Orange Smoothie

Last night I stopped to buy a birthday card and, because my other hand was empty, I also picked up a box of tender and lemony madeline cookies. I sneaked a few for breakfast this morning and my coffee was all the better for it. Most days my breakfast choices are more appropriate like this orange smoothie I’m sharing today, but cookies for breakfast? They make for a lovely Thursday morning treat.

We can always have a smoothie to make up for it.

Good Morning, Sunshine

It wasn’t always this way with me, this whole breakfast thing. For years, unless it was a lazy weekend breakfast/brunch served up late morning, breakfast was a meal I skipped over. Hitting the snooze button ten times in a fit of morning rage leaves little time to make oneself presentable, let alone enough time to fit in a few bites to break the overnight fast.

So it’s an understatement to say I was not a morning person and preferred to stay tucked in bed with the shades closed until pressing commitments forced me from my warm cocoon. If I had to get up at some ungodly hour, like 7 am, I was incapable of speaking to anyone until the first cup of coffee hit my insides and worked its perky magic. After coffee I tolerated morning small talk and by tolerate, I mean I grudgingly engaged with one word sentences and no eye contact.

And then my worst morning nightmare showed up in the form of a 10-pound ball of fur. He was cheerful and ready to tackle the day at 5:30 am every day.

Morning Monster circa 2015

I did all the puppy preparation things, but I didn’t do any “get up early” practice like I did as a kid during the last lazy days of summer before the school year started. So it was a tough transition when Feynman arrived. Those first months were like someone pulled hard on the shades allowing a flood of blinding light into my room that left me squinting and disoriented.

But somewhere between those groggy first months and now I’ve become a morning person. I like the early quiet when my head is clear and the pressures of the day have yet to present themselves. I don’t even need an alarm clock thanks to Feynman’s quiet, low throated “woofs” that say, in the gentlest of ways, “Hey, lady, it’s time to get up.”

And so we do and it’s hard not to smile at his early morning eagerness. His wagging tail says it all: it’s a new day and I get to do all the fun things! And, because I’m a morning person now, I make eye contact with him and say yes, we get to do all the fun things.

(Yes, I talk to my dog.)

Although, I should mention his eagerness is short-lived. Most mornings, about an hour after waking up to meet the day, he curls up like a cat on the couch for a post-breakfast snooze. It’s a good thing I’m a morning person now otherwise I would totally resent it. I don’t.

I really don’t.

Orange Smoothie

The other morning, during Feynman’s first nap of the day, I whizzed up a frothy, sweet smoothie that reminded me of the orange push-up pops I loved so much as a kid. Delivered by the neighborhood ice cream man, the creamy orange ice cream melted faster than I could slurp leaving my hands sticky sweet and most of my summer wardrobe stained with orange. And this smoothie is sort of like that except you make it yourself, drink it from a glass, and enjoy it for breakfast.

It’s a simple concoction requiring only five ingredients from the store, plus some ice. There’s no new-age add ins, like chia seeds, or flaxseed or any other seed that one might confuse with birdseed. There’s nothing green in it, although I’m not opposed to a handful of spinach in a breakfast drink for added nutrition, but for this orange smoothie I kept it simple. Besides, the orange push-up pops of my childhood didn’t have spinach in them. Maybe they do now? I wouldn’t be surprised.

Orange Smoothie

I can’t find the inspiration for this smoothie. I stumbled across it online and forgot to bookmark it, so now it’s lost forever in the ether. I remember what struck me was the absence of yogurt. Most smoothies these days seem to call for it, but the recipe I found called for half and half. Scandalous! Having lost track of the recipe, I played around a few times with a combination of fresh orange segments, lemon juice, honey, and half & half finally settling on this final version here. I prefer a thinner smoothie because I hate a thick one that moves slowly down the glass only to suddenly speed up and smack me in the face, so consider that when you make it. Like most recipes, it’s open to changes so feel free to tweak it and make it your own.

• Author: April @ Girl Gone Gourmet
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Total Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: 1
• Category: Breakfast

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup ice
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 naval orange, peeled and broken into segments
• 1/3 cup half and half
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Juice from ¼ lemon

Instructions

1. Place the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Serve cold.

More Smoothie Ideas

Mocha Smoothie Just like a coffee shop frozen mocha except with a twist of good-for-you-spinach. You can’t even taste it, I promise.

Pineapple Orange Smoothie An all-fruit smoothie!

Cranberry Smoothie A holiday smoothie you can enjoy year round if you buy frozen cranberries – when Christmas rolls around I use fresh ones.