Melodelicious: Banana Blueberry Smoothie

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Banana Blueberry Smoothie

One of my favorite breakfast treats is a smoothie. This one was born out of a hurried morning, before rushing the kids off to school. I had made my youngest two breakfast smoothies, but couldn't drink any of it because of the strawberries and yogurt that is in it. So I came up with this one and it was delicious! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Banana Blueberry Smoothie

1/4 cup oatmeal
1/8 cup whole unbleached almonds
1/2 Tbsp. Flax Seed Meal
Sprinkle of Cinnamon
1/2 cup Lite Original Almond Milk
1/2 Tbsp. Raw Honey
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Frozen Blueberries
1 Frozen Banana, Peeled and Chunked
Handful of Ice Cubes

In a blender, add together the oatmeal, almonds, Flax Seed, and Cinnamon. Blend together on high until the mixture resembles a fine meal. If needed, turn the blender off, stir the mixture and blend again until you reach a desired texture. Once you have a fine mixture, add in the remaining ingredients EXCEPT for the Ice Cubes. On high, blend together or pulsate until all the ingredients have been well incorporated. Again, you may have to stop the blending process to stir the mixture before blending again, making sure to get your mixing spoon all the way to the bottom of the blender to stir in any oatmeal or almonds that have been left out. After all the ingredients have been mixed together well, feel free to add in ice cubes and blend again....it makes for a thicker smoothie. I like mine to be "milkshake" thick! Bon Appetit!

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About This Blog

Long story short, I have had eating and dietary issues since I was 12. I have run the gamete of eating disorders and addictions. About six years ago, I grew tired of the endless cycle I was in and cried out to God for self-control and help. He led me down a path that has brought healing and restoration into my life. And while I have done everything from strict obedience to rebellion, He is faithful and continues to bring me back to what He has called me to. Since that time, I have been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, MENS1 (Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Syndrome Type 1), that often can reek havoc on your digestive system. Interestingly enough, if I stick to the guidelines God had given to me previously, I find myself feeling well and not suffering as much from the side affects of MENS. (Funny how God works like that and prepares us for the journey ahead.) This blog is dedicated to that food journey and the recipes that come from it. It is a personal place for me to document what recipes work and to offer alternatives ideas for others who may also suffer from digestive issues. If you would like more details about my story and the freedom God has brought to me from eating disorders and food addictions, please feel free to contact me. I would love to share with you what God has done and is doing in my life. If you also suffer from any of these afflictions, I want you to know, there is hope and healing for you and I would be happy to talk to you, pray for you, and walk beside you as you also find freedom in your life.

How to Incorporate A Special Diet Into Your Family

First things first, I am not an expert on this nor a dietician. Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, I will attempt to address a very difficult piece of having a special diet that you need to abide by or that a family member needs to abide by. It is hard to incorporate a special diet into the life of a family. Difficult enough, that it has stopped me on more than one occasion and I have honestly just given up. However, I have found that in order to keep myself healthy, it is not something that can be ignored and must be dealt with. So the question is: how do you do this? There are several options. These are the few I have identified, however; for any given family I am sure there are more options as each family is different.

1. Create two meals and/or substitute food items. For instance, in my family; we love steak, potatoes, and corn. I can eat steak, but not potatoes or corn. I would prepare the steak, potatoes, and corn, as well as, a side salad and sweet potatoes for myself. The positive side to this approach is all of our food preferences and needs are covered. The negative side to this is it is time consuming for the cook in all areas from meal planning, shopping, and food preparation. It takes time.

2. Prepare one meal, catering to the need of the one with the special dietary needs. For instance, my family loves spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread, and corn. There is not much about this meal that I can eat without having issues later. However, I can make homemade marinara sauce and meatballs. I can replace the corn with salad and the pasta with brown rice pasta and not make any garlic bread. The positive side to this approach is it takes less planning, shopping, and preparation while still providing a healthy meal that I can eat as well as one my family can eat. The negative side to this, at least for my family, is if your family members have already developed a food palate they like, they may not welcome this change to their diets and will most likely vocalize that to the cook.

3. Sneak in substitutes and gradually switch the family over. For instance, I enjoy making a good beef and vegetable stew and it often will call for noodles. I make the soup as normal, except exchange out the regular elbow pasta with brown rice elbow pasta. Or, in the case of spaghetti, start by using 3/4 regular pasta noodles and 1/4 brown rice noodles mixing them together. Over time, lessen the amount of regular noodles and use more brown rice noodles until you have completely changed your spaghetti night to brown rice pasta. The positive side to this approach is gradual changes are harder to detect and easier to get used to. What they don't know won't hurt them ;) Over time, you have the ability of changing the diet of your whole family without a lot of complaining. The negative side is the one with the special dietary needs may suffer digestive issues during this time of changing everyone's diet and, no matter how hard you try, there are just some dishes that simply are difficult to change....like ice cream. I don't think I could convince my family, even over a long period of time, that frozen bananas, processed with almond milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in the food processor tastes as good as Hudsonville Ice Cream :)

Currently, I use approach number one and dabble with the other two. It depends on what I am making and how well I can hide ingredients. I find it very stressful to have children fuss about what is on the dinner table, so it is easier to eat my own food even though that takes more time on my part. In saying that though, I am finding, that two of my children are a bit more adventurous and want to try the things I make for myself. My son Colin, age 11, often likes what I make for myself. In this way, I am still training and switching them over to a different diet because they discover they like what I make for myself.

The most important thing is to find what works out best for you and your family. Whether it is one of these three approaches, a combination of them, or something totally different doesn't really matter as long as it works for you and/or the family member with special dietary needs.

Blessings to you,
Melody

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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Banana Blueberry Smoothie

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