What's in my Smoothie?

It's been a while since I posted about what's in my smoothie & some of it has changed over the course of time. A couple of my Facebook friends also asked me about it, so here's an update.

First, the reason I have been religious about having a smoothie every morning is because I tend to forget to eat. I get involved in other things and just plum forget. Crazy, I know, but it's true. And when one is on a restrictive diet (low-carb in my case), low blood sugar can be a problem if a meal is skipped, plus hunger makes junk food look more appealing, even if only because it's "easy". So, knowing that I needed something simple to make and simple to eat, I chose to always start my day with a smoothie. 

Another note: I'll be talking about the effective carb count in this post, but I want to say that I really don't think about it much in real life. I also don't care about calories or fat grams or anything else. I do read the labels when choosing ingredients and try to balance nutritional content with lower effective carbs. There are other protein powders with lower effective carb counts I could use, but their nutritional profiles aren't as good as the ones I have chosen to actually use. Nutrition is more important than carb count. Full stop. (I'll talk more about that in a future post.)

Now, onto the smoothies!

I have a Ninja Kitchen System blender thingy from CostCo. It comes with 3 smoothie cups, which is what I use to make my morning smoothies. They come with travel lids, but the lids don't close, so I ordered some others that do close, so on those mornings when I don't have time to drink my smoothie at home, I can take it with me. 👍

Anyway, I start by putting 5 or so ice cubes into the cup. It's enough to make a nice shake-like texture, but still leave enough room in the cup for the rest of the stuff I put in. 

Then I add 1/4 cup of hydrated chia & flax seeds. I make up a whole jar of these when the previous jar is empty. I just put 1 Tbsp of chia seeds and 1 Tbsp of flax seeds into a jar, fill it with water, then stick it in the fridge. It's ready to use by the next morning. Here's a great article about the benefits of chia seeds. I use them mainly because it's good fiber and helps to add "structure" to the smoothie.

This jar is almost empty!

Next up is a 1/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt. I use CostCo's Kirkland brand because it's inexpensive and a large tub, which reduces waste. I know it'd reduce waste even more if I made my own yogurt, but I'm not sure it would be less expensive, and that's really the Calculus of Life I need to use right now. The yogurt is fairly high in carbs - 12 g of effective carb (Total Carb minus Dietary Fiber) per 1 cup serving - but since I only use 1/4 cup, it's really only 3 g added to the smoothie. And since it's full of live and active lactobacillus cultures (which is good for the gut), plus high in protein, it's worth it.

I often add a 1/4 cup of fermented strawberries. Fermenting them increases their probiotic content (which is good for the gut) and reduces their sugar content (which reduces their carb count). I started out by using this recipe for fermenting berries but I've stopped adding salt or honey to it. The berries have enough natural sugar in them to feed the fermenting bacteria, so I don't need to add any more. I also just use a Tablespoon of finished water kefir (see below) to get the culture started, rather than a specialty culture starter. I prefer to use fresh strawberries, but have also made it with frozen berries and it was fine.

One time I made fermented figs and apple instead of strawberries and that was also good in the smoothie. I also made some fermented watermelon, but I thought the finished flavor didn't mesh well with the yogurt, so I haven't used them for that. 

NOTE: When I travel, I can't bring all those wet items with me, so I just use my powders in a shaker cup with water. I also take probiotic supplement pills when I travel, because I don't get the probiotics from the yogurt, fermented berries, or water kefir (see below).

So what are "my powders"? There are several because they each have different nutritional benefits. In no particular order:

LivFit Superfood Blend, made of lots of good plant protein. It's 4g of effective carb per 2 Tbsp. I use a 9 cc scoop for it, which is about 2 teaspoons, which is less than 2 Tbsp (3 teaspoons = 1 Tbsp, so 2 Tbsp = 6 teaspoons, so 2 teaspoons is 1/3 of an official serving), so the actual carb count for me is 4/3 or 1.33 g.

look at all those awesome veggies!

lots of vitamins!

I'm almost out of it, though, so when it's all done, I will switch to another plant-based protein powder  -- Vega essentials -- that I bought when I was out of my primary protein powder (see below) a couple of months ago. It's actually got 0 g effective carbs and a good nutritional profile. I'll continue to use just the 9 cc (2 teaspoon) scoop, rather than the scoop that comes with it because this is not my primary protein powder.

lots of good vitamins

Optifiber, which is CostCo's Kirkland brand of Benefiber. It's only 1 g of effective carbs per scoop and adds good fiber to the smoothie. On those days when I mess up my chia schedule and don't have any finished chia & flax seeds, I use 2 scoops of this instead of one.

Next is Hershey's unsweetened Cocoa powder! This is purely for flavor. :-) I've tried using chocolate-flavored protein powders, but the flavor leaves something to be desired, so I just use regular cocoa. An official serving is 1 Tablespoon, which has 1 g of effective carbs, but I only use 1/2 a teaspoon, so the actual carb count for me is 1/6 g. Almost nothing! 

I added a Hemp protein powder a few months ago. Sometimes when one eats high protein in a short period of time, nausea can result. That was happening to me, but I haven't had any nausea since adding the Hemp powder. A serving size is 4 Tablespoons, with only 1 g of effective carb but I use just 1 teaspoon. 

MCT Oil Powder. MCT stands for Medium-Chain Triglycerides, and they are used for weight loss for a variety of reasons. Here's an article about them, scroll down to the bit about "MCT Oil May Help With Weight Loss in Several Ways". This brand comes with a 50 cc scoop, which is the official "serving size", but I just use a 9 cc scoop. Either way, it's got 0 g of effective carbs.

And finally is my primary protein powder: AdvantEDGE pure milk protein powder. As I said above, there are other protein powders that are lower carb and higher protein, but this one has a good nutritional profile -- those others are seriously lacking in vitamins! I use the full-size scoop that comes with the product, and prefer the Creamy Vanilla flavor. (Note: They've recently changed the packaging on this brand to a tall cylinder, but it's still the same stuff.)

That's it for the powders. At this point, I have to add more liquid to the "Fill Line" on the cup so that the smoothie is actually smooth! ;-) I prefer to use water kefir that I make myself.

What is water kefir? It's made with "kefir grains" which are really a kind of SCOBY - which stands for Symbiotic Community Of Bacteria and Yeast. Here's an article with more information about what water kefir is and why it's beneficial. I use regular white cane sugar and brown sugar to feed the grains. I also let it ferment for longer than 48 hours because I want to make sure it's had time to eat all the sugar! I also DON'T try to keep all the carbonation in to make a fizzy drink, or add flavor to it. I simply don't care about that. I only use the finished water kefir for my smoothies and as a fermentation starter for other ferments (like sauerkraut and other veggies).

When I don't have any water kefir ready, I just use regular water. 

So that's it for my morning smoothie. It keeps me full for several hours and it's yummy! I think it's a major factor in my success so far and would recommend a well-balanced smoothie to anyone thinking of doing a low carb, high fiber, high protein diet. 👍