Apple Pie Smoothie

As a kid, I was the complete opposite of a morning person. I would wait until the last possible second to drag myself out of bed for school before scrambling to get ready as my sisters started panicking about being late. Calling me grumpy in the morning was an understatement, and when it came time to eat breakfast, I was an absolute terror. Why did I need to eat breakfast when I was too tired and my body hadn’t woken up enough to be hungry? My parents preached that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, but that did nothing to convince me otherwise.

My mom certainly tried her best to find breakfast options that I didn’t fuss over. She prepared bowls of piping hot oatmeal, stacks of pancakes with fruit, veggie-packed omelets, and toast with peanut butter and honey—you name it, she tried it. But each morning, I stubbornly rejected her efforts, content to wallow in my sleepiness with a glass of water in hand as we headed out the door. 

That is until she started making smoothies. My mom invested in a fancy new blender, determined to find a solution to the breakfast battle. Of course, it wasn’t a win right away—some smoothies were too heavy on the leafy greens for my childhood palate, while others tasted too much like bananas (the one fruit I couldn’t stand at the time). Each day, I headed into the kitchen where my mom waited with a humongous thermos of frosty liquid finished with a plastic straw. A tentative sip and I immediately launched into my critiques: 

“I don’t like the texture.”

“It’s too sweet.”

“It’s not sweet enough.”

It seemed like the battle would be lost—that my mom would have to accept that at 7 o’clock in the morning, I simply was not hungry. But after weeks of smoothie experiments went by, my mom finally whipped up the perfect solution: an apple pie smoothie. 

The smoothie was heavenly, like apple pie in a glass. Warming notes of cinnamon and nutmeg were offset by the juicy apples and tart yogurt. It had a deliciously creamy texture, thanks to the blended oats. Not overly sweet, but just the right amount. It was the smoothie of my dreams. My mom smiled at me when she realized she had finally succeeded in her mission. For once, I headed to school without my thermos because I finished the whole thing before even walking out the door. 

The apple pie smoothie became a family favorite over the years, and my mom continued to make it for me well into high school. Once I graduated college and moved out of the house, I carried the recipe to my apartment, whipping it up in my tiny portable blender to keep me fueled on busy workdays. When I’m out of fresh apples, applesauce makes an easy swap that doesn’t mess with the overall texture, resulting in a dessert-like drink that gives me a boost of energy.  

While I’ve become less stubborn about breakfast, I’m still not a morning person by far, so I love having a satisfying, fiber-rich meal that doesn’t require too much effort to make. Every time I make it, I’m reminded of my mom’s dedication to making sure her daughters were well-fed and nourished in the morning. And although I definitely made her mornings a bit more stressful, today we can laugh over my antics, as long as I finish my breakfast.