Banana Berry Smoothie Bowl

Good morning, Friends and family!  Boy, do I have a breakfast for you today!  So, I was on Pinterest looking for new recipes last week.  One of the ones I came across was this Berry Banana Smoothie Bowl.  In the blog the author talks about how she likes smoothies as a snack, but not for a meal, because she needs to eat food, not just drink her meal.  As a girl who's done slim fast as well as plenty of other shake based weight loss programs, I totally understand where she's coming from and feel the same way.  It's hard to convince my brain I'm getting plenty when I'm limited to an 8-16 oz drink.  :\  Just another reason this recipe looked so appealing.  This recipe makes a smoothie, puts it in bowl, and puts a slew of toppings on it to give it crunch, texture, and substance.  It was delicious! 

I made the recipe for one person, including the following toppings:
1/2 banana
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup strawberries
2 tbsp granola
2 tbsp sliced almonds
1 tbsp sweetened coconut (Thought I bought unsweetened, but noticed this morning I was wrong.  Whoops!  Oh well!)
1 tsp Chai seeds

All the toppings alone are quite the mixture, but add it to the top of a Banana Berry Smoothie (with a cup of spinach snuck in for a serving of veggies) and you've got a healthy filling meal!  And, as it turns out, a decent number of calories...  Whoops again!

So after I made one of these bowls for Michael and one for me, I plugged in the nutrition facts to MyFitnessPal.  Turns out, my breakfast cost me 500 calories!  The recipe had the smoothie recipe as 1-2 servings, but my eyes are always bigger than my stomach.  I think next time I make this recipe I'll probably split the smoothie between Michael and me and give us each our own helping of toppings.  ;)  Not because I'm worried about the calories, this recipe is seriously packed with all sorts of great stuff, but because it was a LOT of food and now I'm REALLY full!  :P  That being said, it was delicious and I recommend you try it!

If you're wanting new recipes, this is definitely a week you'll want to stay tuned to the blog.  This week will reflect what the first couple months looked like when Michael and I started dieting.  3 new meals per day, lots of new recipes, and a 0-4 star scoring system on how we liked each recipe. 

So, without further ado, here's the score:
Michael - 2 stars - He liked the crunch of the granola and didn't notice/mind the coconut (I considered leaving out this component, but decided to keep it and see what we thought)
Jen - 2 stars - Yum!  I liked the crunch of the granola and almonds.  I also love putting chai seeds in things because they help you feel full for a long time!

Total: 4 star recipe!  That's as big of an endorsement as you'll get out of us, Folks!  Hope you give it a try and enjoy it as well!  If you do, definitely let me know what you thought of it!  :D

Love you, Guys!  See you at lunch time for Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps!  :)