Chocolate for breakfast? Yes please! This super easy and healthy breakfast smoothie is bound to satisfy your sweet chocolate-y cravings. With absolutely no added sugar (yes, even the fake ‘healthy’ sugars like honey or brown sugar), this is a real winner providing a whole lot of good nutrition with 3 out of 5 main food groups included. With simple ingredients of banana, oatmeal, cocoa powder, low fat milk and low fat greek yogurt, you would feel highly satiated due to the thick texture in addition to high fibre and protein content.

Rushing for work or school in the morning? It takes just a few minutes to throw in all the healthy ingredients in the blender and finish up the meal quickly. I am a huge advocate for oatmeal at breakfast since it is the most likely time you would consume it and it provides beta glucan (a type of soluble fibre) that has been proven to lower bad LDL cholesterol. As dairy foods are typically a significant source of saturated fat, it’s best to opt for reduced fat or non fat dairy products to cut back on our overall saturated fat intake in a day.

There’s no better excuse for having chocolate flavouring using natural, plain cocoa powder since it’s surprisingly high in fibre. For a small 1 tbsp amount, there is 2g of dietary fibre! This is very impressive indeed. Cocoa also contains high amounts of antioxidants known as flavonoids which may provide protective health benefits for our heart. Chocolate seems to pair very well with banana in terms of flavour, perhaps it is due to the creamy texture of banana and natural sweetness it provides. 1 standard serve of banana provides 11% of our daily vitamin C needs, 33% of vitamin B6 and 9% of potassium, amongst other health benefits.

Indulgent Chocolate Banana Breakfast Smoothie

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Serves: 1                  Time: <5 mins

Ingredients:

• 3 heaped tablespoon (roughly 75g) plain, unsweetened low-fat or non-fat greek yogurt
• Half cup plain low-fat or non-fat milk
• 3 tablespoon rolled oats
• 1 small sized banana
• 1 tablespoon plain, unsweetened cocoa powder

Preparation:

NONE! Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend till smooth and creamy.

 

Nutritional Facts:

Per serving: 275  calories; 2.5g fat; 40g carbohydrates; 12g protein

Carbohydrate Servings: 2.5