Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Sadly…very sadly… the summer is over. But one way I like to keep those summer vibes glowing all year long is through my morning fruit smoothie. Those who know me, know I don’t do mornings, so my morning smoothies are never complicated because I frankly don’t have time. I use maybe 3-4 ingredients, and I always include a ton of fruit – typically frozen.

My base is typically juice, or non-dairy milk – really whatever is in my fridge so sometimes it’s water. Here I’ve used Silk unsweetened original almond milk. It’s a great dairy alternative, with no added sugar and non-gmo project verified.

I have only ever used Vega powders in my smoothies, been using them in some form for at lest 8 years.  Their ingredients are simple and clean with no dairy, sugar or soy, and non-gmo project verified. Vega One French Vanilla is a staple in my kitchen and is what I chose to use here.

For the creamsicle flavouring, I chose to use a whole naval orange. Clementines would work well if in season, or even orange juice. The recipe I used called for strawberries. I always have multiple bags of frozen strawberries in my freezer for my morning smoothies. The recipe calls for one cup, but I felt that was to many, it really over powered the orange, so I would use less next time. I also used half a banana to thicken it up. I didn’t use ice, but you certainly could to also make it thicker.

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Ingredients

  • 2 small clementine or 1 navel orange
  • 1 cup Silk® Unsweetened Almond milk
  • 1 frozen banana (or 1 ripe banana plus 1/2 cup ice)
  • 1 cup frozen strawberries
  • 1 cup Vanilla Vega® Essentials
  • or your favorite vanilla Vega protein powder)

Preparation

  1. Add all ingredients to blender.
  2. Blend until smooth.
  3. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Chantal Denis, Chef at Vega HQ.

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This smoothie was delicious. The orange certainly added more texture, I used a standard blender vs a fancy high speed one, but it only added to the punch of ornage flavour. I think next time I might use a chocolate protein and definitely less strawberries. This was my first time using almond milk in a smoothie, and to be honest I couldn’t taste much of the flavour over all the fruit, so I think that’s a good thing – no weird taste and all the nutrients.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

This post has been sponsored by Vega and Silk as part of their Build a Better Smoothie campaign. The opinions and text are all mine.

Wild About It: Vega Watermelon & Strawberry Smoothie

Wild About it Wednesday(1)Last weekend we bought a watermelon and sliced it all up to store in ready to eat containers throughout the week (they lasted 3 days). As the watermelon was room temperature we added some to the freezer for a cool snack later on – and we forgot it was there. So now with a bowl of frozen watermelon smoothies were at the top of the breakfast list, and thanks to quick tweet from Vega I had just the recipe I needed.

The smoothie is sweet and fruity. I used the nutritional shake I had, although I bet the suggested Vanilla would’ve made this treat even sweeter.

Note this recipe makes 2 servings. View the original recipe here.

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Ingredients

  • 2 cups frozen watermelon chunks
  • 1 cup frozen strawberries
  • 2 cup coconut water
  • 1 serving Coconut Almond Vega One™ Nutritional Shake
  • 2 Tbsp hemp hearts
  • Optional: 1 Tbsp maple syrup

Add all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Enjoy!

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DIY Power Up Protein Balls

On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a Vega launch of their new Vega Sport plant-based line of sport fuel. The event was attended by nutritionists and fitness professionals from around Toronto. As you can imagine there was a ton of great food, and lots of great conversation.

One of the speakers was Jessica Morris who is one of Vega’s Educators and she shared this amazing recipe for make it yourself protein balls. After trying them at the seminar, I just knew I had to make them at home. I did, and here is the recipe for you:

Vega Educator Jessica Morris’s  Power Up Protein Balls

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup large flake oats (gluten free)
  • 2/3 cup Vega sport performance protein – vanilla or chocolate
  • 1/4 cup ground chia or flax seeds
  • 2 tablespoons whole chia seeds
  • 1 bar vega maca chocolate bar chipped
  • 3/4 c almond butter
  • 1/3 c agave nectar or maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp vega antioxidant omega oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

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Directions:

  • Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well
  • Round into bite size balls approx 1″
  • Freeze what you don’t eat to enjoy after your next work out or run!

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How It Turned Out:

I didn’t have most of the ingredients, so it was a somewhat costly shopping trip (chia, flax, almond butter oh my!), however now I do, so look forward to making them again – especially for my Iron Man training sister.

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The hardest part (although it isn’t hard) was definitely breaking up the maca chocolate bar – I unwrapped it and put it in a sandwich bag and took a rolling pin to it – it wasn’t hard, but was the most time consuming part.

I’ve also learned that the mystery ingredient in the Vega One bars which I love are the chia seeds. I love post bite when they are stuck in your teeth and grow but still have that crunchy bit (to much information?).

I’ve had three protein balls so far today (post run and yoga) and have stored the rest in my freezer as Jessica had directed. They are totally delicious, so if you’re a DIYer give them a try!

For more information about Vega Sport and their fueling system click here.

For Vega recipes, videos, meal plans, shopping lists, printable reference guides, in-depth articles, and more check out their Thrive Forward Sport Edition program available here!