mls Almond Milk (organic)
• 50g No-Fat natural Greek yoghurt
• 40g Weight Watchers Cottage Cheese
• 20g Vanilla Protein Powder
• 7g (1 tsp) Honey
• 114g frozen Banana

The almond milk (first time I've had it) was nice and actually has less calories per cup (250mls) than the skim milk I usually drink - I think I may have just converted over.  I had a sip of the almond milk on it's own and guess what?  It tasted like almonds!  I couldn't taste the milk or cottage cheese in the smoothie at all.  The most prominent flavours were the banana and honey and this smoothie contained a whopping 23.7 grams of protein.  I should also add that it was very tasty!

*Laughing Cows*

I was asked by Pinky who writes It's All About Me what sort of spreadable cheese I used on my Egg & Cheese muffin and I really appreciate a picture of any product I am asking about so I thought I would do the same.

multigrain muffin with cheese wedge

light Laughing Cow spreadable cheese wedges

8 wedges per pack

The reasons I love these little wedges are :

• Portion size is already taken care of
• They are spreadable
• They are tasty
• Per wedge : 
• 26 calories
• 1.6 grams of fat
• 21 grams of protein

If you are anything like me when it comes to cheese these wedges are a lifesaver.  I don't have to buy a jar or tub of cream cheese spread that I can use in a matter of seconds.  These really aren't that expensive, I think they were $2.99 for the pack of 8 which I don't mind spending.  When I have these I tend to ration them out and only have one when I really want it whereas if I have the jar or tub I just eat it.  I don't know what it is, but the wedges make me behave myself and not become a pig around the cheese.

*Breakfast Bowl Portions*

I used to use this bowl ~

average sized adult bowl

Then I swapped to this bowl ~

average sized children's bowl

Then I discovered ~

adult & child bowl are virtually the same size

I now use this bowl ~

this child's bowl holds a 40g serve of cereal with milk and no over-flow

the 3 bowls sitting inside each other

Although I am using my kid's bowls for my breakfast / cereal bowl, the thing that really bothers me is that whenever we are giving our kids something to eat using these standard / average sized kid's bowls we are actually giving them an adult sized serve.  No wonder childhood obesity is at an all time high.  

Normally you wouldn't think twice about the actual quantity of food you can fit into that tiny pink bowl that fits in my palm and although it sits nicely in the cat bowl, it is deeper and holds the same amount of food as the adult sized bowl - that is 1 adult sized portion, which is perfect for me, but not for the kids! 

Tell me your portioning secrets..........

• How do you control your portions?
• Is it just me or do the bowl sizes bother you?
• Have you ever measured out your kids bowls to see the actual portion size?