Chiku Banana Oat Smoothie

Hello Dear Wonderful Readers!!

We love healthy breakfast’s at home. So I try my level best to bring out variations to our table every morning so that we are not bored of eating healthy everyday.  I have always known about the health benefits of oats, but it was only very recently that I decided to incorporate oats as a ‘first choice’ element in my everyday breakfast ideas. Since you are limited to just one grain, it is quite hard to achieve the goal of bringing about variations in breakfast as there is only so much you can do with just oats.

The goal, my dear friends, is to not use oil, sugar, processed cheese and sometimes omit dairy products all together. It’s a fallacy to believe that you need to drink cow’s milk in order to gain the required amount of calcium for your body. There are many other kinds of milk that can be easily made at home and yes it’s not as easy as buying milk from the store. Almond milk, soya milk, coconut milk, rice milk etc. The most largely used alternate to normal Cow’s milk is either Soya or Almond milk and the latter option is what  I have used in my smoothie today.

During winters, we love making Chikku/ Chikoo milkshake but I make sure the milk is at room temperature. Chikku is a wonderfully sweet fruit with various health benefits ranging from boosting your immunity to promoting weight loss and preventing anemia. It is really easy to know if they are ripe. Just press the skin of the fruit with a finger and if it is nice and soft, then it is ready to be consumed. Many people like to eat it with the skin on, but I prefer it without the skin simply cause it has a very “Mud” like texture. But the sweet soft pulp inside is a wonderful delight! Remember to remove the big black seeds from within before you add them in the blender.

Ingredients  :-

1. Instant Oats – 5 tbsp
2. Banana – 3 – 4 large (peeled, cut to coins and frozen)
3. Chikku – 5
4. Almond Milk – 2 cups
5. Vanilla Extract – 2 tbsp
6. Chocolate Sauce – just for the drizzle ( optional)
7. Almonds – for garnish ( optional)

Instructions :-

• Wash the chikku well and cut into two halves. Then spoon out the pulp from within. Press the pulp between your fingers to remove the seeds
• Once you have all the chikkus deseeded and pulp removed, add the pulp into a blender bowl
• Add the frozen bananas, oats and half the almond milk into the bowl and turn your blender on to low
• Slowly add rest of the almond milk into the running mixer followed by the vanilla extract. Blitz for 5 whole minutes
• Then pour into your smoothie mugs or glasses, drizzle a little chocolate over the top and garnish with almonds

 

Note :-

• I have not added sugar because the chikku and banana where sweet enough, but you may add sugar according to taste
• I used room temperature milk cause the banana was cold enough
• Increase or decrease the amount of almond milk depending on how thick/light you like your smoothie