Blueberry, Coconut and Banana Thickshake.

Summer in Australia is usually ridiculously hot. Whilst I do enjoy the beach, a little bit of heat and in particular, summer fruits, I personally prefer Autumn or Spring for their cooler temperatures. Because I like being a bit cooler, on hot summer days I love nothing more than a cold, refreshing smoothie. My favourite kinds of smoothie's a thick and creamy ones in crazy vibrant colours. In actual fact, I've just been having a Saturday morning ponder and my philosophical question of the day is why are blueberries called blueberries when they're actually purple? I mean, who the heck named them?! Someone who's colourblind obviously!!! 

However regardless of their colour, I love blue (purple) berries. They're so fun to use in smoothie's because they give everything a really cool, psychedelic purple colour which is super fun. Add in some banana combined with the coconut milk, and this smoothie becomes extremely creamy and quite frankly, deliciously purple. By freezing the banana, the smoothie becomes ice cold, but no flavour is lost or diluted as it would be should you add ice. 

I 10/10 would recommend topping this particular smoothie with some fresh pomegranate. This is actually the first time I've ever eaten and used pomegranate and I apologise in advance because there is a strong chance it will feature in pretty much everything I make from now on because it's so quite and fun and red. Obviously being a ginger, I'm a strong supporter of my fellow red/orange things and pomegranate makes that list. 

Ingredients;
1 banana
1/2 cup coconut milk
1.5 cups blueberries
2 tsp organic maple syrup

1. Chop the banana up and freeze it overnight.
2. The next morning, add everything to the blender and whizz away until you have a smooth, creamy and very purple mixture.
3. I recommend serving with some fresh blueberries, pomegranate and shredded coconut. Enjoy!

Ice Pink Smoothie with Chocolate 'Ice Magic'.

This friends, tastes incredible. Aside from being delicious, conveniently this smoothie creation is also very chilly, so it's great for hot summer days, it's low fat, its completely raw and its also vegan. Oh, and it contains chocolate that freezes like actual ice magic which is super fun. I should probably mention that looks are deceiving here because this smoothie and its fabulous toppings are also healthy, and guilt free, so it is 150% okay to be licking the bowl you've made the 'ice magic' in.

I absolutely love chocolate, but everybody knows that chocolate is kinda bad for you and should be enjoyed in moderation. But! What if I told you that you can make healthy chocolate that is so easy you could do it with your eyes shut and that chocolate would be healthy?! Well, you can. And it tastes magical.

This glass of pink is the best mid afternoon snack, or breakfast, or midnight snack, or basically anytime of the day food. 

Ingredients;
Smoothie
1 banana
1 large handful ice
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
1/3 cup coconut milk

'Ice Magic'
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp organic maple syrup
1 tbsp (heaped) raw cacao powder

1. For the smoothie, just put everything in a blend and blend until it is smooth and well combined, making sure that all the ice has been pulverised and you don't have chunks.
2. For the 'ice magic', put all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix until well combined and smooth.
3. Put the smoothie in a glass/mason jar and drizzle the 'ice magic' on top. Put some extra frozen raspberries on the top because that looks pretty.
4. Put in the freezer for literally one minute so that the 'ice magic' hardens and then enjoy your creation!
5. Lick the 'ice magic' bowl because it is a crime to let any of that deliciousness go to waste.

Green Smoothie.

I'm 99.4% sure that it is a commonly held belief that healthy people drink green smoothies. See, that's the view that I've always had, but we all know that super fit, healthy people are a very special, particular kind of human and so therefore it is permissible to let them continue living in their green smoothie filled world whilst we mere mortals continue in out not so green, more so chocolate filled world. But it was not so simple as that.

These healthy people were not content to just drink their green smoothies and continue on with the yoga and jogging. No, no. They took it upon themselves to broadcast the fact that in the mere mortal world we were being deprived of a great (and coincidently highly nutritious) green coloured smoothie concoction. Scroll down your Instagram newsfeed; green smoothies. Jump on Facebook; green smoothies. Go to a cafe; green smoothies. There was no escape.

I have a rather bad habit of claiming a great and all consuming dislike of foods that I have never tried. It's probably not the characteristic that I am most proud of but I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that it has saved me from consumption of many god-awful tasting foods. Green smoothie fell into this category. I thought to myself, 'how in god's name can blended spinach and kale and other completely non-complementary foods mixed together and presented nicely in a mason jar with crazy things that I've never even heard of (hello chia seeds, I'm looking at you) even taste good?!' I concluded that they could not ever possibly taste good and continued on eating my chocolate.

But the green smoothie would not relent. Everywhere I went people were drinking green smoothie's, everyone I met was drinking green smoothie's. I thought to myself that unless all these people have been abducted by aliens and brainwashed (highly possible given aliens are bright green and so too are these fabled green smoothie's...), there must be some kind of deliciousness that I am missing out on.

So, the moral of the story is that I succumbed to the pressure and decided to try this green smoothie business. Long story short, it actually tasted good, and I am now one of those people who'll bombard you with pictures to make the point that green smoothie = tasty. #NoRegrets

Ingredients;

1 large handful baby spinach
2 bananas, peeled and frozen overnight then chopped up
1 handful fresh mint
1 tsp matcha (optional, although tasty)
Rind and juice of 1 lime
1 kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp chia seeds (optional)

1. This recipe is really complicated.... you'll need to put everything in the blender and blend until well combined! LOOK AT THAT! Now you're also one of those people who'd bombarding everyone with the fact that your green smoothie is tasty! Wow.Who'd have thought?!

Chocolate and Almond Butter Milkshake.

Yet again my fetish for all things chocolate has struck, the byproduct of which is this hella good chocolate and almond butter milkshake which is quite possibly the most delicious chocolate thing that I have ever made/tasted, which is an enormous claim to make. This is so good actually that I am currently leaning towards making one this afternoon as well because, well, why the hell not?!

The base of this milkshake is almond milk, which is both nutritious, highly delicious (great rhyme, I know) and rich in fibre, vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, potassium, iron and calcium. However it is the cacao that makes this super delicious! Cacao is essentially my  favourite thing in the world. Raw cacao powder (which you can buy here or at most good supermarkets and health food stores) is the all natural version of the more conventional cocoa powder, which is conventionally used as chocolate flavouring. But, raw cacao has over 360% more antioxidants than conventional cocoa powder and is rich in protein, calcium, zinc, iron, copper, sulphur, magnesium and potassium as well as a bajillion other things that are super good for you. Magnesium in particular is one of the worlds best sources of stress relief so if you've got lots of work and assignments like I do, then cacao is the stuff for you! If all those sneaky health benefits aren't enough for you, then I'll just put it out there that this is my favourite smoothie combination ever, which is quite significant given I drink a smoothie or two most days. Chocolate for the win though!!!

Ingredients;
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
2 heaped tbsp raw cacao powder
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
2 bananas, peeled, frozen overnight and then chopped into pieces
1 tbsp pure almond butter
Cacao nibs

1. Put everything except the cacao nibs in the blender and mix on high speed for approx. 2 minutes until everything is well combined and smooth.
2. Serve with a sprinkle of cacao nibs on top and enjoy!