Energy-Boosting Chocolate and Fruit Smoothie

Nutrient dense food improves energy levels, but when you are devoid of energy how do you prepare nutrient dense food? It’s a paradox that many of us with chronic illness face. I got your back. This energy-boosting chocolate and fruit smoothie is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to add more nutrients to your diet. Raise your hand if you love chocolate.

I LOVE making smoothies for breakfast and do so nearly every day. Smoothies are a great way to cram a lot of nutrition into an easy to consume package. They are perfect for when your youngest child is like a hobbit and wants to fit that “second breakfast” in before school. The smoothie takes only 2-3 minutes to make so you can have plenty of time to cook that second breakfast for your hobbit child.

Ingredients

• Roughly 12 ounces of unsweetened vanilla almond milk- Adds a good creamy flavor without adding sugar. I eyeball my ingredients so the amount of almond milk can vary on what is needed to create a good consistency.
• 2 cups of a frozen mixed fruit/mixed berry blend. I work with a nutritionist who told me that the key to improving gut flora is consuming a variety of fruit and vegetable fiber. So, wherever you can add variety, do it.
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa nibs- Adds chocolate flavor, fat, and protein. It also has beneficial compounds like theobromine (a natural stimulant) and phenylethylamine (a mood booster) in it.
• ½-1 tablespoons of 100% cocoa powder- Adds more chocolate flavor. This is probably redundant for some people, but if you’re a cocoa nut like me, load it up my friend!
• 1-2 tablespoons of hemp seeds- Adds protein and fat.
• A handful of spinach- Loaded with nutrients and antioxidants. For the picky folk out there, no you cannot taste its flavor or texture.

Blend it all together and enjoy!

Adaptations- Adding more “bulk” to it

If you find yourself getting hungry before lunch you can add more hemp seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, an MCT oil (I like Brain Octane Oil by Bulletproof), or a protein/collagen powder (I have enjoyed ones by Vital Proteins and Primal Kitchen).

Adaptations- Making it sweeter without adding sugar

If this recipe is not sweet enough for you I recommend swapping out the cocoa nibs, which are quite bitter, for a flavored protein powder. I have used the Primal Kitchen Chocolate Coconut Collagen Fuel or Vital Proteins Collagen Creamer in Vanilla (I use just a half-scoop of this). Those powders do not use any sugar or artificial sweeteners, just natural flavors to add a touch of sweetness. They don’t even have stevia in them, which is very common in protein powders.

A note on stevia

I have zero scientific basis for this but I do not trust stevia. It tastes exactly like artificial sweeteners. I don’t understand how it can be that sweet and not have any sugar-like impact on the body. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10 years the consensus is that stevia is the devil just like nutritionists say about artificial sweeteners today. Again, I don’t have any evidence to back that up, it is just a hunch to be taken with a grain of salt.

Blending

I recommend using a high quality blender otherwise your smoothies will be nasty and chunky. We used to have a Nutribullet Pro that worked well until it broke after just a couple months of use. I had a lot of issues with smoothie liquid leaking into the base, which ultimately led to its demise. Now we use a Cleanblend Classic blender. It is a beast of a blender and works great. It is also very easy to clean and the bottom doesn’t come out so there are no leaking issues.

What are your favorite combinations to put in smoothies?

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Statements on this site are not meant to be taken as medical advice. These statements reflect my personal experiences having mild-ish post-viral POTS and ME. Due to the wide spectrum of these diseases, comorbidities, and everyone being different, your experiences may be very different than mine.

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