I love carbs.  I mean I really love carbs.  Pasta, bread, bagels, pasta...did I mention how much I love pasta?  As I watched the numbers on the scale slowly go up over the years, I've come to realize that my metabolism just can't handle the amount of starchy carbs I've been eating.

Gone are the days when I'd have an English muffin for breakfast, a bagel sandwich for lunch and some sort of dish with pasta...or heaven forbid, a grilled cheese sandwich on slices of French bread.  I've been limiting my starchy carb intake and amping up my fresh fruits and veggies as well as my protein.  I've added things like chia seeds to my diet.  Now, hard boiled eggs are a good snack instead of some crackers.  (Sorry, rosemary and olive oil Triscuits!  I do miss you!)

To help with the change in diet, my mom and I purchased the Nutra Ninja Nutra Bowl Duo so we could start making healthy breakfast smoothies.  (We aren't getting paid by Ninja for this blog post, so what follows is my honest opinion.) I had been pinning healthy smoothie recipes for days in anticipation.  So as soon as it arrived in the mail I unpacked it and got it all set up.  I even looked through the recipe book that came with it.


And I of course had to make my first smoothie not long after that. I was inspired!  I read through the directions on how to use the system, filled my cup the correct way (fresh on the bottom, liquids, sticky stuff, then frozen), twisted on the blender blades and snapped it into the base unit.

This system is easy to use with the Auto-iQ technology.  I selected the boost because I had some seedy fruits then hit the smoothie button.  WHOA!  I thought the blender was going to lift off like a rocket!  This little baby has some serious power behind it at 1200 watts.  No wonder why the base had suction cups on the bottom to stick it to the countertop!


The result was a perfectly blended smoothie.  No chunks and most of the seeds were ground up well into fine little bits. No yogurt was stuck to the sides of the cup unblended.  It was really quite amazing compared to our old blender.      

Ever since, I've made myself a smoothie nearly every morning for breakfast.  Occasionally I will let myself have something starchy or I'll opt for something with eggs, but as a lover of all things fruit, I have really been enjoying these smoothies!


And with the two cups that come with the system, both my mom and I can enjoy a smoothie in the morning.  We have even pre-prepped smoothies the night before, sticking the cups in the fridge.  In the morning we add some ice and blend.  The results were just as perfect.

I really love tart things.  It's an inherited trait.  As a young girl, my Oma loved to eat lemons like oranges.  So any chance I get to have tart citrus fruits, I'm all in.  This particular recipe can be sweetened up to taste by adding honey if you aren't a sour puss like me.

I just love the dark pink color of this smoothie!  And the tart flavor mixed with sweet fruits is so much better than the faux taste of cherry limeade drinks you get at fast food joints, plus it's way healthier.  The chia seeds give you an added boost of omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, fiber, iron and calcium.  Limes aid in digestion, cherries and pomegranate seeds are packed with antioxidants and the blueberries and blackberries have vitamin C.



Yum