The Organic Climber – Blogging about climbing, RAW foods, vegetarianism, running and cycling.

Mixed Berry and Almond Butter Smoothie

Greetings! I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. I apologize for not posting more this week, I took off an extra day of work and headed out to Shelf Road in Colorado for a long weekend of climbing.  Despite a bit of rain, two long days of driving and not getting in a long run like I hoped the weekend was amazing! Photos and trip report to follow later this week! Anyway, on with Smoothie Tuesday…

The Mixed Berry Smoothie is pretty much my standard post climbing and or run smoothie! It’s extremely delicious, 100% raw and easy to make!  I typically add hemp seed protein to my smoothie too to help with muscle recovery, plus as a vegetarian I need a good protein source.

The Recipe:

• ½ of a 10oz bag of mixed berries
• ½ a banana (frozen are best, but optional)
• 4 TBSP of raw honey (use agave nectar if you want it to be vegan)
• 4 TBSP of raw almond butter
• 2 TBSP of hemp seed protein (optional)
• 1 TBSP of greens powder or a hand full of fresh greens if you have them on hand (optional)
• 1/2 – 3/4 cups of almond or hemp seed milk. Hemp Seed Milk is my favorite.

Add ingredients to a high-speed blender, I use a Vita-Mix! I often find myself wondering how I have survived eating a high-raw diet without this precious piece of machinery. I highly recommend them; and just in case you were considering a Blendtec, I will say the Vita-Mix has the marked advantage of variable speed that it’s competitor does not offer, additionally the Vita-Mix provides a tamper to help push ingredients down into the blades.

The health benefits of this drink are numerous. It’s anti-inflammatory (great for post workout), rich in anti-oxidants, provides you with a large portion of your daily fruits and veggies, and is an excellent source of protein – essential for muscle recovery after a run or climbing workout.

There are many variations of this smoothie as well. When I am in the mood for something really sweet and don’t want to dull down the flavor of my drink any with the hemp seed powder I use the mixed berries and almond butter only with about ½ cup of maple syrup. This is were the Vita-Mix comes in handy as well, you can use the tamper to push the berries down into the blades, this way you don’t need excess fluids to keep things churning.  So, get creative and see what variations you can come up with; feel free to post them in the comments.