Having a protein breakfast smoothie in the morning is a great way to consume an easy, healthy breakfast at the start of your day, with minimal effort involved. If you get the balance of ingredients right, you can create filling breakfast smoothies full of protein and other nutrients to keep you energized all morning.
However, not everyone has the time to make a fresh plant-based smoothie each morning. Splendid Spoon is a popular choice for people looking for healthy, plant-based meal plans that can supply you with ready-made plant-protein smoothies and meal bowls for your daily meals, which can include breakfast as well as lunch and dinner.
This Splendid Spoon review focuses on their breakfast protein smoothie meal plan, and also provides an overview of other Splendid Spoon meal plan options, how much it costs, and my review summary of the pros and cons of this meal delivery service.
About Splendid Spoon
Splendid Spoon is a US meal plan service offering healthy smoothies and bowls, made from plant-based, gluten-free, non-GMO ingredients.
Unlike other meal plan services out there, Splendid Spoon’s offerings are differentiated by being 100% plant-based, and health-focused – with zero prep involved (aside from warming up bowls and noodles, if needed).
This is very appealing if you are focused on eating healthily and plant-based, but are constrained for time or imagination when it comes to creating healthy, filling meals that will nourish you, with ingredients that won’t leave you feeling empty hours before your next mealtime.
For more about the benefits of eating plant-based and how to get started, head over to this post next.
Splendid Spoon’s breakfast protein smoothies
One of Splendid Spoon’s meal plan options is quite simply, a breakfast protein smoothie meal delivery plan.
In this plan, you get five pre-blended healthy breakfast smoothies delivered to you each week – essentially, all your work-week’s breakfasts arriving ready-to-drink, so you don’t have to think about what you’re going to be eating each morning, with zero prep or washing up, but know that it’s healthy and plant-based ingredients that you’re consuming. Each bottle contains 16 fluid oz (473 ml) of pre-created, bottled smoothie, ready to drink.
Splendid Spoon box delivery and packaging
When the box arrives, it’s best to unpack it immediately and put the smoothies in the fridge. It comes packed in a cardboard insulated box, with dry ice inside that keeps the contents cold.
Once the dry ice evaporates, you can recycle the other packaging with your cardboard recycling.
The use-by date for each smoothie was several weeks after the delivery date, so although they are shipped fresh, you have some time to drink them if you can’t get to all five smoothies in one week. This is good to know, because it means if for some reason you don’t need a smoothie for breakfast, perhaps because you go out or you’re away for a few days, then they’ll be there waiting for you when you do. You could also, of course, have the smoothie later in the day or on the weekend as a small meal or snack.
Drinking these protein smoothies for breakfast
If you’re used to eating a larger meal for breakfast, then having a smoothie can take some getting used to, but it’s good to know these smoothies are supposed to provide a complete meal, so if you do find yourself getting hungry before lunch it’s easier to ignore that feeling without wondering if you didn’t eat ‘enough’.
I normally eat breakfast, but not a huge meal, and I found one smoothie to be plenty for me in the morning. Sometimes I found myself having half of the bottle first thing in the morning, and having the other half later in the morning when I had more of an appetite. I drink an espresso based coffee every morning too, and so having that in the middle worked out very nicely.
The variety of smoothies on offer is impressive (click here to see this week’s menu). I found myself looking forward to seeing what the next morning’s smoothie would be like, as they’re all different in terms of ingredients, and that provides a great amount of variety in taste as well as texture. I can honestly say that all the smoothies I drank were delicious, and unlike anything I have tried before due to the unique nutritional blends provided.
Helen really enjoyed the smoothie blends she had too. As we had one each for breakfast, we ended up trying different smoothies while testing out the Splendid Spoon meal delivery service.
I didn’t have a smoothie I didn’t enjoy, which was quite surprising! So if you are not used to some of the ingredients (or don’t even think you’ll enjoy a particular blend) then my advice is to be open-minded and try it anyway 🙂
Are smoothies good for breakfast?
Smoothies can make a very healthy breakfast if they have the right ingredients in them. Just like any meal, it’s about getting the right amount and balance of nutrients.
In fact, a smoothie is a really easy way to make sure you’re getting a great variety of antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, which you won’t necessarily get if you go for an alternative such as oatmeal, toast or a bowl of cereal in the morning.
In addition to making sure it tastes nice and includes a good balance of nutrients, the trick to creating a great breakfast smoothie is to make sure it’s filling enough to keep you going all morning. A breakfast smoothie can be unhelpful if you have it in the morning but get too hungry and reach for the snacks mid-morning because it wasn’t filling enough. It’s the protein that really helps to keep you feeling full.
Typical Splendid Spoon breakfast protein smoothie ingredients
Splendid Spoon offers a range of smoothies, which changes each week, with each week’s menu communicated to you in advance, and available to review on their website. You can switch items out before your box ships to you if there is a particular blend or flavor you don’t enjoy.
The smoothies are made in small batches, using fresh, whole fruits and vegetables. The ingredients are cold pasteurized (using high-pressure processing) which helps maintain the ingredients’ nutritional properties and flavor, as it doesn’t expose them to heat.
Each smoothie blend has a different range of ingredients. The key ingredients are clearly labeled on the front of each bottle and you can review the nutritional information in more detail on their website, so you know exactly what you’ll be consuming.
While protein comes from a variety of plant sources, specific ingredients in each bottle of smoothie ensure that you’re getting plenty in your breakfast each morning, and organic pea protein, and/or almond butter make a regular appearance in the Splendid Spoon smoothie blends.
Shake the smoothie before opening it, to blend the ingredients (separation is natural and shaking mixes them all back up before you drink).
Other Splendid Spoon meal plan options
In addition to the breakfast meal plan, Splendid Spoon offers other meal plans, which are, at the time of writing this review:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Breakfast + Lunch
- Breakfast + Lunch + Reset
- Breakfast + Lunch + Dinner + Reset
What’s in the Splendid Spoon lunch & dinner meal plans?
The lunch and dinner meal plans include grain, rice and noodle bowl options, in addition to the breakfast smoothies.
The idea is that the grain and rice bowls are for lunch, and the noodle bowls are for dinner. Each meal plan assumes you’ll eat the meals over five days of the week.
While Splendid Spoon doesn’t advertise their meal plans as being for those looking to lose weight, apparently many people find their plans beneficial in helping with weight loss, simply because eating healthy, plant-based meals is conducive to losing weight compared to other types of meals you may otherwise eat.
What is the Splendid Spoon Reset?
The ‘reset’ is essentially one day a week where you eat soup. The meal plans with the ‘reset’ option include five light soup bowls. The idea behind the soup reset is that you eat the five soups for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus two in-between, in any order throughout your reset day.
Alternatively, if you don’t feel like eating soup all day is for you, you could opt to have some or all of those soups on the other days of the week to supplement the other meals you’re having on those days.
How much does Splendid Spoon cost?
The Splendid Spoon meal plan cost varies depending on which meal plan you choose. For the breakfast smoothie plan, the standard cost is $65 per week, for five smoothies. For this, you’re getting the convenience of having the smoothies pre-blended with the right nutritional balance, and shipped to your door with free shipping, ready to drink each morning.
When looking at the cost of these breakfast smoothies it’s worth considering the number of healthy ingredients which are included in each smoothie. Once you look into making the equivalent smoothie yourself, the cost does start to add up when you add all the different seeds and juices.
So while it may be more expensive than making smoothies yourself from scratch, the difference may not be that much when all the ingredients are factored in. We find it hard to put a price on our health, as without good health, there’s not much of a stable platform to build upon the rest of your life.
Splendid Spoon often offers sign-up discounts for new subscribers on their website – click here to see the current deals.
If you’re interested in trying Splendid Spoon, it’s easy to sign up for a weekly delivery, which you can skip, change or cancel at any time – so no minimum subscription periods to worry about! Click the button below to check out the meal plan options and discounts currently on offer:
Review summary
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