I like smoothies a lot and will drink them constantly once the weather gets warm. There are days where my breakfast and dinner are simply a smoothie.

I had a smoothie for dinner this evening after a nice hike at Coffee Creek Watershed and Nature Preserve in Chesterton this evening. It took me about 5 minutes to put together and about two minutes to clean up. The best part is I got to spend time savoring my refreshing, tasty, nutrient-packed, low calorie and low fat smoothie. It was simple and easy.

My omnivore fiance, Pete, went for a hike with me. He came home and made a homemade hamburger, homemade paprika fries (which are vegan and really good when he gets them right) and some bacon to go on the burger. He uses a grill pan to make the hamburger, a small skillet coated in oil to make the fries and a baking rack covered with aluminum foil and a drip pan on top to bake the bacon in the oven with a coating of 100% maple syrup. So obviously, there’s a pretty unhealthy meal with lots of prep time, lots of clean up time and not really much eating time. I feel bad for him because he spends most of his time preparing the food and doing the dishes than he does enjoying the food or his evening.

I can’t claim to be totally innocent. I did have a few of his fries. So I did wind up benefiting from his time spent in the kitchen because I wouldn’t take the time to cook fries for myself. I’m lazy.

I recently watched a DvD on raw foods. One of the contributors on the show stated that he was glad that he ate nothing but raw foods because he had absolutely no kitchen knowledge whatsoever. I took as, if it couldn’t be blended up or put in a bowl immediately with minimal prep, then he wouldn’t eat it!

Here’s my smoothie recipe. If you’re not vegan then you can make it your own by adding the non-vegan version of the products I’ll mention below:

Tools needed: spoon (for protein powder), knife, blender, and a cup to drink out of! That’s it!

Ingredients:

1. 6 ice cubes (use crushed ice or use your blender to crush the ice cubes)

2. Blueberries

3. 1 Banana

4. Strawberries

5. Spoonful of cold milled flax seed

6. A little bit of oatmeal

7. If you want to add greens you can always add a little kale or spinach (or other green leafy vegetable)

8. Almond milk (I use unsweetened and soy or rice milk work fine too)

9. Dark Chocolate Hemp Seed Protein Powder (it’s vegan and available from Whole Foods)

Final Step: Blend ingredients and enjoy!

Dish doing: WASH YOUR BLENDER RIGHT AWAY ONCE YOU’VE ENJOYED THE CONTENTS. The ingredients will stick to the blender if you leave it out and don’t wash it right away and that’s nasty to clean up.

Note from the chef (me): The chocolate protein powder really gives it a nice chocolate shake-like taste to it. This smoothie has a rich, creamy texture. If I make this in the morning, I’ll add some cold coffee to it to make it more like a chocolate berry mocha!

The only substitutions a non-vegan might make is using cow’s milk in place of plant milk. And the plant protein powder could easily be replaced by a an easier to find product in your grocery store like Muscle Milk which uses animal derived proteins. And honestly you could skip the milk (cow or plant) and just add water as your liquid base. You also could skip the protein powder too. I just really like the extra chocolate flavor!

Nice, easy, savory, healthy, vegan and non-vegan and super yummy! It doesn’t get better than that. On a hot summer night (in the middle of March) let your body digest foods that are easy on the system. Don’t burden or weigh your body down with a heavy homemade cheddar cheese maple bacon hamburger. Just eat a few fries after you’ve had your smoothie like I did and you’ll be all set to go! Delicious and nutritious and easy on the body!

Sara