A BERRY Low-Cal Breakfast Bowl

On a recent trip to Santa Barbara I stumbled upon the tastiest little breakfast spot with an ingenious take on the yogurt-granola combo. Not one to usually stray from my regular egg whites and toast, I was a little weary to try the unusual looking “bowls” but totally intrigued.

Backyard Bowls is a privately owned and operated organic restaurant whose primary ingredient is hemp.


Instead of taking a traditional yogurt and topping it with average granola, BB blends hemp milk with frozen fruit to create a yogurt-like base and tops it with healthy stuff like hemp seeds, almonds, flax, and more fresh fruit.


I usually stay away from any yogurt based breakfast products because they tend to be packed with sugar. Even “nonfat” versions are, if they have any sort of flavoring. So I was truly impressed with this idea of creating a new type of cold creamy treat sweetened only with natural fructose.

I chose a delicious banana-peanut butter-hemp seed spectacular and was blown away.


Unfortunately BB is only in SB therefore this encounter with breakfast bliss isn’t accessible to me on a regular basis.


So with this new knowledge of blending possibilities I set out to create my own breakfast bowl and as usual make it a Whitney's Weigh-Low by dropping the cal count a bit (hemp milk tends to be much higher than the almond or soy I use at home).


Whitney’s Bomb-Bowl

-1 C. Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (40 cals) or Light Vanilla Soy Milk (70 cals)
-1/2 C. Frozen Blueberries (40)
-1/2 C. Frozen Strawberries (30)
-1 scoop Aria Vanilla Protein Powder (40)


Blend the above ingredients to create a yogurt/smoothie base.


Total Calories: 150

Top with whatever your little heart desires....granola (you can make your own low-cal crunchiness here), sliced almonds, seeds, and banana chunks.


I added enough extras to bring the cal count on mine up to 300 for a perfectly balanced breakfast.


You can also add other ingredients like almond/peanut butter to your base to emulate the original fabulousness of BB’s Diego, a.k.a my muse for this project.