Smoothie and Yogurt Bowls

I guess one of the newer trends for healthy eaters is to make smoothie bowls, banana "nice" cream, acai bowls, and my personal favorite, yogurt bowls. I love each one so much, they're a great way to make eating healthy delicious and fun! I follow quite a few vegan Instagram accounts, and while I am not vegan (and I probably won't ever be, I love chicken way too much!!!!) I do love the recipes they share. The few that I follow are currently living in Hawaii, so they have the best fresh and exotic fruit to add to their smoothie and acai bowls. Each bowl they make is filled with the brightly colored fruits that make up the beautiful island (can you tell I'm missing Hawaii?)! I will be sharing some recipes for these amazing any-time-of-the-day treats below! Enjoy :)

Banana "Nice" Cream

Ingredients:

~2 bananas, sliced and frozen

~1 c almond milk (or coconut milk)

~1 tbsp almond butter

OPTIONAL:

~1 tbsp peanut butter

~honey

~vanilla

TOPPINGS:

~strawberries

~raspberries

~blackberry syrup

Directions:

1. Blend the frozen bananas, almond milk, and almond butter together. It should go from thick and clumpy to nice and creamy!!

2. Pour in a bowl, add your desired toppings, and enjoy!

So easy right? I went grocery shopping today and bought 2 bunches of bananas, left one for eating, and sliced all the bananas on the second bunch, put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and put in the freezer until I was ready for dessert (about 5 hours). While this was absolutely delicious and guilt free, it wasn't quite the consistency I was looking for. It was more like a smoothie bowl (slightly runny) rather than ice cream, but was tasty nonetheless! (I don't have a go to recipe for smoothie bowls yet, hence the reason why I mentioned above that this is in between a smoothie bowl and ice cream).

Yogurt Bowl

Ingredients:

~1/2 c vanilla yogurt

~fruit toppings

~strawberries, sliced

~blueberries

~raspberries

~pineapple chunks

~mango chunks

~diced apples

~granola or chia seeds (I am brand new to chia seeds, have yet to try them!)

~honey or blackberry syrup

Directions:

1. Pour the yogurt in the bowl first, then layer with fruit toppings.

2. Add your crunchies (granola or chia seeds), then drizzle honey or blackberry syrup!

This is my favorite thing to eat in the mornings, especially after a nice 3.5 mile trail walk/jog with the dogs! So filling, and so guilt free. You can do any combinations of fruit toppings, and it is perfect every time!

I mentioned above about acai bowls or smoothies; Costco sells smoothie packs and acai juice that is perfect for these desserts, and they have directions for each treat (acai bowl and acai smoothies) on the packages. I am trying to incorporate more fruit and salad and all around healthiness into my lifestyle, along with daily 3.5 mile walks/runs. Eating healthier, exercising daily, and guzzling tons of water is a sure fire way for me (or anyone) to lose those extra pounds! I didn't mean for this post to turn in to a health testimony, but that's okay! Hopefully reading this will help other people jump on the health wagon just like me!

I FORGOT TO MENTION I will be traveling back to Florida soon, and I can't wait to see my family and friends, and I get to cook for all them too! SO excited, stay tuned :)

~S

I kept mentioning blackberry syrup in the above writing, and this is what I was referring to! I bought it at Aldi, and it was so cheap (Aldi is a new find for us here in NY, and I am OBSESSED!) I love this blackberry syrup, it is delicious on top of anything thing; yogurt bowls, smoothie bowls, banana "nice" cream, french toast, granola, the list is endless! So good, and a little definitely goes a long way (gotta watch that sugar intake) ;)