Vegan Chocolate Monkey Smoothie

I know what you need in your life.

A healthy chocolate, banana smoothie that's so good it tastes like a milkshake.

My weekday breakfast & lunch eating is fairly simple, and it includes a smoothie 4 days out of 5. A shake is almost always my breakfast of choice on the days I go into the city, partly because they're healthy and keep me full for hours, partly because they're quick and I can take them in the car with me to drink on the way to the bus station, and partly because they're just so good and I crave them constantly.

Depending on my mood or the fruit I'm using, I'll use either whole milk or coconut water as the liquid in the smoothie. I typically use Cocozia because it's organic, one-ingredient (no additives) and comes from young green coconuts, unlike many mainstream varieties. When I found out they were offering chocolate coconut water, I couldn't wait to try it out.

Jackpot. This coconut water tastes like chocolate milk, is slightly thick, and gives smoothies a nice deep cocoa flavor and creamy texture without having to use milk (good for vegans, and good for when you want a creamier smoothie but the health benefits of coconut water). This chocolate version does have some sugar and other ingredients that are not in the plain coconut water, but all the ingredients are readable and there is nothing nasty in it. 

Blend it up with frozen bananas and peanut butter, and you've got dessert for breakfast.

Vegan Chocolate Monkey Smoothie

Ingredients

1 frozen banana, chopped
1 scoop vanilla or chocolate protein powder (I use Natural Factors Raw Organic Vegan Protein*)
1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. natural peanut butter
6 oz. chocolate coconut water

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

*Protein powders are not all created equal. Make sure you read the ingredients on the label or you could be ingesting a lot of sugars, fake flavors and synthetic vitamins. 

Note: This post was sponsored by Cocozia. As always, however, all opinions are my own.