Vegan Chunky Monkey Smoothie

The name of this smoothie seems fitting, because after Covid-19 is in our past (whenever that will be) I feel like I’m going to emerge from my house as a chunky monkey! Like most people, I have changed my eating habits as schedules have changed (more access to the fridge, stress eating, emotional eating - things many of us are feeling right now) but also because access to food has changed.

For our family, we always start the day with a smoothie, and we’ve been doing this for years! I have always relied on frozen fruit for my smoothies and always kept a variety of different berries, tropical, and local fruit on hand. We very quickly ate up our supply, and within a few weeks into lockdown, were no longer able to access frozen fruit for smoothies like we used to.

Variety is necessary for me (and my toddler) so I didn’t want to make the same old smoothie everyday, so I’m being pushed to create new, nutritious, and still delicious smoothies for our little family of three (soon to be four!). This smoothie recipe was created because bananas were literally the only fruit I had (waiting on that produce delivery) and I was also craving chocolate. I dug deep into my pantry and found a new package of medjool dates, had cocoa powder in my baking drawer, a good supply of seeds, the tail end of a peanut butter jar, and luckily still had some dairy alternatives.

This works for breakfast, for snacks, for desserts, or anytime you have a chocolate craving!

Vegan Chunky Money Smoothie

Author: Andrea Carpenter, RD

Recipe Type: Smoothies

Serving: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened milk alternative (pea, hemp, almond, coconut, oat)

• 1/2 cup unsweetened plain yogurt (I use coconut yogurt)

• 1 large ripe (or overripe) banana (or 2 small bananas, 1 1/2 medium bananas)

• 3 medjool dates (alternatively could use 1/4 cup raisins soaked in 1 TBSP warm water)

• 2 TBSP natural peanut butter (can also use almond butter, cashew butter, hazelnut butter)

• 1 TBSP cocoa powder

• 3 TBSP hemp hearts

• 1 tsp each chia seeds and flax seeds

• 1/2 cup ice

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to the blender, in the order listed above.

2. Start blender at low and gradually increase to maximum (or use a smoothie setting if you have it). Add additional water if too thick, and add additional ice if too thin.

3. Optional - add toppings of whipped cream/vegan cream, sprinkle of coaoa powder, sprinkle of hemp or other seeds.