Black Forest Smoothie
I’ve always been a fan of smoothies. I love fruit, I love blended drinks and I like having something for breakfast or lunch that I can sip away on and really savour the flavour. And fruit mixed with chocolate? Yes please.
My current smoothie obsession is a result of my parents showing up on their way through the city with a huge case of cherries for me — fresh picked from the Okanagan. I spent several hours taking the pits out of them (that’ll be a post of its own for another day) and then froze them. Now, I (literally) get to enjoy the fruits of those labours.
So I started experimenting with healthy recipes for meal-type smoothies and so far this one is my favourite. Try it out and let me know what you think…
Dark Chocolate Cherry Indulgence
- 1 cup almond/coconut “beverage”(you could use rice milk, soy milk, or actual milk instead)
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (the actual dark stuff you find in the baking or raw food section, not the hot chocolate mix)
- 1 ripe banana
- 1/4 cup of fresh or frozen cherries
- 1/4 cup of ice cubes
- chia seeds, chia gel or hemp hearts for an extra energy boost (I usually go with 2tbsp hemp hearts)
BLENDER, BLENDER, BLENDER.
POUR IN GLASS (I find this fills a pint glass — enough to satisfy in lieu of a meal — especially when hemp hearts or chia seeds are in it)
ENJOY!
Some alternative healthy recipe suggestions:
- To cut out calories you can use cold peppermint tea instead of the almond/soy/coconut/whatever milk.
- If you don’t want it to be so cold, skip the ice. Ice just like frozen slushy-type drinks.
- If you like your smoothies thicker, you can add extra ice.
- Substitute basically any other fruit type with the cherries. Chocolate with banana and anything is guaranteed to be tasty.
- If you’re using a “magic wand” handheld type of blender you might want to skip the ice entirely, I find when ice is involved my counter top blender is the way to go.
xo Crystal
Originally published at wellthyliving.ca on August 23, 2014.
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