Saved by a Sensational Smoothie - How to Make Awesome Power Protein Smoothies

The other night, after putting our sweet little baby Aria to bed, Makoto and I were dying for a late night snack.  We had just come back from visiting my family in Vancouver so we hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping yet.  I'm also really weird about making us eat all the food in our house before we leave for vacation so that when we get back, we can start fresh with new groceries.  Sure, I could have sent Makoto out for ice cream and salt and vinegar chips, but we had indulged so much during our holidays that we wanted something healthy....but still yummy.

At that moment, our fridge contained:

1.  Some freaky looking shrively carrots and half a tub of moldy hummus (Makoto was SUPPOSED to eat these for a snack before we left)

2. A bottle of Sapporo Beer

3. A tupperware container filled with my nail polish collection (keeping nail polish in the fridge really does help it from thickening!)

While splitting the beer, we realized we are hippy naturopaths and always stock ingredients for a sensational smoothie!!  WOO HOO!!!!!  Smoothies are delicious, nutritious and are a great high protein snack!

Here are some tips on what to stock in your freezer and pantry to make sure you always have the ingredients to make a sensational smoothie!

1.  Frozen fruit and avocados - when you see bananas, berries, pears, apples, mangoes, etc in that weird clearance section at your grocery store that we all peruse out of curiosity but rarely buy anything from, proudly grab those almost moldy fruits and stock up on cheap, ripe fruits for your smoothie.  Bring them home, wash them and freeze them.  Avocados are AMAZING in smoothies....a great shot of healthy fat and it also gives your smoothie a creamy, milkshake like consistency.

2.  The protein - our favorite protein powders are rice, hemp and pea proteins.  My absolute FAVORITE protein powder is Thorne Vegelite in chocolate.  1 scoop of this mixed with coconut milk, water, a frozen banana and avocado is heavenly.  It tastes like a chocolate banana milkshake.  Makoto likes to use hemp hearts (3Tbsp has a whopping 10g of protein) and he blends it with lots of fresh berries/coconut milk/water.

3.  The liquid - to prevent the protein shake from being too thick, we use half non-dairy milk (coconut milk is my fave) and half water.  

4.  The good fat - throw in a tbsp of olive oil or nutrasea fish oil while yer at it!

5.  The boost - I use this as an opportunity to throw in some health boosting extras like a shot of spirulina, manuka honey, probiotics....even a handful of spinach.

Protein smoothies are a great high protein/low carb breakfast option as well!  If the thought of having to clean out a blender prevents you from making smoothies, use a stick blender...so much easier.

We didn't want to wake up the baby so Makoto went outside with our blender to make the smoothies....totally worth it!  YUM YUM!

:)
Aileen Lim-Trotter