Protein Acai Bowl

Acai Bowls are one of my most favorite breakfast treats or afternoon snacks.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know I am obsessed with Acai Bowls.  By now I'm sure you have heard of Acai and it's wonderful health benefits.  This fruit which hails from Brazil, has gained a lot of popularity in the past several years.  During one of my trips home to Hawaii it seemed that the Acai Bowl had swept the island and this delicious treat was available everywhere.  One bite and I fell in love!  To the simple eye it might look like a simple parfait, but somehow it's so much more than that. 

One of my favorite places to get an Acai Bowl when I am home is at Blue Hawaii in Ala Moana Shopping Center.  I have yet to find an Acai Bowl as delicious as any that I've had in Hawaii, in a pinch I will go to Robeks or Jamba Juice to quench my Acai cravings.  That was until I discovered these Acai packets at Whole Foods and could make my own!  I've been playing around with adding Protein Powder into the mix and I love the results.  This is a breakfast that will keep you full till lunch. 

Acai Bowl at Blue Hawaii

Protein Acai Bowl

1/2 of an Acai Smoothie Pack
6 oz Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (Or any other liquid you want to substitue)
1 scoop Banana/Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1 cup frozen berries (I used strawberry and blueberry mix)
1 Tbsp Flaxseeds
Honey
Granola
Fresh Fruit (Sliced Banana, Strawberries, blueberries, etc)

1.  Run Acai smoothie pack under water for a couple of seconds.  Snap frozen pack in half, cut open and place half into blender. 

2.  Fill blender with almond milk, protein powder and berries and blend until a smooth consistency.  *You can add more liquid if you would like to turn this into a smoothie*

This pic has sliced banana's but I actually like it better without when adding Protein Powder

3.  Pour mixture into a bowl.  Top with a couple handfuls of granola, sliced bananas and berries.  *At this point if you wanted to add in additional nutrients like green tea powder, spriulina, noni juice, flaxseeds, etc layer it on to the Acai mixture* 
4.  Drizzle honey over entire mixture.  *The better the honey you have, the more awesome it tastes!  In Hawaii one of my favorite places uses locally grown Lehua Honey which kicks it up a notch*

The combinations for this are endless.  Yesterday I added some spinach into my Acai mixture and squeezed some lime over the mixture to give it some added freshness and tang.  Hope you give this a try, Acai Bowls are the new parfait!!  I really hope this gets more popular in LA, cause I would love to find a place like Blue Hawaii up here, for when I'm out and about.

Pumpkin Coconut Crunch Granola

Warm weather fun is just around the corner...  One of my favorite breakfasts on the go is yogurt and granola!  There are tons of granola recipes all over the web.  But one day I stumbled upon the recipe from A Couple Cooks, and they had broken granola down to a mathematical formula.  This was perfect!  It would allow me to create MY favorite mix of elements than trying to combine various recipes.  I had wanted to re-create my seasonal favorite Trader Joe's pumpkin granola but add a few touches to it as well.

For me a good granola is one that has lots of crispy crunchies.  In fact the Trader Joe's one that I love has large corn puffs mixed in with the oats.  The second element that I like is really chewy raisins or other fruit.  Some recipes like to add those in after baking, but I like them to shrivel in the oven more and bake in extra goodness.  I also tried to add in some Flax Seeds, since they are a great source of Omega 3's as well as provide you with a lot of antioxidants. 

Pumpkin Coconut Crunch Granola
loosely adapted from A Couple Cooks

2 cups Corn Pops
4 cups Oats
1 1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup flaxseeds
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pumpkin butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup dried fruit (raisin, craisins, dried raspberries, etc)

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  In a large bowl mix all of the dried ingredients except the coconut and mix till evenly dispersed. 
2.  In a separate bowl mix vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt, honey and pumpkin butter.  Spoon wet mixture over dry ingredients and mix until evenly coated. 
3.  Spread onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes till golden brown.  Stir mixture every 15 minutes, lowering oven temperature if the mixture is browning too quickly.  Add the coconut in during the last 15 minutes. 
4.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Store in air tight container.

Sometimes I munch on this plain with some Almond milk, but I love it with yogurt or on an Acai Bowl!