I know it's a common thing for many people to have smoothies for breakfast or a plate of fresh fruit. For us it has been rare.
Working evenings in a restaurant means staying up late and getting up late. Then we just quickly grab some leftovers from the fridge which is usually something we had for dinner the late night before. I have never been someone who consumes typical breakfast items. I often have pasta or stir fry or a big salad.
On our last days off, I was at a different grocer than usual. This guy has the best fruits in the neighbourhood. Fruits here are mostly all imported. Even things that grow here are usually imported all year round. They're always picked too soon and don't have a depth of flavor. I usually buy frozen fruits with the intention of making smoothies but don't really do it that often.
I really have been wanting to add some freshness to my diet before winter is at it's peak. For those of you who have never been outside of the tropics, I can assure you that it gets very cold. The cold makes most people gravitate to dense comforting food. I am that way.
We make a vow to start our day with either smoothies or fruit and since then I feel much more fortified.
When we got up one day we had only smoothies. I love green smoothies the best and always add a spoon of wheat grass. I swear by it.
My green smoothie included:
Organic baby spinach, frozen banana, apple, wheat grass, and plant milk.
This is perfectly sweetened by the bananas and apples. You won't be offended by the wheat grass taste. I have come to really like it. Perhaps it's the energy it gives me after I consume it.
It was our days off so there was no hurry to eat before work. We decided to keep things liquid for most of the day.
Next up were the total fruit smoothies which to me are like desert for breakfast. We had frozen blackberry, frozen banana and fresh blueberries with plant milk. We also had mango, banana with a squeeze of lime and coconut water to take a little trip to the tropics.
This was a pretty fun and colourful way to start the day. I didn't feel like going back to bed for a change.
The next day we started our fresh fruit routine. We had our daily green smoothie before. The green one is my favourite.
I normally don't like imported pineapples because of their lack of sweetness and they're not always juicy. At this particular grocer I saw pineapples that looks ripe and they actually smelled really good. I was really thrilled with the sweetness. It was perfect.
I took a chance with a honey melon. The last one I got from another store was a complete bust. It tasted like water with a slight sweet flavor. This one that I got was absolutely sweet like honey. It really lived up to it's name. I will go and get a few next time now that I know the grocer has such good ones.
I don't often buy ripe papaya because they usually also don't have enough flavor. I saw the biggest and ripest looking papaya and took it home. I have to admit that it wasn't as good as I had hoped. It's okay because I chopped it up and added the other fruits to it.
I saw some golden kiwis that I've never tried before so I bought a few. Usually kiwis that we get are far too sour and not juicy. It's always a gamble. It must be amazing to have a kiwi tree with fresh ripe ones.
This was such a wonderful surprise. The golden kiwis tasted like sweet gold. I was so impressed with how juicy and sweet they were. I never looked at the prices of these fruits but they were totally worth anything I paid.
I am someone who loves to squeeze lime on a fruit salad. Most Northerners don't do this but after spending time in Mexico, I learned that fruit is just better with lime. Also chili is a fun thing to put on but I held back this time.
We are going to try to stick to this routine as long as we can. It seems the produce coming in, is getting thin at times. Certain things are not always available. In the meantime I will splurge on what I can get to stay fortified for as long as possible.
The winter has begun and we've had snow already. We so far have not turned on the heat in our apartment, trying to save on the electricity bill. So far we are okay, with the help of sweaters, extra blankets and warm slippers. It's a challenge for us to see how much we can stand. So far we got through -6 Celcius. Perhaps the raw breakfast start to the day is helping the blood flow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
