An adventurous start to the morning

I'll admit, the recipe for day three of a week of kale requires a bit of an adventurous spirit. In the morning, the last thing most people want to do is (1) take time assembling breakfast and (2) experimenting.

However, give a kale smoothie a try.

Both preparing breakfast and taking a small risk will start your day off with a positive note. First of all, the preparation is worth the effort, and I have personal proof to back this up.

John and I used to eat cereal for breakfast before clean eating week began. Cereal never kept us full until lunch. And not only is eating 2 bowls of cereal (so we're actually full) too carb-rich that you feel sleepy an hour after breakfast, but it also depletes the cereal supply rather fast (and cereal can get expensive!).

So, clean eating breakfasts began and have been such an improvement to our breakfast routine. John now rotates between some combination of scrambled eggs, an English muffin or toast, yogurt, and/or a smoothie. (No more chocolate and whipped cream covered waffles like in college!) And me? I stick to either a smoothie with an English muffin, a bowl of fruit and yogurt with an English muffin, or oatmeal with peanut butter and fruit. The result? No grumbling bellies during our pre-lunch meetings.

So today's recipe is inspired by our love of smoothies. And here's where the adventure comes into play. I've already touted the amazingness of kale, so why not start your day with all of these vitamins? If you'd prefer to keep green to environmental efforts rather than smoothies, I understand. But this smoothie, though "green," is so creamy you'd never know it had kale in it.

Avocado Smoothie
Blend together:
3/4 cup cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup kale (torn into pieces and stems removed)
1/2 frozen avocado
1/2 frozen banana
1 Tbsp. flaxseed
1 scoop vanilla protein powder

And as a side note,  if you're excuse is being too rushed in the morning to make a smoothie, then you need a Magic Bullet. We love ours and can't imagine smoothie-making without it. Cleanup is so easy (only the blade needs washing), and it allows us to customize our smoothies (i.e. I use almond milk) since  each personal cup attaches to the blade. And to really speed the process up, get the ingredients assembled in the cup the night before and stick it in the fridge. Simply add the frozen fruit and blend in the morning. Plus, you can take a smoothie to go!