April | 2019 | Jaclyn Beaty Nutrition

1 Comment April 9, 2019 Jaclyn

One of the first thoughts I usually have each morning is what I get to eat for breakfast. Sometimes this is my only motivation to actually roll out of bed. This smoothie is for those days when your head tells you to eat healthfully, but your heart says it prefers indulging on something decadent. The PB and chocolate combo is a match made in culinary heaven, and feeling good about consuming it first thing in the morning makes this a no-brainer. Am I alone in this? OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA This smoothie rivals the likes of a chocolate shake, just with spinach and a heaping helping of unsweetened cocoa powder…two of the greatest superfoods on the planet. If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time, you know that I make every effort to ensure that fiber, fat, and protein are blatantly added in every smoothie. This slows the digestion and absorption of nutrition. Without these, you truly would be drinking a milkshake.

Fiber= spinach (check!)
Fat= hemp seeds (check!)
Protein= peanut butter (check!)

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

Servings: Four, 8oz servings
Time: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

1 1/4 cup sweetened almond, coconut, or oat milk
2 cups spinach
1/4 cup unsweetened cacao powder (I use Navitas Cacao powder)
3 Tbsp hemp hearts*
3 Tbsp peanut butter
3 ripe bananas (fresh is fine, but I like the icy blend of frozen)
1 Tbsp cacao nibs

*I love the creaminess that hemp hearts contribute to smoothies, but flaxseeds or chia seeds act as a good replacement if you don’t have hemp hearts around. They aren’t always easy to find. If you do find them, stock up!

Directions

Add all ingredients in the order given and blend! You may wish to blend the cacao nibs in with your smoothie or add them as a garnish on top. Or both!

Refrigerate left overs in sealed glass jars for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3-6 months.

2 Comments April 4, 2019 Jaclyn

An unassuming dose of purple cabbage makes this one of the sweetest ways to include detoxifying cruciferous vegetables into your diet. While cruciferous veggies probably aren’t the most luring food to drag you out of bed in the morning, I promise you can’t taste cabbage one bit. If you’ve poked around at my other smoothie recipes, you know I’m heavy-handed on the veggies. Cruciferious vegetables are the holy grail of detoxifying foods because of the compound indole-3-carbinol. I recommend 4-5 servings of these a day (yes, a DAY) if you are needing to detox. They are also potent anti-tumor (aka: cancer prevention) foods. What better way to fuel your day than starting with one of the most powerful foods on the planet.

Purple cabbage is also high in the amino acid L-glutamine. L-glutamine is incredibly healing to the digestive tract for people with Chron’s, colitis, and leaky gut. It can be purchased in supplement form, but who wants to pop more pills when they can get it in this delicious bio-available way?

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I would be doing my readers an injustice if I didn’t take a moment for my soapbox on the holy trinity of smoothie ingredients. (You might remember this from my Go-To Green Smoothie and Rasp-Beet Smoothie). In addition to the unspoken vegetables that should sneak into every smoothie, make sure your smoothies contain the “big three” to slow digestion and absorption of nutrition and blood sugar:
1) Fiber
2) Fat
3) Protein

I use coconut water as the liquid base for most of my smoothies, but I’m here to keep you guessing by using full-fat coconut milk (the stuff in a can) as the base in this recipe. Making my list and checking it twice:

Fiber= purple cabbage and strawberries (check!)
Fat= full-fat coconut milk (check!)
Protein= collagen and hemp seeds (check!)

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I follow the Environmental Working Group’s Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists when choosing to buy organic. Strawberries have topped the charts for the last 3 consecutive years as the #1 most highly sprayed produce in America. Most strawberries tested contain at least 20 different chemicals (some up to 40!) a few of them even being known carcinogens. Hard pass. For that reason, I will always choose organic strawberries.

Strawberry Banana Detox Smoothie

Servings: Four, 8oz servings
Time: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

Strawberry Banana Detox Smoothie

1 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk
2 cups shredded purple cabbage
2 ripe bananas (fresh is fine, but I like the icy blend of frozen)
3 Tbsp hemp hearts
1 scoop of Ancient Nutrition Multi-Protein Collagen*
1 10oz bag of frozen organic strawberries

*If you forgo the collagen or protein powder, I recommend adding a tablespoon or two of a neutral nut butter like cashew butter to maintain a dose of protein.