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"Yeah I woke up and had an aphrodisiac smoothie"...

Oh brother, I am hooked on smoothies... well oatmeal as well. However, for this post we are going to simply talk about smoothies so... The past little while I have been relying on my smoothies because they are quick, transportable, and super simple to make (especially if you're freezing fruit beforehand it makes it much simpler and colder too!

I love smoothies because they are insanely filling (depending what you put in them, if you're just doing water and like a banana, well... it's like having a glass of water with a banana on the side, however, if you're going crazy, multiple fruits, milk, extracts, powders, spices you feel satiety and it lasts for quite some time).

The past few weeks I have been so drawn to recipes using bananas. I think it's because of all the oatmeal I've been making where you mash the banana into the oatmeal, oh yummalish! Lately, we've been hoarding bananas at our house. It seems everyone is eating them like fiends, but, I'm taking advantage of sneaking in a couple into my frozen container for my smoothie, and banana soft serve stashes. Honestly though if I took a picture of how many bananas we've been buying each week it would look as though we were stealing them straight from the banana trees, it's nuts, and what's even better none are going bad, woohoo!

This post is going to have four delicious smoothie recipes. The first one was a smoothie that I was instantly drawn too, it was similar to the Banana Chai Smoothie I tried not too long ago. I mean really I could of just made that smoothie again since it was so delightful, however, it's nice to try different recipes so that later you can tweak and get inspiration from a wider range of flavours.

Banana Spice Smoothie

Recipe adapted from here

Okay, it literally is the same smoothie, except that it doesn't call for all-spice, white pepper, and has protein powder, and a date. As you can tell just from the ingredients though, it's going to be a hit. It sure was too. I mean, how can you honestly be disappointed with beautiful, full impacted flavours such as those? You can't. Well, if you can I feel very, very, very sorry for you my friend, because you are seriously missing out on the planets gift to us humans. Please make this, it will seriously kill me if you do not. This was such a perfect treat when I had it. I remember I did not for the life of me want to get out of bed that day, and when I remembered I was going to make it for breakfast, I quickly went to the pantry, grabbed my blender and started blending. The instant that beautiful milk, spicy, banana-y concoction hit my lips I knew it was love. The spices instantly warmed me up, and the cold smoothie meshed to cool me down, it was perfect. I loved this, and will definitely be making it on those mornings where I will be waking up at four o'clock for work. Oh, it will definitely start my day right since waking up at four, although I'm a morning person just sucks.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup soy milk
  • 4 ice cubes
  • 1 heaping tbsp almond butter
  • 1 pitted medjool date
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 1 large peeled banana, frozen
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Directions:

Starting with the milk, add all ingredients to the blender and process until smooth. Add more ice if necessary. Pour into glass and sprinkle with cinnamon. Serves 1.

Coconut Avocado Kiwi Smoothie

Recipe by me

As I mentioned not too long ago, avocados in smoothies are absolutely fantastic. After having the Avocado Toasties with Kiwi Salsa I realized just how fantastic those flavours were when paired together. I figured that it would be nice to recreate those flavours but in smoothie form since I had all of the ingredients. Needless to say this went down smoothly and gave me quite the satisfactory "mmmm". It was delicious, my cat even went in for a sip... which I didn't appreciate, but it was cute. I loved this, it was like tropical paradise in the middle of the North Pole.

Ingredients:
  • 2 kiwis, cut into chunks
  • 1/2 rip avocado
  • 1 frozen banana, cut into chunks
  • 1/4 cup ice
  • 3/4 cup soy milk
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • Splash of lemon juice
  • Coconut - to sprinkle on top
Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in your blender, and blend until well combined. Top with slice of kiwi and coconut.

Carrot Cake Smoothie

Recipe taken from here

A little while ago I had made a carrot cake breakfast oatmeal, the result was absolutely delicious. When I saw a recipe for a Carrot Cake Smoothie I was sure it would be just as grand as the oatmeal was, well to my delight it was. This was filled with yummyness. I seriously added a whole bag of carrots, why I went so crazy I'm not quite sure. What's odd is, I left a few a little chunky for a little bite, why I did this is beyond me since its a smooth-ie, not a crunch-y... weird I am. But, regardless, it was insanely delicious and my friend gobbled hers down as well so I know it wasn't just me!

Ingredients:
  • 1 bag of carrots (or ~ 1 cup carrots was the initial amount in the original recipe)
  • 1 cup soy milk
  • 1 large frozen banana
  • 2 large ice cubes
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • Small pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
  • Toppings: shredded coconut and cinnamon

Directions:

Throw all ingredients into the blender, starting with the almond milk and blend until smooth. Sprinkle on some coconut, cinnamon, and a dollop of coconut butter if desired. Makes 2 cups.

Note: This recipe works best with a high speed blender as the carrot is difficult to process.

Yield: 2 cups

Super Seductive Smoothie

Recipe taken from here

This recipe I simply had to make it due to it's name, plus the sake of saying, "yeah I woke up and had an aphrodisiac smoothie", I mean c'mon now. This was really good, what intrigued me about this, other than the name, was the chili sauce, I really was not sure how it was going to taste in a smoothie. To be quite honest, it was really delicious. I made the recipe only for myself (therefore divided it in half) but still used the whole amount of chili sauce and it was incredible. It had a kick that's for sure, but with the creaminess of the milk and avocado it tamed the kick of the sauce. I really enjoyed it. I made mine really thick, plus reduced the amount of cocoa powder since I"m not the biggest fan. So mine was more of a milkshake rather than smoothie, it was super great. I really enjoyed this and who knows, Valentines is coming up, wanna seduce that special someone? Great way to kick off the day! Wooo... okay enough about that. Single, matched, whateves, super delicious.

Ingredients:
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 1/2 ripe avocado
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/2 -1 tsp chili pepper paste ( 1 tsp=pretty darn spicy)
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 3/4 cups coconut milk
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 3/4 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Medjool dates
Directions:

Blend all ingredients together in blender until very smooth. Since the actual size of fruit used may vary… adjust amounts to suit your taste and texture.

Pour into glasses and enjoy!

What do you like in your smoothies?

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