Coffee - Jay's Coffee Smoothie Protein Meal Replacement

I like some breakfast foods but not all. I enjoy making waffles and pancakes for example. And bacon But, for my daily routine, and in an effort to watch my calories, my default is a protein shake for breakfast, clocking in around 300 calories. I find that it will keep me going until noon. My preference is the MetRx Extreme Chocolate meal replacement that one finds on Amazon. You see, I lost 45 pounds last year, like the way I look now, and work to keep my daily calorie intake around 2,500 calories as much as is possible.

Extreme Chocolate


A week ago, I was contacted by Digster to participate in a survey. A survey on smoothies. And for the purposes of the survey about my smoothie habits, I developed my Coffee Smoothie as follows:

Smoothie – Coffee Smoothie

Coffee Smoothie Recipe for two servings

2 cups drip coffee, poured into an ice cube tray and frozen overnight into ice cubes

2 bananas

½  cup rolled oats

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (alkali processed “dutched” for smoothness)

2 tablespoons flax seed

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups almond milk

40 grams of protein (from whey, soy or other protein powder)

2 teaspoons honey

1. How do I actually make the smoothie?

Mise en place: I have found that it is best to arrange all ingredients ahead of time. They can, of course be all placed in the blender at the same time and then processed until smooth.

2. What is your favorite part about making smoothies?

I like that I can control the ingredients: I can control the sugar content, the carbohydrate content, the fat content and the protein content.

I like that I can vary a given recipe or create a new one.

I like that there are a multitude of recipes available to try on Pinterest, YouTube, books of course, and the web in general.

3. What is your least favorite thing about creating smoothies?

Most protein powders cling to the sides of the blender and cleaning takes more time, as scrubbing is involved. Other than that, I have no issues. It is my preferred meal replacement.

4. Is there anything about using your blender you wish you could change?

Two things actually.  Vitamix charges a lot of money for all of its products. Sometimes what they charge is ridiculous. They’ve gotten away with this for years because of the quality of their blender. But to pay upwards of $125 for a replacement bowl for what probably costs them $5 to make is annoying. Next, even though they say that the Vitamix can be used for a multitude of kitchen processes, it really can’t. It will never replace a food processor or a stand mixer. The bowl is not wide enough. It is basically for soups, smoothies, sauces and purees.

5. Anything that would be helpful in your smoothie creation?

Just remember to freeze the coffee cubes and to use a good artisanal coffee from one of Houston's premiere artisanal coffee roasters. No over roasted (burned) coffee for this boy.

Almond Milk: Most of the store bought almond milks don’t really have that much “almond” in them. Because my Vitamix blender is so powerful, I prefer to make my own. This consists of blanching one cup of whole almonds for 3- 5 minutes in hot water, allowing them to cool, removing and discarding the skin, and processing them with 5 cups of water and 1200 mg of calcium (from calcium tablets). Filter the particulate almond meal and reserve for cooking and keep the homemade almond milk refrigerated. Use within three days.

Here follow some photos that I took to turn in with the survey. For this recipe, I used Pure Protein brand whey protein which is available for a reasonable price at Target and Costco. Cocoa powder from Penzey's. Flax from Canino's Farmers Market. Cinnamon stick from Flores Spices (ground and put in McCormick jar). Coffee from Morningstar and/or Boomtown: