Hello friends! I just finished this awesome smoothie and I had to tell you about it because it’s life altering! Now you might think, “Why is she so excited about a smoothie?” Well, I’ll tell you why. It contains one of my favorite things- coffee. I love coffee more than most things in life. It’s one of my three favorite liquids- water, coffee and wine. Coffee’s reputation has been totally rejuvenated these days, as it used to be universally vilified and the supposed source of all kinds of health problems. I’m very happy though that now coffee is known to be GOOD for you and can help protect against many heinous diseases like Parkinson’s, liver cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Coffee drinkers are also less likely to die than non coffee drinkers, like 8-15% less likely to die. That sounds good to me.

Why is coffee so good for you, you ask? Good question! Here’s why, it contains chlorogenic acid, lignans, quinides, trigonelline, and magnesium which reduces inflammation and insulin resistance. It’s also the number 1 source of antioxidants in the American diet. Antioxidants are chemical compounds that fight the damage to your DNA caused by day to day life. Now most of the studies have been done on caffeinated coffee so researchers are not sure that the health benefits are the same for decaf coffee. And remember, we are not talking about the zillion calorie, full of sugar drinks from your favorite coffee shop, because we know that the damage caused by all that sugar far outweighs the benefits of the coffee. I’m talking about healthy coffee.  See my previous blog post, https://vitalvaldecap.com/2014/10/22/healthy-coffee-is-my-favorite-way-to-start-the-day/, for more information on how to have a healthy cup of coffee.

So that brings me back to my coffee smoothie- talk about healthy! I never really thought about coffee in a smoothie. I don’t drink smoothies very often because they are usually filled with things that aren’t very healthy, and they can really be quite calorie laden. I ran across this recipe on Prevention.com and what I liked about it is that it was lower in calories and sugar. It was also filled with ingredients I really enjoy so I thought, “What the heck, I’ll give it a try.” And I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you today.

Delicious Coffee Smoothie

• 3/4 cup almond milk (or any milk of choice)
• 1/2 cup cold coffee or coffee ice cubes
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• Pinch of salt

The first thing you have to do is put a peeled banana in the freezer a few hours before you plan to make this smoothie. I always put my overly ripe bananas, you know the ones that no one wants because they’re black and smooshy, into a freezer bag and store them in the freezer until I need them. The second step is to brew a cup of coffee and put it in the fridge to cool. I pull a shot of espresso the night before I’m going to make this smoothie and put it in the fridge. You can make coffee ice cubes too but I don’t have any ice cube trays so that’s out for me.

Next you add the first four ingredients (almond milk, coffee, banana, and cocoa powder) into the blender and whirl.

Last, add the final ingredients (peanut butter and salt) and give it a second whirl to combine.

And there you have it! The smoothie is sweet, but not too sweet, chocolatey, and the hint of salt from the peanut butter and salt really brings out the wonderful flavors of the smoothie. It’s also healthy for you at only 240 calories per serving, 7 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, and 11 grams of fat, it’s a great meal substitute. You get your meal and your coffee all in one, what could be better than that?!! Drinking healthy coffee smoothies will help you live a life of vitality-with Valerie!