THIS IS A SPONSORED CONVERSATION WRITTEN BY ME ON BEHALF OF WHITEWAVE FOODS. THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO CONTINUE CREATING GREAT CONTENT FOR YOU  AT NO CHARGE BY SUPPORTING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SUPER AWESOME BRANDS THAT HFHL LOVES TO WORK WITH! AS ALWAYS, OPINIONS REMAIN 100% MY OWN.

This easy and healthy PUMPKIN CINNAMON CRUNCH SMOOTHIE BOWL is full of nutrients to get you through the entire morning.

I want to talk a little bit about breakfast. The fact that I used to skip it. Every damn day.

I used to wake up at 5am, drink a mug of coffee. Get ready for work. Proceed to drink another cup of coffee on the way into work and for the first hour while I was there. Finally around 10 or so, I’d go to the break room and grab myself a yogurt and granola. 10am!

That’s a whole 5 hours since I’d been awake. And it wasn’t just 5 hours I was going without eating – it was 5 hours plus however many hours it had been since dinner the night before – probably about 10 on average. So I was going a whole 15 hours without feeding my body!

When you put it that way, it sounds pretty asinine, right?

The problem is though, 31 million Americans skip breakfast every day!

That is exactly why Kroger stores are hosting the Nature’s Market Breakfast Event in October. They know and understand the importance of eating breakfast every morning before starting a busy day of work, school, parenting, or just adulting in general!

I know I don’t do that adulting thing all that well unless I eat a good breakfast before I get started on my to-do list.

Especially because after a couple cups of coffee without any food, I tend to get the jitters. And well, jitters aren’t good for my concentration or productivity.

 

Kroger stores have actually teamed up with Silk, Noosa yogurt, and Kashi to bring home the fact that breakfast is super important. A lot of people think it’s expensive to be healthy, but at Kroger, you can get these items at a great price, and during the month of October, it gets even better.

Between October 14th – October 27th (2015), if you buy any 3 Silk, Noosa, or Kashi products, you’ll receive a carton of cage-free eggs for free!! I don’t know about you, but that just made my breakfast that much better! I love eggs and cage-free is always better for those cute chicks.

Along with these items, I love the Nature’s Market section at my Kroger store because of the wide variety of natural and organic items. My favorite is the bulk items. Grains, organic baking goods, nuts, dried fruit – you name it – they have it!

To highlight all three of those products, I thought I’d make a recipe using all of them so you can do the same at home. And with it being pumpkin season, as soon as I saw that Noosa had a pumpkin flavor yogurt, I couldn’t help but bring you October’s favorite vegetable.

PUMPKIN FOR BREAKFAST!

I sure do love smoothies first thing in the morning, but what I love more is a smoothie bowl. For two reasons.

One. I feel like I actually get to eat something instead of drink it.

Two. It’s like a smoothie PLUS. You get toppings. And crunch. And chewing. It’s so hearty and healthy and delicious all at once, and I really can’t complain there now can I?

[Tweet “Pumpkin spices in my smoothie bowl for the win!”]

Pumpkin Cinnamon Crunch Smoothie Bowl

Yield: 0 makes 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 1 16- ounce can pure pumpkin puree, (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 4 ounces Silk Almond Milk
• 8 ounces container of pumpkin flavored Noosa yogurt, (or other pumpkin-flavored yogurt of your choice)
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon ground flax seed
• 1 teaspoon chia seeds
• 2 Tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 2 cups ice
• For Topping:
• kashi cereal, (I used the cinnamon crunch cereal)
• slivered almonds
• chopped pecans
• ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender except for the toppings.
2. To ensure a thick smoothie that will be good for eating with a spoon, use quite a bit of ice. You can put your smoothie in the freezer for 20-30 minutes before serving to solidify even more.
3. Pour into a shallow bowl and top with desired amounts of Kashi cereal, almonds, pecans, and cinnamon. You could also use sunflower seeds, raisins, flax, chia, etc.

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of WhiteWave Foods. The opinions and text are all mine.