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Avocado Smoothie with Coffee to Break Fast

Avocado smoothie is a powerful way to start your morning and to break a fast or start your breakfast.

You can mix with your coffee, literally where you have an avocado coffee smoothie.

This one is chillin’ and you can see it’s melting from its frozen state as a frozen treat.

An avocado smoothie with coffee and milk to start the breakfast.

Avocado smoothie is one of the healthiest smoothies you can drink.

It has antioxidant Vitamins C and E plus some B vitamins for skin, cells, and brain health as highlights.

🥑 Another avocado point: it’s high in glutathione antioxidant benefits that’s also raised with coffee in research studies.

And it can be two ingredients simple: avocado and milk.

Plus coffee… in a layered effect for a little change up in variety if you choose?

avocado smoothie with a coffee twist

And learning how to make organic cold brew coffee would be good for this cold drink that’s another healthy habit move.

Either avocado smoothie way, an avocado super fruit is one good healthy fat food to eat first thing because of its profile. 🥑

An avocado has fiber, protein and healthy fat that will help your muscles, and prevent blood sugar spikes that’s easier to do on an empty stomach before you’ve had your first meal.

And all that helps prevent weight gain from cravings.

It also helps our bodies and especially natural Kapha bodies in  healthy weight loss diets and goals.

And on those missions, you can add one more healthy step intention.

You can make your avocado smoothie more of a savory experience with a little vinegar, leaning into its veggie appearance. Yes, adding a little vinegar like in a salad but in your smoothie.

I recommend drinking this with the simple avocado smoothie only, but up to you or not if you add to your avocado coffee as a healthy smoothie enhancement.

Vinegar with acetic acid is a natural probiotic and can help balance gut, improve digestion, and lower bloating and gas.

As food as medicine goes, ACV can be your remedy for heartburn symptoms taken before or with your meals. No more popping pills.

A good way is to add a few ACV eye dropper drops full or a teaspoon of vinegar to your avocado smoothie that you’ll barely taste.

And one last easy step for your healthy balanced living is growing an avocado seed to a plant.

This way you keep all the avocado parts, in sustainability efforts.

The steps are easy to grow an avocado plant from a seed and help us practice patience.

An avocado plant from a seed adds life-giving greenery to a room in just weeks.

The plant can serve as a daily reminder that an avocado could be your healthy change today.

 

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Avocado Smoothie with Coffee

Avocado is one of the healthiest ways to break the fast in the morning. It's high in glutathione antioxidant that's raised with coffee in research studies.
Course beverage
Cuisine breakfast
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • ripe avocado
  • almond milk (or milk of choice)
  • coffee

Instructions

  • Blend the avocado and milk.
  • Pour into glass.
  • Refrigerate for a few minutes.
  • Add coffee of choice to make the second layer.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie + Avocado and Coffee

Peanut butter banana smoothie is one good balanced pairing drink. It’s especially good for Vata balancing as both are sweet ingredients.

peanut butter banana smoothie with coffee and avocado.

When you want to kick it up a balancing notch, then add a few more healthy and taste enhancing ingredients.

This one has added avocado and coffee.

Add in an avocado for more balancing power (good for Vata, Pitta and Kaphas) along with coffee for Kapha tired sides.

Vatas are the anxious and worried characteristics in us, plus  the indecisive, inconsistent, or jumpy sides.

We’re complex but our drinks and recipes don’t have to be. 😊

Coffee in a smoothie is a great way to get your anti-inflammatory caffeine in.

Avocado adds healthy fat. When the avocado is ripe, you can add to your smoothie as a fruit and green! 🥑 Either way, it’s a great plant-based way to start your breakfast  day.

The best nut butter to use are the all-natural ones that you stir up that are two ingredients. And nothing beats a ripe banana. Save your green bananas for a snack especially when you don’t want to spike your sugar.

You can keep them green by adding them as a bunch to your crisper drawer and leaving the plastic wrap at the stems. And to ripen quicker for a smoother, pull bananas apart and set out in room temperature. And the ‘ol brown bag works.

Best of all, you’ve primed your gut for proteins so you’re not hungry, help build muscle, and work toward your healthy weight goals.

So here’s the peanut butter banana coffee smoothie. Whatcha waiting for? 😋

peanut butter banana coffee smoothie.
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Peanut Butter Banana Coffee Smoothie

These 3 ingredients make a balanced breakfast smoothie.
Course beverage
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1 small to medium ripe banana
  • 1 tsp all natural peanut butter
  • coffee
  • 1/2 ripe avocado

Instructions

  • Blend ingredients and enjoy! This is such a refreshing and awakening beverage.
    Bananas are prebiotic and have fiber, and peanut butter is a good protein source. When you add coffee, you add anti-inflammatory polyphenol benefits. What's missing? An avocado healthy fat for your peanut butter protein and future protein meal to come.

Healthy Fat Foods List Over Myths

Healthy fat foods were once an oxymoron. I was working in hotel catering where we had plenty of decadent high fat dishes around.

Food life was easier back then…

All foods with fat were labelled bad back in those pre-extra virgin olive oil days (where these days olive oils aren’t virgins but we look for the label).

Foods were more black and white and good vs bad foods. That wasn’t the healthy nutrition facts and rainbow variety of foods we would evolve into. 🌈

I share the good, bad, and unusual in this article, plus a healthy fat foods list below.

You can make this frozen strawberry smoothie 🍓dreamsicle with ingredient steps below.

Starting with nuts… pre-milennium, nuts were often seen as healthy fat foods in people’s homes on display.

Shelled nuts were sitting on a tray with maybe de-shelled nuts cracked with a nut cracker sitting near by. Cracking nuts in front of a television was an old-fashioned past-time. Oh, that’s nuts! 😊

Then over the years, nuts became the controversial “bad” snacks to be avoided because of the high fat content. It didn’t matter what the fat was. It was and is the healthy kind. But back then, fat was fat.

And you are what you eat was the mantra that was taken literally.

Then the nutty tide gradually turned (thank you research!) yet again where today all nuts are celebrated and valued as one of the healthy fat foods and healthiest snacks available out there.

Nuts are accepted and recommended in a healthy eating regimen. They have high healthy fat and protein content all in the size of a shelled M&M that could be wrapped around a large peanut.

But joking aside, earlier last year I was feeling stuck with my body as I hit a plateau and I couldn’t get my muscle strength back the same way.

I couldn’t do the same strength yoga moves I’d been doing for a decade. As we age, we lose muscle that we can’t gain back. And that’s a fact for both men and women.

We see proof in former male body builders common in American culture who can’t create the same muscle despite their desire and habits to maintain the muscle they had.

And the same effect in an opposite extreme of a lightweight female (myself 😊) who couldn’t do the same.

…So I tweaked up my diet routines.

I started my morning with a little fat and protein along with fiber. This was after I had started a regular fasting habit that you can too. It’s not that hard. If I can do it, you can too!

And I learned one of the best foods to break the fast with is an avocado, that’s a food celebrity loved by most. It’s beloved and celebrated.

It’s also a mild tasting fruit that can taste like a veggie. From an avocado, I could transition into healthy proteins easily that meant a savory breakfast (vs. a sweet one I had to overcome).

A little fat in your system helps to absorb the foods that have fat-soluble vitamins (D,E,A, andK).

So avocado being a neutral food 🥑 is balancing for Ayurvedic Vata, Pitta, and Kapha bodies.

🎉 Btw, there’s a new search feature 🔎 on this blog site so you can easily look up Vata, Pitta, Kapha, and other healthy blog articles.

…And in my tweaks I also added a little healthy fat snack back. I’m guessing you know what that may be. Yup, good ‘ol nuts!

I hadn’t been eating whole nuts as snacks by themselves for years because I thought they made my skin break out due to nut oils, when I believe it was other Pitta reasons now.

It’s funny the myths we tell ourselves.

…Or we go off of one tell-tale experience we had one season.

Plus, with nuts I had to change my mindset from the previous years where nut and fats were deemed as bad. Those were my nut challenges.

And like me, you could ask yourself: what changing mindsets about and around foods would help you reach your goals?

We can constantly be growing our minds to better ways and new lifestyle habits.

And the fact is our bodies are constantly evolving and renewing daily, so you could start a new regimen by testing healthy foods again that you gave up on before or thought you shouldn’t eat because of past sensitivities or reasons.

It’s healthy for us to add as many as possible healthy rainbow foods and variety into our diet if we’re not allergic because each healthy food has a different profile and makeup, even coming from the same family.

In those ways, then you don’t have to worry about whether you are or aren’t getting enough of one nutrient, vitamin, or mineral.

Or wonder if the supplements you’re taking are absorbed or not. You’re covered either which way with the rainbow assortment of foods on your plate. 🍽️

And when I made the healthy changes I did, I noticed a good difference to my thin-frame Vata body where the muscle tone came back and I could attempt to make progress with the strength yoga moves.

Whether your goal is to gain muscle or lose weight, when you eat healthy fats they increase HDL that increases growth hormone which triggers more amino acids that are building blocks for proteins needed for muscle production.

Muscles over flab is fab! 😊

The distinction is healthy fat foods vs. unhealthy fat foods. I provide a helpful healthy variety list below that can be good reminders.

Walnuts is one on the good list for brain health. They’re easy to remember as they’re shaped like our brains.

They have the powerful ingredient that some healthy fats have: Omega 3.

Omega-3 foods are anti-inflammatory. Omega 3 is good because it’s healthy fat that lowers triglycerides  that’s known to be a risk factor for heart disease.

So here is the promised and promising healthy fat foods list (as part of a recipe for a good body and healthy lifestyle):

Avocado – the super food of healthy fats. It’s chameleon versatility is unparalleled to other plant foods. An avocado also has different names like  alligator pear or butter fruit.

You can see why with the leathery skin, pear shape, and silky center texture. It’s unusual and common that blends well with us peeps.

An avocado seed is also one of the easiest seeds to grow as a plant. Like us, they like room temperature without excess humidity.

Seeds – flaxseed, chia seed, sunflower seed, pumpkin,and hemp seed all have different properties so it’s good to mix them in.

Chia seeds are good toward weight loss goals and adding more calcium for stronger bones.

We often forget about sesame and poppy seeds. They look like cute decorations on foods but they are healthy fat foods that can be added to healthy foods like yogurts and salads.

They don’t just decorate a bagel. Transfer them to your healthy adds.

Natural Almond or Peanut Butters – It’s easy to tell if a nut butter is healthy. The fewer the ingredients on the jar, the better. And when you can stir the oil into the nut butter, even better for the better butter. 😊

Nuts – almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans are all good common snacking nuts.

Macadamia, Brazilian, cashews, and pine nuts are not as common, but have their own healthy profiles.

Eating a variety for your healthy needs is a good strategy. Each nut is different even though they are healthy fat foods and protein all-in-one. That’s why they’re nutrient-dense.

To salt or not? The unsalted nut versions are better for you because often the salted versions add too much salt. But you could buy a bag of salted and a bag of unsalted and mix the two to your body needs, tastes, and liking.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)– is the good olive oil. The best is usually more bitter.

Finding high-quality, medium-balanced, and a mild extra virgin olive oil for cooking or baking could be your balance.

If you’re going to bake cakes and breads, using an extra virgin olive oil for the monounsaturated fat is a healthy choice over poly or saturated fats.

You can generally tell by the color if it’s light and mild or dark and bold.

The oleic acid oil is one natural healthy profile in EVOO that’s also found in almonds. It’s good for satiating hunger that helps with weight loss.

It also adds Omega-9 food (not as common so you may not have heard of) that can be found in avocados and other foods too that’s good for good cholesterol and lowering bad cholesterol.

Good is good so don’t mess with good.

EVOO also helps reduce the body’s glycemic response reducing blood sugar levels to help protect against known chronic diseases such as diabetes that’s a growing health concern on the globe.

That’s one reason why EVOO is at the heart of Mediterranean diets, foods, and cooking that’s eaten all around the world and in the Mediterranean Diet.

I worked in Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants in America doing event planning and marketing. These restaurants served authentic dishes where they learned from their countries’ cuisines and cultural cooking techniques.

Olive oil was always at the heart of dishes. Some of my favorite dishes are: paella, watermelon salad, and risotto.

Not being around those types of foods but pining for their tastes, I was inspired from my experiences. I created my own home recipe versions posted in my recipe log that are weekly being added to.

And to keep the party going here and the healthy fat foods list growing… these are a few more healthy fats.

Healthy Dairy – I think this is the new food controversy because of the variety of processes. Also, there are so many vegan and allergy-friendly versions out there these days that taste great.

If you’re not allergic, there are so many benefits to healthy dairy such as protein, probiotic, and vitamins.

One dairy problem is in cheeses because there’s such a wide variety of cheeses to choose from in types and  processes. Some not so healthy.

And some healthy cheeses I worked with in catering party menus were shanklesh, manchego, burrata, halloumi, feta, and pecorino.

We usually knew the cheese sources, whether it was cow, sheep, goat, or buffalo. We just couldn’t point out which goat or sheep it came from.

But when you’re in a store looking at a sea of cheeses to choose from, it’s a guess at mystery cheese. The packaging won’t tell you much… other than thin slices in a package isn’t straight from a farm.

Pasteurized cheeses we identify with thin slices can often have stripped nutrients and other processes that offset the healthy fat profile.

In rural places like Sardinia with a large number of Centenarians, the goats eat wild grasses that have Omega 3 and antioxidants.

So when we don’t have those options or we simply don’t know, the answer again is variety. When you eat variety, you’re more covered. You can switch up your foods and your healthy cheeses.

For a natural Vata body, this is naturally easy because that’s the taste preference.

But if that’s not your natural way or you like what you like today and don’t want to switch, the better alternative is to add more of other foods to what you like. That way you make room and plant seeds.

And as you think about that, you can consider these other common cheeses:

Cottage cheese with reduced milkfat (and remember to read the sodium and sugar content).

Greek yogurt with reduced milkfat (like cottage cheese, read the labels). Sometimes “reduced” has higher sugar. And “no fat” is almost always a gimme for more sugar.

Eggs –  are a complete protein with essential amino acids. Vitamin A, D, choline and most the B vitamins. So that’s why often you can feel a burst of egg-energy especially if you were feeling low sugar or energy before.

If you grew up with the same nuts controversy I did, then you probably got the same downloaded message about eggs and their bad cholesterol.

This could be the mindset you want to overcome. Because with all the egg-cellent healthy benefits, you may find a new way to bring eggs back to your kitchen.

Look for pasture-raised eggs and Omega-3 eggs. Omega-3 eggs can also benefit insulin sensitivity over insulin resistance so that could tip you in eggs favor.

And since we’re talking protein and healthy fat foods, one of the healthiest swimming out there is wild salmon.

Salmon is a fatty fish and wild salmon is one healthy Omega-3 fat fish.
 
From working in Mediterranean restaurant kitchens, I learned some of the most wild caught fishes come from the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean in the northwest areas of America. 

Should you eat farm raised salmon? Personally, I wouldn’t on a regular basis for the same reason you wouldn’t order mystery food and put on a plate.

As alternatives or when not available, you can always switch up to another wild white fish as variety. Or bring home cans of smaller fish.

Anchovies are healthy fat foods.
Anchovies from a tin can make great meals like this pesto pizza for one.

Having that backup plan is always calming. In my pantry, I’m prepared with options. And that can be your plan!

As a home baker or cook, you can source practical foods like extra virgin olive oil.

…I also like coconut oil. For controversial oils, it’s a saturated fat but is good in another way as it has a much higher good HDL profile than other oils. It also has a low bad LDL compared to even extra virgin olive oil.

So in moderation, when my tastes change I add a ‘lil oil to my morning coffee and other edibles I can dream up ✨ like dreamy smoothies.

One you may enjoy is this strawberry tropical smoothie that has a little strawberry popsicle and orange dreamsicle blended in one 🍓And a little healthy fat add is up to you! 🎉

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Frozen Strawberry Smoothie Dreamsicle Sunrise

This is a reminder of childhood popsicles.
Course beverage
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 3 frozen strawberries.
  • almond milk (or milk of choice)
  • basil, mint, or cilantro.
  • orange juice
  • coconut oil (optional)

Instructions

  • Blend the ingredients. When you add the herby flavor, it gives a third dimension. Mint will be mildest, basil is middle of the road, and cilantro will the the most pungent. Save Money Tip: you can freeze your fresh organic strawberries when they are in season.
  • Pour about 3/4 full, leaving a little room for the orange dreamsicle layer.
  • Mix orange juice and milk about half and half.
  • After frozen, pour the orange layer on top.
  • Freeze again or add crushed ice to the top layer
  • Enjoy!

Blueberry Smoothie Cheesecake Dessert

Blueberry smoothie mornings start your day right with a brightening healthy boost. They can also make a great afternoon dessert with low or no added sugar other than natural fruit.

A dessert blueberry smoothie is super easy to put together in minutes. No baking needed and cool enough for hot temperature days.

blueberry smoothie with cheesecake flavors for a dessert smoothie.

And smoothie ingredients in this blueberry cheesecake one are simple and healthy. 🫐 So often we want something sweet in the day.

And instead of going for a high calorie and refined sugar shake or food dessert bite, a blueberry cheesecake smoothie could be the fix for our sweet tooth.

The sugar source is all-natural fruit.

The healthy notes:

Blueberries that have AA goodness in Anthocyanin Antioxidants.

And another great point with blueberries is there is no traces of fruit leftover. So you can enjoy the fruit and not have to think about disposing  a seed or core, or recycling a can.

Blueberries are a super smart food choice for more reasons than one!

And this blueberry treat is combined with cottage cheese that gives a balanced cheese “cake” taste. Plus, you’re getting protein, B-vitamins (B-6, B-9, and b-12), calcium, and more.

Blending in a ripe peach 🍑 is the perfect pair (not pear 🍐).

Peaches have lycopene antioxidants like tomatoes. And for a tad more sweetness and Vitamin C, pineapple juice will do the trick.

Hope you give the blueberry smoothie  a try and instead of being loaded down, enjoy the healthy energy. ✨

And if your body craves more sugar, adding a little maple syrup sweetness is a good balance to tip this over to the happy dessert edge you deserve while staying cool to your body.

You could also pair this with a cooling blueberry cheesecake and other cool summer dessert recipes. For more antioxidant and healthy foods to add to your grocery list 🛒, check out these 200 anti-inflammatory foods.

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Blueberry Cheesecake Smoothie

This tastes like a light blueberry cheesecake that you can enjoy with your breakfast.
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

  • blender

Ingredients

  • ½ cup frozen blueberries
  • ½ cup cottage cheese (no need to drain)
  • 1/2 cup milk of choice
  • 1 Tbsp pineapple juice
  • ½ peach, diced

Instructions

  • Blend ingredients and enjoy! Optional: zhugh with your peach. Alternatively, you could use oranges or orange slice.

Orange Juice vs. Mango Juice Alternatives

Orange juice vs. mango juice is hard to tell the difference when squeezed. But easy to tell when tasted. Mango is also much thicker.

Orange juice vs. mango juice. Which is this?
This is fresh mango juice. 🥭

And today orange juice is making waves and not much juice. The OJ shelves are not full like they’ve always been. There are always grocery food item shortages, but this one was a shocker!

Or is it?

That’s up for debate.

And that doesn’t change the grocery shelves.

With orange juice on the tight squeeze, a refreshing juice alternative option that’s affordable is mango juice that you can easily squeeze at home.

The NEW debate can be orange juice vs. mango juice.

This is not orange juice, it's affordable fresh mango juice.
Both these are mango juice and not orange juice.

Yes, FRESH mango juice in seconds.

Mango has the same color as orange juice in a glass and looks like orange juice with extra extra pulp.

But this is such a refreshing and sweet beverage.

You may never go back! 🧡

It’s also easy to tell when a mango fruit is ripe. Because it’s soft when ripe. And when unripe, hard like a softball (…btw, why do they call them softballs?). ⚾️

Anyway, when the mango turns soft to the touch where you can push your fingers into the mango, then it’s SWEET and ready for your eating OR DRINKING enjoyment!

Don’t worry, mangoes aren’t bruise sensitive like apples.

The tricky part is getting around the slippery fruit after the skin is peeled off.

There is always an irregular shaped flat seed in the middle. You’re best off to use a butter knife just in case the mango slips away from you.

Cut off small chunks and slivers and add to your blender or Magic Bullet that I use.

And then as you get closer to the seed, you can leave the fruit alone and enjoy for yourself like corn on the cob before it slips away from you! 😋

And if that doesn’t appeal to you, how about squeezing your own ORANGE + JUICE. I think it tastes so much better and without added sugar.

There’s nothing that screams luxury breakfast more than freshly squeezed juice.

When’s the last time you saw that on the menu?

So, lesson learned: a fruit juice shortage is an opportunity to seek abundance and make your own fruit juices like juice from oranges.

Or mangoes that are healthy fruits with Vitamins A, C, K, beta-carotene and minerals to name a few nutrients.

Whether it’s orange juice vs. mango, both are great! And maybe you get used to no-added sugar as  a bonus. 🎉