I have fallen for smoothie bowls. Search for #smoothiebowl on Instagram and hundreds of beautiful creations will appear and if you're like me you'll be salivating and thinking about them day and night.
The idea is to make a smoothie and eat it from a bowl. Revolutionary, non? It makes sense. When you blitz a meal and drink it down quickly, the digestive process doesn't get a chance to work as well as it would if you were chewing solid food and then swallowing it. When we chew we produce amylase in our saliva. This is an important enzyme which breaks down starch and kicks off the rest of the digestive process in your body. Your liquid meal will arrive in your stomach more quickly than solid food would, meaning you might not digest it properly or absorb all the nutrients as well.
What I find so appealing about these bowls of loveliness is how they can be decorated to look so appetising. To make a smoothie bowl, I start with a base of vegan milk or coconut water, a banana (preferably frozen), a tea spoon or two of nut butter and a scoop of vegan/veggie protein powder. Then you can freestyle it to your mood! Add fruit (fresh or frozen), powdered greens or spirulina, oats, avocado, seeds. Finally, to decorate your gloop use fruit, nuts, seeds, goji berries, dried mullberries, shelled hemp seeds, chia seeds, dessicated coconut or coconut chips, cacao nibs, nut butters, superfoods, even edible flowers! The only limit is your imagination.
I have compiled a few recipes below but they are so versatile and can be varied as much as you choose. I'm a bit of a renegade in the kitchen and don't tend to measure out ingredients so just try and experiment a bit with quantities. It's all personal preference anyway.
I use a Vitamix in my kitchen. It is an expensive piece of equipment but so worth it. It is high powered and the blades can deal with frozen bananas, hard nuts and ice for when I need an emergency frozen margarita or six.
Cheeky Monkey
1 tablespoon chia seeds soaked over night in vanilla rice milk
8fl oz vanilla rice milk
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup organic jumbo rolled oats
1 scoop of banana split spirutein protein powder (Nature's Plus)
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
Blitz all together in food processor.
(If the consistancy is too thick just add some filtered water and give it another whizz in the food processor)
For topping: toasted coconut chips, banana slices and raw cacao nibs.
Green Energy
8fl oz vegan milk like almond milk
1 frozen banana
2 scoops of Source of Life energy shake (From Nature's Plus)
1/2 cup jumbo rolled oats
2 tspoons almond butter
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
To top: raw cacao nibs, dessicated coconut, fresh strawberries and spirulina crunchies
Berry Tempting
8fl oz vegan milk or coconut water
1 frozen banana
1 cup mixed frozen berries
1 tablespoon acai powder
1 teaspoon almond butter
To top: 1 sliced kiwi, strawberries, dessicated coconut and cacao nibs.
Chocolate Dream
8fl oz Coconut water
1/2 ripe avocado
2 tablespoons raw cacao powder
1 tablespoon ground almonds
2 medjool dates
To top: 1/2 ripe avocado, raspberries, blackberries, whole almonds, toasted coconut chips.
I defy you not to go to your happy place whilst eating this!
Here are some variations:
Total food porn.
Now go forth and create beautiful smoothie bowls!
Eat well. Xx
www.naturesplus.com for protein powder info and stockists
www.bonpom.com for raw super foods and treats!
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