Acai Protein Bowl

One of the biggest challenges I've faced with new mamahood has been trying to find a balance between meeting the all-consuming needs of a baby with taking time to care for myself and my body. Taking a long shower or spending an hour preparing a healthy meal are straight up luxuries that I took for granted in my life before baby. I now consider a successful shower one in which I can rinse the shampoo from my hair before jumping out to pop a pacifier back into a crying babe's mouth. And a healthy meal now looks like microwaveable frozen vegetables and a whole avocado.

This is why I've been into smoothies in a big way lately. I'll just throw a bunch of superfoods into our Vitamix and then sip away. To switch it up a little bit, I tried an Acai bowl, which consists of a smoothie base with nutrient powerhouses like fresh fruit and chia, sunflower and hemp seeds sprinkled on top.

Acai Protein Power Bowl

Smoothie Base Recipe:

1 frozen acai berry pack or 1 Tbsp. acai powder
1 cup frozen fruit (I used a combination of organic strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
1/2 cup greek yogurt or cottage cheese
1 scoop protein powder (I used PlantFusion Chocolate)
1.5 cup milk (I used Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk)
Handful of ice

Toppings:

1/4 cup fresh fruit (I used kiwi and blueberries)
1 Tbsp. Chia seeds
1 Tbsp. Hemp hearts
1 Tbsp. Sunflower seeds
1 Tbsp. Desiccated Coconut
Handful of Dried fruit or Granola

Begin by adding the frozen fruit, acai powder or frozen acai, cottage cheese or yogurt, protein powder, and almond milk into a blender and blend until smooth. Add ice cubes and use your blender tamper/stick to force the mixture around the blender as it thickens. After all ice is blended it should be smooth but have a thick consistency. Remove smoothie from blender into bowl, sprinkle desired toppings (the ones listed above are nutritional powerhouse superfoods).