Build-a-Bear NAILED IT with overpriced customizable stuffed animals. Now, juice bars nationwide are serving you fifteen dollar bowls of diabetes. Well, sometimes. They’re just there to honor your requests, not berate you for unwittingly adding 700 grams of sugar to your snack.
How to build an #essenceapproved bowl? Line up your customized aforementioned bears, let’s go BOWLING.
- Your base is probably going to be acai, which is a muddled Amazonian berry. It’s nutritious, but pretty tart, so that’s why it’s often jazzed up with other fruits. But then you get that sugar rush – womp. Stick with your acai as your base, and it IS a fruit, and you should really only eat one fruit at a time, so keep that in mind
- You can make it oh-so-creamy by blending it with almond or coconut milk, ideally of the unsweetened variety. This will add some calcium and healthy fat as well.
- When kale / spinach are blended, they REALLY don’t taste like anything so you might as well turn your bowl a nice hunter green and add some fiber / Vitamin K / antioxidants up in here by blending in some greens.
- Time for FAT. Fat will liberate the fat-soluble nutrients held in purgatory in your bowl. Add some almond / peanut butter, OR hemp seeds, OR flaxseeds, OR a protein powder (grass-fed whey or vegan) OR coconut oil (which doesn’t have the protein / fiber / vitamins of the formers, but has that tropical tang). You should NOT just pile on the fats like they’re on sale. Peanut butter (organic) is just ALWAYS my flavor fav (FLAVAA FLAVVV MISS YOU), hands down.
- NOW you can top it. A DRIZZLE of honey is fine, a GOB of it is not. If you’re not watching your weight, sprinkle on some chopped dates. Cacao nibs are ALWAYS a good idea – they’re packed with magnesium, iron, and are sugar-free, medicinal chocolate. Perhaps a teaspoon of hempseeds or shaved unsweetened coconut – but remember – these fats add up! Perhaps ONE sliced strawberry for Instagram aesthetic. Some mint / ginger to garnish, anti-inflammatory style.
- Sidenote: I’m not sure why this isn’t more of a ‘thing’ – but you can totally blend coffee into your bowl for a caffeinated zing.
- Other side note, eat this stuff slowly, or else – BRAINFREEZE.
- NOW you can see how a bowl with 800 different things = 800 different calories. So keep it simple, keep it #essenceapproved, and share with us, please!
Essentially Yours,
The Essence Dietitian Team