Breakfast in a Blender

Cold boxed cereal is my nemisis. I hate the stuff. I don't eat it, but my family does.

It's expensive.

Everyone is hungry again an hour after eating it.

If it's healthy they won't touch it.

If it's "kid-friendly" then it's full of sugar.

We still have it a one or two days a week when mornings are too hectic for me to cook something, but I'm slowly trying to find fast breakfast ideas so I can eliminate the cereal from our pantry all together.

This idea comes courtesy of my younger sister.....no, that's not her. That's my oldest son, bed-head and all, drinking his breakfast.

I had some leftover tofu from the Asian Salad I made last week that I didn't quite know what to do with yet. Tofu Breakfast Shakes to the rescue! I don't use recipes for smoothies. They're usually just thrown together with whatever I have on hand. I'll use frozen berries, fresh fruit, juice, yogurt, milk, ice.....and now tofu. My one secret ingredient that I add to almost all my smoothies is spinach. You can't taste it, your kids can't taste it....so why not get a green leafy vegetable into their diet when you can? With a darker smoothie, such as this one, you can't even see it, but when it's a lighter smoothie, such as something made with banana it does turn the smoothie green. When my kids were younger I used to tell them they were Shrek Smoothies.....well, that was pretty cool so they drank them right up. Now, they're so used to me throwing that handful of spinach in it's not something that even fazes them anymore.

The whole chocolate for breakfast thing went over so well last week I was orignially going to do a Chocolate Banana Smoothie, but alas, we were out of bananas. I happened to have frozen raspberries in my freezer though and it ended up tasting like a chocolate raspberry truffle...mmmm!

Tofu Smoothie

tofu (however much you want to throw in there, if you have silken tofu that works best, but I used firm with it and it still turned out just fine)

milk

2-3 Tb cocoa powder

frozen berries (or banana.....whatever you have on hand)

a handful of spinach

honey (to taste, I always start with just a little bit and add as needed, you'll be surprised how much sweetness you can get with just fruit)

Throw the tofu in the blender and keep adding milk until it's the consistancy you want. Add the other ingredients and blend :-) If you'd like especially thick and frosty add some ice.

This is great because the tofu packs an extra protein punch to keep them feeling full. This would be a fabulous and fast after school snack as well.