Does anyone have some good smoothie ideas?

I work from home doing medical transcription. I'm typically up at 6 and start work at 7am. The problem is that I get in a good groove and don't eat until 11am or so. By that time, I'm ravenous and eat a large meal. My next meal is at roughly 3 or 4. I don't snack during the day because I'm a compulsive snacker. I'd keep adding snack after snack after snack. (Plus snacking while working makes my work day longer, since I work by production and not by hours.) Once I hit my first plateau, I'll probably change things up to more frequent meals throughout the day.

I'm thinking that perhaps a fruit smoothie first thing in the morning will keep me from overeating at brunch/lunch, but I don't know the first thing about making a decent smoothie. I have texture aversions, so anything gritty is going to turn me off. I just recently started liking yogurt (I had to condition myself), and so I think smoothies should be okay if I can get the consistency right.

I just found the smoothie list on the 3FC recipe page. Does anyone have any that are their particular faves?

I really enjoy tofu smoothies. It sounds odd--I only tried them because I needed to get more protein into my son, and he wouldn't eat any kind of meat and very few beans. I started making him tofu smoothies mixed with all kinds of berries and fruits and found I enjoyed them as well.

Lots of time, I blend up a banana, orange juice and tofu. Or strawberries and tofu.

8-10 strawberries
1/2 ripe banana
1/3 cup fat free half-n-half
1 scoop vanilla whey (I use zero carb Isopure)
3 tsp splenda
Lots and lots of ice

Pour...makes 32 oz and taste like icecream shake...YUM!

Well, all smoothies that I know of have a little gritty feel to them. I guess you could leave out the ice. That may help some. I like to buy different frozen fruits for my smoothies. Blueberries and strawberries are my favorite to use. I also like blending banana with almost anything. You could even do banana, peanut butter, and ovaltine/fat free chocolate pudding mix. That actually probably wouldn't be too gritty. I always add skim milk to my smoothies also. If you go to the grocery store you can find all kinds of flavors of the fat free pudding mixes and put in a scoop in your smoothies to add different flavors. Another idea is juicing. I just bought a juicer and LOVE it. It's a great way to get some really good nutrients and it tastes good too. And no gritty feel! You can even throw in some veges and as long as you have a sweet fruit in there (red apple, red grapes) then it will still taste sweet.

My daily (just about) smoothie. It comes in around 275-350 calories, depending on if I make a whole smoothie or cut the amounts (like I have been trying to do recently) to make a slightly smaller one.

1/2 to 1 Cup ice
1/2 to 3/4 cup 1% milk
1 (or 3/4) scoop vanilla whey protein
1 small banana
3/4-1 cup frozen mixed berries
3/4 cup spinach

IT'S DELICIOUS!!!! No sweetener needed, promise. It takes me close to an hour to eat once I get to work and between actually doing some work, so that keeps my mouth busy for a while. I usually also have a nice big cup of coffee with real sugar flavored creamer and end up with 350-400 calories for breakfast.

I'd try to get protein in in the am!

1/2 c ice, 1 cup milk, 1 tbs peanut butter, 1 frozen banana

2 cups spinach, 1 cup milk, 1 cup mixed berries, honey if needed, ice

Coconut milk 1/8 can, pinapple, mango, ice

etc