Really want to share this recipe with you all for these vegan Cocoa Pancakes that I made the other day! They were delicious. I put white chocolate peanut butter on them as well. So delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup light spelt flour (or whole wheat, all purpose etc)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup + 2 tbsp cacao/cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (or agave nectar) plus extra for serving
• 1/4 cup liquid coconut oil (or other oil)
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Mix the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and set aside to curdle, about 5 minutes.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl until combined. Add the curdled milk, maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla. Mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. It should be a tad loose-seeming.
3. Heat a large, non-stick pan over medium-low heat. Drop ¼ cup measures of the batter into the pan (not too many at a time!). When bubbles start to peak through the surface and you see a bit of light browning/crisping up on the underside, flip the pancakes over carefully, about 1-2 minutes. Repeat for the other side, remove from the pan and set aside on a covered plate to keep warm.

I had a fruit platter for lunch today. All of my favorite fruits, just missing kiwi. I still have one slice of watermelon and a few strawberries left because my stomach got too full. Light and simple.

Breakfast! Well, creative post. I didn’t eat all 15 of those bananas haha.

A kiwi and a few strawberries, a chocolate brownie clif bar, a banana, and a smoothie. The smoothie consisted of that orange pineapple banana juice, frozen pineapple, a banana, and about 7 fresh strawberries. I usually use frozen but they were starting to go bad so I just threw the rest of the container in (after slicing the green off). Not my best smoothie, that’s for sure. The strawberries weren’t very sweet so I think that was it.

I didn’t measure the smoothie contents for you all, but just glug in a good amount of juice, add a banana, blend it, add the frozen fruit, blend. If it’s too thick add more juice, if you want it thicker, add more frozen fruit. (: 

Refreshing.

I juiced 12 and a half oranges today. It only made about 4 and a half cups. Fresh orange juice is the best.

My blueberries. 

1 banana, almond milk, baby spinach, frozen strawberries, frozen mango, frozen blackberries, and cold fresh blueberries. 

Blueberry Banana Smoothie. 1 banana, handful baby spinach, vanilla almond milk, blueberries, and a bit of flax seed. I don’t normally measure it, I just go by eye! 

Blueberry greek yogurt, thawed frozen strawberries, flax seed, and dry oatmeal.

This was going to be my breakfast but it ended up being a snack. 

deidreelliott:

Plum Smoothie

     I had so many plums to eat and not enough time to eat them. So I decided to make my second smoothie attempt. My first smoothie made, the banana-apple whatever, came out horribly. But this time I used a recipe online and it came out better. It’s actually drinkable this time and I can save the second cup I made in the fridge since there was no ice added. I found the recipe on bestfruitsmoothies.com and decided to make it a little different.

 The original recipe called for: 

• 4 red plums (or purple if you prefer)
• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup almond milk
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp Chia seed

My revision:

• I used my mom’s vanilla yogurt (I would have preferred greek if I had it)
• Cow’s milk (I drink Almond milk, but I only have the chocolate kind, so I just used normal milk)
• Mom’s Country Orchards caramel (I think I ran out of honey a long time ago, but hey, it still worked.

     I cut up the plums into smaller pieces than in the photo. After turning it on, it really didn’t do much so I took them out, sort of diced them up, and tried it again. It was easier when I sort of mixed them around with with a spoon at the top, and they mixed better. Just make sure not to stick the spoon in too far, or you’ll have trouble. After that, they came out perfectly.

     I then put in the rest of the ingredients, blended it some more, and it was done. Since it wasn’t an ice blended drink (like my banana smoothie was, super chunky with ice. I said it was gross, didn’t I?), I was able to stick in into the fridge to cool. It made 2 tall cups.

I made another smoothie, this one’s better than the last one I made!

     This was the first time I’ve ever attempted at making a smoothie on my own and… eh. I used 1 banana, 1 diced up apple, 1 orange, cinnamon, and some ice. The apple was a bad idea, and there was definitely too much ice. I also didn’t think to peel the banana before freezing it so it was messy tearing it off and I didn’t even tear all of it off, the ugly thin layer was still there.
     It ended up making 2 glass fulls! I’m only a little over half way through the first one and they have both melted down a lot. I’ll do better next time. I don’t want to ruin my taste for bananas, and I don’t even like them that much to begin with. 

     Maybe I’ll just go to  a smoothie place. I’ve always loved Orange Julius, haha.

Now that you know the Banana Health facts, are you ready for some smoothies? 

Start by pouring the liquid ingredients for each smoothie recipe into your blender. Use fresh fruit or frozen. Add any of the optional ingredients (spices, coconut oil, super-food supplements), if you like then blend until smooth. Add more liquid to reduce the thickness, ice to chill it, or more fruit to thicken your banana smoothie. Substitute ingredients if you’d like. Frozen Fruit has the advantage of not diluting the taste, and also giving your smoothie a creamier texture. 

 

Blueberry Banana Smoothie:

1 cup of strawberries

1 cup of raspberries

1/2 cup of pineapple juice

1 cup of yogurt

Banana Cantaloupe Smoothie:

1/2 sliced cantaloupe 

1 frozen banana

1 cup nut milk

Kiwi Banana Smoothie:

1 cup nut milk 

1 frozen banana 

2 Kiwi fruit, peeled

Banana Cashew Date Smoothie:

1/4 cup cashews

1/2 frozen banana

4 dates, pitted

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup ice cubes

Orange Apple Banana:

1/2 orange, peeled

2 green apples, seeded

1 frozen banana

1 tablespoon brewers yeast

Banana Kiwi Cantaloupe:

1 firm kiwi fruit, peeled

1/4 cantaloupe

1 frozen banana

Orange Papaya Banana:

1/2 orange, peeled

1/2 papaya, peeled

1 frozen banana

(via happyhealthyemily)