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October 19, 2016

Say Hello to a Smoothie Bowl—The Perfect Post-Workout Fuel. {Recipe}

 Kiki Athanassoulias, author's own

Exercise is great, especially when you find an activity that works for you.

It’s also just as important to find something to eat soon afterwards to recharge your body with the much-deserved fuel it requires.

That’s where my speciality comes in: smoothie bowls!

I’ve loved this blended frozen dish for years, and have certainly mastered the art of combining the right ingredients for a perfectly hearty meal that will reset your energy levels and help rebuild those muscles after putting them through post-exertion. 

Most people assume smoothie bowls go hand-in-hand with a sugar-rush (often due to adding bananas), but that simply doesn’t have to be the case.

With the right ingredient “hacks,” we can have a perfectly hearty smoothie bowl “meal” that will not only fill us up, but won’t cause a sugar-crash later on.

Here are five ingredients that lead to a stellar smoothie—to please not only our taste buds, but also our entire post-workout body:

Psyllium husk. It works wonders for thickening up a smoothie bowl to give it an ice-cream like texture. It’s great for our guts too—as it’s a natural probiotic that promotes regularity without the bloat.

Butternut squash. Buy a fresh squash from the market, roast it, and then chop it up and freeze. Adding it to our smoothie bowls will give it a nice creamy consistency, and just enough of a sweet kick—featuring a lot of vitamin A.

Zucchini. Again, opt for a fresh zucchini from your local market and chop and freeze immediately (no need to cook). Adding a handful of frozen zucchini will give your smoothie bowl the green boost it needs while adding to the squash-like texture that makes it spoonful-worthy.

Coconut water. A splash of coconut water is just what we need after sweating it out in a workout. It’s a naturally sweet source of hydration that will add just enough liquid to get your ingredients all blended up.

Skyr. Have you tried Greek yogurt’s new, thicker, higher-protein, lower-sugar, friend: Icelandic yogurt? Skyr is the next thing you’ll want to pitch your local grocery store to order in…it’s hard to find, but well worth the hunt! A single serving (plain) generally has about 21 grams of protein with only two grams of protein.

Here’s my very own go-to smoothie bowl recipe:

Total time: 3 mins
Servings: 1

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Frozen zucchini
125 ml chopped Frozen collard greens
1/4 cup Butternut squash (frozen cubes)
1 scoop Hemp protein powder, vanilla
1/2 cup Skyr plain yogurt
1/4 cup Coconut water
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp Whole grain cereal mix (for topping)
1/4 small Apple (chopped – for topping)
1 tbsp, ground Psyllium seed husk

Instructions:

Preparation is easy and likely a whole lot less strenuous than the workout you just wrapped up 😉 Just throw everything into a high-powered blender and blend until you get an ice-cream consistency—you may need to stop the blender and give it a stir a few times…but it’s totally worth it! End with toppings just as a whole grain (sprouted preferred) cereal mix, and some chopped green apple. 

 

Author: Kiki Athanassoulias 

Image: Author’s Own

Editor: Sara Kärpänen

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