Dairy Free Breakfast Smoothie

Having made the connection between permanently having a large amount of mucus at the back of my throat and eating dairy I have been looking for new ideas to avoid diary in my foods. Although I drank huge quantities of milk as a child (only starting to drink both tea and coffee in my late teens), as an adult I completely stopped drinking milk to the extent that I really dislike the smell of milky coffee or tea. Oddly; and sadly for my waistline, my adult aversion to milk has not extended as far as cheese until last weekend where I had a plate of cheese after supper and really did not want to eat any of it.

I need to be careful to what I eat at breakfast as I tend to have wildly fluctuating blood sugar levels and there are only a few things that I can eat where I am not starving hungry by 11am, leaving me both grumpy and ready for lunch. This smoothie seems to do the trick, the addition of oats not only lowers the Glycaemic Index but makes the smoothie thick and creamy, I am also getting 2 portions of fruit in my breakfast, setting me well on my way to my five-a-day. This makes quite a large smoothie, around ¾ of a pint, enough to make it a complete breakfast meal to keep hunger pangs at bay until lunch.

Diary Free Smoothie – Serves one for breakfast or 2 to accompany breakfast

20g / ¾oz oats
1 banana - chilled
300ml / ½pt soy milk (I use homemade with no additives – but use your preferred brand)
Handful mixed berries – chilled or frozen

Pour the oats into a container and cover with the soy milk and leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning peel and add the banana and berries and whizz with a stick blender adding more soy milk if needed.

I make mine in a Lock and Lock container (my latest kitchen discovery as whatever you do to them with normal use, they will not leak) first thing in the morning and take it to work. Frozen berries whizz easily with my stick blender and mean that my smoothie is still chilled even after an hour’s commute in the summer.

Variations
Soak dried prunes, figs or dates with the oats, these are delicious but can give your smoothie a slightly unappetising brown tinge!