I’m on a health kick… again. Remember, I strive for progress not perfection blah, blah, blah… but with this smoothie, I don’t feel like I have to give anything up!

This is the summer of oatmeal and coconut. Lately, I can’t seem to make a recipe that does not call for one or both of these items on the ingredient list and I look for any excuse to sneak them both into any recipe. Case in point: Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Smoothie.
We leave this Friday for our annual family trip to the Beach House in Aptos, CA a.k.a the greatest place on earth! I capitalize Beach House, not because that is what the house is called but because that it was what we call it. I even refer to it as our Beach House, despite the fact that we only rent it for one week out of the year, because we’ve been going there as a family since before I can remember. We took a hiatus during the high school/college years but we’ve been going back now for the past 5 years and I look forward to it every summer.

I come from a family that is weight conscious. What I mean is that we’re always watching our figures and claim we can’t eat dessert yet, we always eat the dessert! We even do this thing where we’ll eat half the cookie and leave the other half on the plate. And if someone doesn’t eat that  half of cookie within the 30 second window it takes to eat our half, we grab that second half and eat it too. And chances are, we’ll usually go back for a second and third cookie later on. Ya, we’re the family with pieces of cookies left on the plate, half eaten donuts in the box, and leftover pie that is just the filling.
So in attempt to eat somewhat healthy from now until the beach, where cookies are baked fresh every night and we sometimes eat donuts for breakfast, I’ll be drinking a few of these smoothies. Similar to Haystack Energy Bites, this smoothie is chock-full of flavor but without all the added sugar. Of course, the one thing that would make it better- Oreo pieces… But that’s for another day. Hope you enjoy!

-Kelly

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1 tbsp peanut butter, or any nut butter
• 1 tbsp coconut, unsweetened
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• almond milk (I use Blue Diamond Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk), as needed
• ice cubes, as needed

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in blender and blend until well combined. For a thicker smoothie, use less milk and more ice. Pour in glass and enjoy!