The Wide World Of Licuados

I grew up with the idea that licuados (smoothies) are a great way to start your day. If you love fruit and have a busy schedule, this is often an easy way to make your breakfast. Plus, there are all kinds of licuados!

There are fruit licuados, made by chopping up fresh fruit — namely berries, bananas, papaya, apples and pears — or you can buy the fruit frozen. Then you add a little bit of fruit juice, say orange or pomegranate, although apple, cranberry and any other kind of juice will do. Then you’re ready to go.

Then there are milk- or milk substitute-based licuados. I personally like almond milk because it tastes good and also has protein. These are the licuados where I feel it’s also good to add more protein, either in protein powder, egg (if you’re into that), or yogurt form — the latter being my personal favorite.

I like to add either blueberries, bananas, apples or raw oatmeal to my milk-based licuados because you can’t really taste the oatmeal but it’s good fiber, and combined with the yogurt, the fruit gives a nice flavor.

I suppose, ultimately, the reason I love this for breakfast is because it’s easy. As we all know, I’m a lazy cook, so if there’s one way to get protein, breakfast, yummy and ease all into one meal — I’m totally there, and licuados are totally it.

Of course there are always other options for licuados. You can add ice-cream for a dessert or vegetables if you want to be hard core, in any case, licuados are a good, easy way to get lots of nutrition into your body quickly and in a refreshing form.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD