Take a look at the ingredients in the photo above. You may notice the ingredients are different from other oatmeal raisin cookie recipes. That’s because it’s not a cookie; it’s a smoothie!
I never make New Year’s resolutions, but back in December, I started craving salads and smoothies. Salads in the winter? Ok, there are plenty of winter salads out there. A smoothie? That’s the thing that gets me; I don’t like smoothies.
The closest thing that comes close to a smoothie that I do love is an Orange Julius that you find at the mall. I’ve been in love with these since my teens and still get one every once in a while when we are at Crossgate Mall in Albany. An Orange Julius is like a frothy creamsicle. Yum!
I started looking through smoothie recipes. I have no interest in powdered smoothies or fruit drinks; if I am going to drink one, it will be made with natural, wholesome ingredients. I want to control the flavor and texture.
Replacing my regular on-the-go, quick breakfasts with smoothies isn’t dieting by any stretch of the word. It’s hard to think of what to make for us for breakfast every day before production.
It has to be filling enough to hold us over for hours, something a carby breakfast doesn’t do. A yogurt isn’t satisfying, and a banana with peanut butter gets redundant. Most importantly, it has to taste good.
I picked up a few ingredients to start making smoothies. I bought bags of frozen blueberries and tropical fruit. I got a bunch of bananas and spent way too much time in the milk section deciding what type of milk I wanted to use in our smoothies.
I don’t want to use yogurt in our smoothies since I don’t like the tang they leave. I want the smoothies to be creamy, which means using some kind of milk. I drink Lactaid milk since I am lactose intolerant, but I thought that would be a waste since Marty isn’t.
Many recipes I looked at used oat or cashew milk which are all lactose-free. Then I noticed coconut milk which had fewer calories than regular milk. Coconut milk seemed like natural milk found everywhere worldwide; meaning, how the fuck do you make milk out of oats?
On Monday morning, I made a blueberry and banana smoothie adding protein powder, a drop of vanilla extract, honey, and coconut milk to the fruit. It was meh at best. Shit, it’s the first day, and already it’s not what I was expecting.
I returned to the drawing board, started looking for different smoothie recipes, and struck gold! I found a recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookie smoothies! I read the ingredients, knowing I had what was needed. Of course, I tweaked the recipe because that’s me and my palate.
If you click on the recipe link above, you will notice the recipe contains cashew butter for more protein. I didn’t add it to our smoothies but added a teaspoon of maple syrup and kosher salt. Before adding the salt, I tasted the drink and thought it was ok, but it didn’t taste like a cookie. After adding a pinch of salt, voila! A cookie in a glass! I loved it!
The other thing I loved was the texture. I blended it well with the blender, but it left small pieces of oats and raisins, which was fantastic in adding texture. I put bubble tea straws in our smoothies to make them easy to drink. It was so damn tasty! Lol.
While making spätzle batter, I started thinking about other smoothies I could make, like the oatmeal raisin one. I have a bunch in mind and will start putting together ideas. Blueberry “pie” is already on the list. 🫐 🥧