Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie {Healthy Oat Smoothie}

This Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie boasts fiber, protein, and vitamins, yet it tastes like a freshly baked treat!

Well hello there, friends...and a happy 2016 to you all! It feels like it's been awhile. In fact, I truly intended to share a new recipe before the 4th -- almost 5th -- day of the year. However, we were busy squeezing in a few last, precious moments of family merry-making. And while I've been cooking and photographing over the past week, this is the first time that I've actually sat down to edit photos and put together a post. So I hope you'll forgive me, and I hope your holiday season was as relaxing and enjoyable as ours! I needed the break more than I realized, and now I'm feeling refreshed and recharged to tackle this new year. *fist bump*

When coming up with recipe ideas for early January, I always gravitate towards smoothies. It's no wonder why...this is the time of year that I notoriously resolve to eat a healthy breakfast every day. Not just feed my kids one, mind you...but actually eat one myself. 😉 And what's an easier (and yummier) way to meet that goal than with a thick, creamy smoothie?!

This Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie is a natural evolution of the Blueberry Muffin Smoothie and the Peach Cobbler Smoothie that I shared this time last year. And then I added a Pumpkin Pie Smoothie to the repertoire last fall. The common denominator between all of these smoothies is that they're healthy oat smoothies, which simply means that they start by finely grinding some uncooked oats in the blender before adding the rest of the ingredients. This thickens the texture of the smoothie while simultaneously boosting its fiber, protein, and vitamins.

And then -- because I think the oats already give the smoothie an underlying "baked goods" quality -- I like to play up those flavors a bit more. So to my regular ol' smoothie ingredients, I add a smidgeon of cinnamon and splash of pure vanilla extract. But with these Strawberry Shortcake Smoothies I decided to get even wilder and crazier by adding the teeensiest bit of pure almond extract as well. I know...hold me back.

Should you so desire, you can boost the nutrients of this smoothie even more by blending in some chia or flax seeds. Or -- if you prefer to go a different direction entirely -- you can take it over the top with a (modest) amount of strawberry shortcake topping, AKA, whipped cream. Ha!

Okay, that photo was actually kind of a joke. But this one's not:

My 3-year-old sucked this smoothie DOWN! And when my boys got home, they saw the remnants in the bottom of the blender and begged for a taste, too (which amounted to about half of a sip each), leading them to request Strawberry Shortcake Smoothies for breakfast tomorrow.

With whipped cream, of course. Because we've got to numb the pain of going back to school somehow... 😉

More Wholesome Breakfast Ideas

• Overnight Oats, 3 Ways!
• Oatmeal Spice Muffins
• Banana Breakfast Cookies
• Peach Baked Oatmeal

Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie {Healthy Oat Smoothie}

Ingredients

• ½ cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 ½ cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup vanilla yogurt
• ½ cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Scant ⅛ teaspoon pure almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

• Measure oats into blender. Blend until ground into a fine powder. Add frozen strawberries, vanilla yogurt, almond milk, honey, vanilla extract, almond extract, and cinnamon. Blend until completely smooth. Serve immediately.

Notes

• You may use nonfat, lowfat, or regular vanilla yogurt. You may use whole milk, 2%, skim milk, almond milk, or your favorite type of milk.
• The flavor of the vanilla and almond extracts will really come through in an unbaked recipe like this, so it's especially important to use high-quality extracts that won't end up tasting like alcohol. 😉
• On that note, don't use too much almond extract, because its flavor can be very overpowering.
• Feel free to tweak the honey based on how sweet your strawberries are.

Nutrition

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