I can hardly believe how beautiful this past week has been. March in Chicago is never this gorgeous. We’ve been having 80s temperatures all week and it’s perfect. We skipped right over spring and straight into summer. I realize that next week is going to drop to 50s and 60s but still! No complaining here. I heard Arizona got 20″ of snow though, which makes me wonder what the hell is going on with the weather on this world lately. I know there have been always variations of weather over the centuries but it’s kind of weird. I just hope the world isn’t really going to end anytime soon, I’m no where near done living! I have way too much to accomplish and I’m too young.
Anyways, since it’s been so beautiful outside, my honors sustainability class yesterday decided to spend the last half of the class in Millennium Park. Gotta love having class outside, right? Of course, except when a bird singles you out and poops on you while you’re sitting in a circle with your classmates talking about nature and sustainability. My professor goes “I wish it was me that got pooped on instead of you, but this just proves that nature shouldn’t be sugarcoated and it is not always beautiful.” We were talking about agriculture and this accident made a good segway to talking about the bad things farmers have to deal with. Lovely.
Today for breakfast I took a break from the regular omelette and decided to make a protein shake since I haven’t had these in a while. Today is my rest day but I was just craving a shake.
Mocha Banana Protein Shake Recipe
Before you start, you may want to purchase or gather some ingredients that really make this shake stand out:
Ingredient links:
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 1 shake | 5 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 1 minute |
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Here’s the recipe for a delicious banana mocha protein shake which has NO added sugar but still tastes great from the banana’s sweetness.
Found on SensualAppealBlog.com
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- 2/3 whole banana medium
- 4 whole ice cubes
- 1/2 scoop protein powder
- 3/4 cup almond milk unsweetened
- 1.5 tablespoon instant coffee I use non-caffeined polish instant coffee, Kawa Inka
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- I keep bananas frozen and cut into three parts in the freezer so that I am always prepared and have some in case I get a craving for a banana shake like today. Put the 2 (out of 3) cut parts of the frozen banana in a blender along with ice cubes. Now, put the protein powder, cocoa, coffee, and cinnamon in.
- Now is the time to put the milk in. Don’t worry about exact amount to put in. If you want it more liquidy – you can put in more. If you like it more creamy – put in less. Play around with it. If you use fresh bananas, I recommend pouring less milk to keep the consistency creamy.
- Blend for a while, until it’s all nice and blended up and ready. I blend on low, alternative with turbo to shake it up when it stops, because I don’t want to wake up my roommates and I find the high blend mode to be way too loud haha.
- There ya have it! If you are a caffeine fanatic, add regular instant coffee. Unfortunately, I am unable to have caffeine as it increases my anxiety but I still enjoy the taste of the coffee. Thank god for decaf 🙂 Notice that we used NO SUGAR in the whole recipe. I always try to lower sugar in all recipes, I find most American recipes to contain too much sugar for my liking. If you find this shake not sweet enough (although banana is a high sugar fruit) you can add a little bit of Truvia, a natural non-calorie sweetener. Enjoy!
Kammie wants to know:
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What are your favorite ingredients to use in protein shakes?
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What’s your favorite protein powder brand?
Let me know in the comments below!
Hey girl! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I do hope you’ll subscribe if you like my posts and crazy wit, lol.
You have a fantastic blog here. We have a few things in common, specifically our love for food and photography. And hair colour too! I went red for the longest time then I went red but put my own black lowlights in (looked fab and got more compliments when I did it than when my hairdresser did!)
Your protein shake looks amazing. Chocolate, banana, coffee, and cinnamon? Wow. Nice one. I must admit that I dislike coffee but I’ll substitute with ovaltine or horlicks. I’ve never had a protein shake before so pardon my newb question.. what exactly do they do for your body? Do you put on weight with them? Believe it or not, I’m a super skinny mini and need to put on a wee bit of weight. I’m also arthritic/mobility disabled so therefore take a lot of drugs which make me feel bad in the respect that I feel drugged up all the time, if that makes sense. My fella said protein shakes might make me feel a little better and more awake. Since you obviously drink and seem to have a busy lifestyle, I guess you’ll know whether that’s true or not?
Sorry this is super long. Thought I’d be cheeky and ask. 😉
Hey Lisa thanks for the awesome comment!
Protein helps your muscles recover and it’s an all around good nutrient for your body. I wouldn’t necessarily say it makes you gain weight, gaining weight it more about the amount you eat rather than what you eat. But protein is recommended to be present at almost every meal (which is what I do). I also found it helps with sugar cravings if you lead a high-protein diet. You can have protein shakes no matter if you work out or not. You should try it, it’s really good 🙂 Hope that helped.
Looking forward to more of your posts as well 🙂 My hair is currently red with purple highlights and people say they love it so I’m pretty thrilled. I’m trying not to wash it as much cause I don’t want the color to fade as quickly!
Hey! I’ve just stumbled over here from 3FC. This smoothie sounds great! 🙂
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I love mocha smoothies! I’ll have to try adding cinnamon to my next one. Sounds yummy!