Lately, I've been waking up without much of an appetite ... but a girl's still gotta eat, especially breakfast (the most important meal of the day). The solution is, obviously, a breakfast smoothie.

You really can't go wrong with these ... and it's so much fun to experiment with the ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboard. A dollop of yogurt, a splash of milk, some fresh fruit, a spoonful of honey, a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of old-fashioned oats and you've got a filling and relatively nutritious breakfast or snack!  I absolutely love this as a light breakfast, because you can fool yourself into thinking you're having a milkshake ... and also because you can control the portion size depending on the size of your appetite in the morning, or what you have lying around.

I've read quite a bit about smoothie making, and green smoothies have been pretty big. Everyone and their mother seems to be throwing raw spinach and kale in with their fresh fruits to make their smoothies "green." I've even read about adding an avocado to the mix. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I'm looking forward to it, especially as the weather begins to warm up. Spinach is pretty much flavorless, so it won't interfere with the other flavors. The key to these smoothies is to NOT take a shortcut and make it the night before if you're using fresh ingredients, because all of the good things in fresh fruits and veggies (the vitamins, etc.) break down as time passes. You want to have your smoothie as soon after making it as you can.

Here are some of the combinations I've tried so far ...