Do you love oranges? I know I do. Whenever I feel a cold or flu starting to come on, I immediately start snacking on oranges and making freshly squeezed juice with them. Recently I’ve started to make this immune boosting orange smoothie as a healthy breakfast option most days of the week. It’s made with a great mix of ingredients that provide plenty of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, healthy fats, and other essential nutrients. And thanks to a terrific blend of pumpkin puree and other added spices, this breakfast smoothie offers a delightful spicy flavor as well. Trust me when I tell you that once you start making this smoothie for breakfast, there’s no going back!

Supercharge Your Immune System

It’s so important to start your day off on the right foot by eating breakfast — provided it’s a healthy balanced breakfast and not some sort of sugary cereal. It’s so important that studies have actually found that eating breakfast along with fruit and vegetable intake has been linked with higher rates of happiness in medical college students. (1) With that in mind, this smoothie gives you the best of both worlds — it’s made with freshly squeezed orange juice and a frozen banana to ensure that you’re getting plenty of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants every time you make it.

Mixing in one tablespoon of almond butter is a great way to increase the satiety of the smoothie thanks to the large amount of heart healthy monounsaturated fatty acids it contains. Eating raw almonds, using almond butter, and drinking almond milk are all great ways to keep your mind healthy and sharp, as almond consumption has been shown to improve memory according to studies. (2) This makes almond butter a great addition to your morning smoothies to help you get a clear head and focused for the day ahead.

While almond butter is a great source of healthy fats, this recipe takes things a step further by also including two tablespoons of flaxseed meal. This provides a solid amount of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, protein, and antioxidants. Making sure that you’re consuming adequate amounts of omega-3 fats on a daily basis is a great way to lower inflammation within the body and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. (3)

You’ll also be including a delicious blend of ingredients that will give your smoothie a delightful pumpkin spice flavor — homemade (or canned) pumpkin puree, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. All of these great spices work in tandem to add a ton of flavor to this recipe, but more importantly, they also provide an incredible amount of nutritional value. Culinary herbs and spices like these are fantastic for your health, as they provide potent antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. (4)

To finish the smoothie off, you’ll need to add in ¾ cup of milk (or you could even use almond milk if you’d prefer), a bit of ice, and one or two fresh pitted dates to add a bit of extra sweetness to the smoothie. Blend it all together and enjoy, but just remember what I said earlier — once you try this breakfast smoothie, it’s hard to go back to having anything else!