The Nutrition Mechanic is a smoothie fan, if you didn’t already know. But not just any ol’ smoothie. They need to be filling, tasty, metabolically efficient, and provide decent nutritional value. Bonus points if they contain chocolate.
I recently had some extra fresh mint and thought “oooh…I’ve never added fresh mint to a smoothie!” Many of the recipes out there on the interwebs call for peppermint extract, which is okay, but there’s something to be said for fresh herbs. Yes, even if they are being blenderized!
Here’s a pic of the ingredients I decided to use:
And the recipe:
- 8 oz toasted coconut-almond milk, unsweetened
- 1 scoop Thorne chocolate whey protein isolate (~20 gm of protein)
- 1/2 avocado, medium-sized
- 2 Tbsp shredded, unsweetened coconut
- 1 Tbsp cacao nibs
- mint leaves, I used 8 large leaves
- ice (3-4 cubes)
You can add more milk or water if you would like more volume, although this will lessen the thickness of the smoothie. Certainly experiment with adding more mint if you want the extra minty kick.
Minty Cocoa Smoothie macronutrient profile:
400 calories
16 gm carbohydrate
10.5 gm fiber
24 gm protein
27 gm fat
Carb to Protein Ratio = 0.5 to 1
If you need a touch more carbohydrate to support your upcoming exercise or training, you can add 1/2 of a large banana. I keep extra bananas in the freezer (peeled) for these instances and make them for my husband who does exercise at a different time of day than me. Of course, I have to taste the smoothies I make for him… you know, just to be sure they are, ahem, palatable. Adding the extra banana made the smoothie consistency even more creamy and delightfully sweet.
For the Minty ABC (avo-banana-cocoa) Smoothie, the macronutrient profile works out to be:
475 calories
33 gm carbohydrate
12.5 gm fiber
25 gm protein
27 gm fat
Carb to Protein Ratio = 1:1
Enjoy, dear readers! And please share a picture of your smoothie if you make this recipe over on the Nutrition Mechanic Facebook page or tag me on Instagram! Find more metabolically efficient smoothie recipes in the eNRG Performance e-book.
-Dina
Your Smoothie Loving Nutrition Mechanic