Any time I find a fairly healthy snack that tastes good too, I get excited. I’m going to do my best to keep track and share them with you. If you don’t like them, no prob. If you have an alternate idea or change to a recipe, feel free to share it!

I’m attempting to eat healthy. I say attempting because I honestly know how to do it, it’s the keeping up with the choices and not getting lazy that gets me all the time. Fall is almost here and I just happen to love fall food so it’s easier for me to get excited about cooking at home. My sister and I are kicking the mid-month off with a program to stay fit and I’m hoping to document it here, to talk about the struggles of keeping focused on being healthy every day.

One of the biggest challenges for me is breakfast. I don’t like breakfast very much and I’m not usually hungry right when I wake up. As a result I find myself fueling up on coffee getting, shaky and hungry, my mind racing so fast I can’t decide what to eat and I start to get anxious and irritable. Not a great start to the day. So I’ve been challenged with making breakfast a priority.

I’m also not into juicing. Not that there is anything wrong with it at all. If you like juicing go for it. For some reason I just have a mental block that will not allow me to juice. Honestly, it’s the idea of cleaning the juicer every day. Am I the only one who finds it super challenging to clean a juicer?! Perhaps I’m just lazy. Either way I need to do what works for me to keep me eating nice and healthy.

Here is my first recipe which can be used as a breakfast, snack, or heck you can have it for dinner if you’d like. All I know is it tastes good, gives me an energy boost from the protein and is a nice sweet option without a bunch of added sugars. Here goes, let me know how you like it or how you make it better!

Banana Almond Protein Shake
½ frozen banana (we buy bananas in bulk, pre-slice and freeze them)
1 TBL of almond butter (I prefer crunchy but get what you like)
1 TSP of high quality unsweetened cocoa powder (I love Lake Champlain)
¼ cup of rolled oats
1 TSP vanilla
1/4 TSP of cinnamon
1 cup Almond milk (you can sub for regular milk, coconut milk or any other non-dairy beverage you like)
1 TSP of protein powder (whatever kind you use)

Adjust the amount of ingredients to your liking (I use ¼ cup of oats and 1 tablespoon of almond butter) and blend. I can’t stress the individuality of the recipe enough. If you don’t like vanilla, leave it out. If you’re not an almond butter person, use peanut butter instead. Make it your own creation that will get you excited to eat it and enjoy! It’s important that you enjoy your food, it will bring you joy which is healthy!!

One last thing, I’ve got the Ninja with the single serve cups, which are easy to use for single serve stuff. Use what you've got but I have to say, I love the Ninja.