I’m not always a huge smoothie fan. I’ll get onto a smoothie kick every once and a while and they’ll be a great snack or a healthier breakfast-on-the-run option. But, generally, I can pass up smoothies without regret.
One of the definite downsides of smoothies is that all those delicious fruits and vegetables that are zero points suddenly have lots of points. The “smoothie rule” is that if it’s blended or pureed, you must count ALL the points. It’s easy to eat considerably more of something in liquid form than in solid form. That means that all those delicious fruits that I use to sweeten my smoothie suddenly have a pretty solid impact on my daily point allowance.
The other downside of smoothies for me, and maybe it’s just me, but I have trouble keeping the volume of my smoothies down to a reasonable side. I really have to be careful not to get too carried away or I end up with a whole blender full of smoothie that I end up spending the rest of the week eating.
All that being said, sometimes it’s nice to have a smoothie. Some mornings I don’t have time to make a big breakfast, but I have time to toss together a smoothie. If I know that I’ve got several of those mornings coming up, I can always put together smoothie packs and keep them frozen. I just portion out enough into each bag for one smoothie, then take it out of the freezer, add my liquid and blend.
This Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie was a particularly good one. I liked adding the oatmeal to my smoothie. Oatmeal is not only heart healthy, but it’s a great source of fiber. Fiber is essential when you’re watching what you’re eating, well, actually, it’s always essential. But, when you’re making healthy food choices, fiber helps to fill you up and helps to keep you feeling full longer without consuming more calories.
That means that it’s important to have plenty of fiber in every meal and every snack.
Almond milk is a great way to add liquid to smoothies, but it’s pretty high in fat, which just further increases the points in my smoothie. I kept the points from the liquid low by using skim milk. That kept the protein and calcium high but kept the fat low.
I added a little vanilla to the smoothie for the same reason it’s added to chocolate chip cookies. A little vanilla just helps to blend the flavors together and create a lovely, rich strawberry flavor. I also added a banana, since I had a ripe one that needed to be used up.
Lots of colds have been going around recently, so I mixed in some Emergen-C to the second half of my smoothie. I loved the little bit of fizz that it gave my smoothie. I tried getting the same result with a little club soda and really liked it. The carbonation added a little lightness to the smoothie, but didn’t add extra points since it didn’t have any flavoring or sweetener.
As an added bonus, I could add a little club soda and have enough smoothie to help me feel full and satisfied as a snack, but I didn’t have to drink so many points.
I really enjoyed my quick and easy snack of Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie. It’s a healthy snack and a great way to use up fruit before it goes back. Adding a little club soda made it different and lighter, just be sure not to shake it after you add it, or you’ll end up getting some extra exercise cleaning it up!
Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- 1 packet instant oatmeal - (unsweetened, unflavored)
- 1 ½ cups skim milk
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1 medium banana
- 2 tbsp protein powder - (30 grams protein per tbsp, unsweetened)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving.
4 Comments
I really enjoy smoothies. With warm weather coming and strawberry picking here in Maine I thought I would try this great combination to try something new. I probably will have it for breakfast .
Hello… I input this into the Weight Watchers app in “Create Recipe” and it is actually 12 points. When you blend fruit they are not zero points. When building the recipe in the App you click “edit details” after you have all the ingredients entered and select “yes” for the question “is this a drink.” That corrects the points values for the fruit. Darn!
When I put it into mine, it said 4 points. 3 points if I didn’t mark as a drink. Make sure you put 4 servings in instead of 1
I love oatmeal in my smoothies. I’ve found that running the oatmeal through the blender/food processor to turn it into a powder or letting it bloom overnight in the milk works well to make it blend more seamlessly into the smoothie.