I’ve been reading like crazy lately. Wheat Belly. The Anti-Inflammation Diet. The Anti-Inflammation Zone. The Candida Diet. The Mucous-less Diet. The Gluten-Free Diet. All that, plus about eight others whose names I can’t remember at the moment, and I’m not home to run and check. (I’m writing this while waiting in my dermatologist’s office. Yay for The WordPress app for iPhone!)
Anyway, all that reading is getting through. Things are changing in our house — not with reluctance, but with excitement. Dave and I are looking forward to more energy, less prescription bottles, and better sleep. I hope you’re up to tagging along via my posts here, because everything I’m learning is so fascinating that I don’t think I can keep it to myself.
As I went through those books, I started dropping things from my diet, one-by-one. Gluten went first, followed by sugar, and then dairy, and then all processed foods. It was all pretty painless, actually, once I began to understand why those things were hurting my body. But one thing that was a little hard to walk away from was ice cream. That’s always been my weakness. But with both sugar and dairy gone, so went ice cream (or so I thought). So I’m pretty happy with how this shake turned out. It’s a take-off from a peanut butter-banana shake I’ve already been making for about five years. Just a tiny bit of cocoa powder added to my usual recipe really hit my craving today.
This is thick, rich, and icy cold. It has all the makings of guilt … but no follow-through. There’s not a thing in here that’s bad for you, but plenty that’s good. I think you should try it. Today.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Shake
- 1 banana, which you previously broke into pieces and froze in a baggie (if you didn’t think to do this ahead of time, you can use a regular banana, but you’ll then need to add a cup or more of ice cubes to the blender)
- 1 big scoop of peanut butter (see picture below)
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 TBSP (or more) unsweetened cocoa powder
Put all in a blender (I use my VitaMix) and blend well. If it’s not chocolately enough for your tastes, add another half TBSP and see how you like that. If it’s not icy enough for you, you can always add a few ice cubes to the mix.
P.S. I find this sweet enough with the banana, but if you need yours a little sweeter, you can always add a dash of honey or agave nectar.
Enjoy … with zero guilt! 😀
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I make something very similar. I use choc almond milk and unsweetened almond milk, cashew butter made by me with nothing but cashews, and a scoop of protein powder, Tbls cacao powder, and a banana. DELICIOUS!
That sounds great, Terri! I’ll have to try your version. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Exciting changes. While you are reading and learning, take a look here:
http://www.juiceplus.com. Please take a good look through all the information – this is NOT a sales plug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc This is a link to a lecture from a doctor with MS, and how she changed the course of the condition by changing what she ate.
I look forward to reading about how the changes impact your life…. and more recipes!
This sounds delicious… as does Terri’s. Can’t wait to try them. I’m always looking for some way to have chocolate 🙂 , especially now that I’m trying not to eat much sugar. So many nutritionists say sugar causes cancer, though my doctors don’t seem to know about it.
I’ve been mixing one in the blender you might enjoy too… Fresh blueberries, a couple spoons of organic unsweetened applesauce, teaspoon of cinnamon and unsweetened almond milk. It looks strange, very purple! But tastes wonderful. The applesauce even add sweetness though it doesn’t have added sugar, and also thickens it like ice cream.