April is going to be a great month everyone, just fantastic, I can feel it in my bones!
Why? Well… I have lots of exciting things planned for the blog, like today’s super awesome GIVEAWAY… who doesn’t like free stuff… and free AWESOME stuff at that?!
Also, the hubby and I are packing our bags in a couple weeks and jetting off to Hawaii to escape the (still) winter cold here in the Canadian prairies… yep, we pretty much get winter until June here.
Oh, and I am in the midst of writing another guest post for a fantastic, well-known, health blogger that I just adore!!! How cool that I get to post on her blog!? (stay tuned to hear more about this one, which I kind of have to keep under wraps right now… but the excitement is killing me!).
So yeah, APRIL you ROCK – let’s do this!
Ok, now – this recipe. What can I say about it… well, three words kind of do all the explaining..
Black.
Forest.
Cake.
In a smoothie…? With lots of healthy protein…? And antioxidants..? And other good for you food..??
Why, yes!!! It’s almost too good to be true!
Ok, so what do we really have in this magical smoothie? Well, we have all the wonderful, delicious, “O.M.G.” flavors of Black Forest Cake… chocolate, more chocolate, cherries, and more chocolate!
North Coast Naturals was kind enough to send me a whole tickle trunk of goodies, to sample, and use to make delicious recipes such as this one! I had SO much fun testing out their products!
As you may already know, I am a big fan of North Coast Naturals and truly stand behind their products. When they saw that I was using their protein powder in so many of my smoothies, they offered to send me some different products to see what I could make out of them!
So, Thank You, North Coast Naturals, like April, you ALSO ROCK!
North Coast Naturals is of course, also the provider of the products for the GIVEAWAY today!
So one of you lucky readers also gets to try out some of their awesome products for freeeee!
Ok, so back to my protein smoothie.
I used the North Coast Naturals Raw Hemp Smoothie mix as the base. There are a few fantastic things that I love about this product.
a) It tastes delicious. yum, like dark chocolate, with almost a hint of espresso (although it doesn’t contain any, I just get a little taste of that, which is also why it worked so wonderfully in this smoothie)
b) It’s all natural, and FULL of good-for-you ingredients such as hemp protein, pumpkin seed powder, fair trade organic cocoa, sprouted brown rice protein powder, spirulina, and probiotics!!
c) It has 10… ten.. TEN grams of easily-digestible-for-keepin’-you-regular fiber per 2 tablespoons! (HELLO, admit it, we all love fiber – seriously, who doesn’t like being a good pooper?!)
It is also naturally sweetened with no refined sugars or artificial sweeteners in sight!
Along with the Raw Hemp Smoothie Mix, I used frozen banana, frozen cherries (which, if they are in season where you are, I would totally use fresh!), raw cocoa powder, dark chocolate shavings, ice, and water.
The banana provides a punch of potassium, the cherries, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate all provide ample amounts of antioxidants, and the raw hemp tops it all of with protein, fiber, and love.
Yes, love.
It’s in there somewhere, I could just feel it when mowed down on this delicious smoothie.
Now, just to give you the option, you can always use any other chocolate protein powder you want in this recipe – but please, for the sake of loving your body, make sure it’s clean, with no refined or artificial ingredients! It would just break my heart to see this smoothie made with a protein powder chock full of aspartame or sucralose. 🙁
- 2 scoops North Coast Naturals Chocolate Hemp Protein Powder
- ½ cup frozen pitted cherries (or fresh if they are in season!)
- ½ frozen banana
- 1 tablespoon raw cocoa powder
- ¼ cup water or unsweetened almond milk
- 4 ice cubes
- 1 teaspoon dark chocolate shavings to garnish
- Place the protein powder, cherries, banana, cocoa powder, ice, and water into a blender and blend to a thick smooth consistency.
- Garnish with a cherry and dark chocolate shavings.
- Devour!
Ok, I know you have been patiently waiting for it…
The Giveaway!
This giveaway will be active until Tuesday at 11:59pm so enter with all the options to get as many entries as you can!
Share, tweet, pin, love! I will notify the winner once they have been randomly selected! Ok, go!!!
Follow this link to get to the GIVEAWAY ENTRY SCREEN
——–> a Rafflecopter Giveaway <———-
*Giveaway Has Ended*
DISCLAIMER
*The product(s) used for this recipe and post were provided to me by North Coast Naturals. Aside from the actual product(s) used to create the recipe and provided for the giveaway, I did not receive any monetary compensation from North Coast Naturals and the opinions/review of the product(s) are entirely my own (Christal of Nutritionist in the Kitch).
This sounds Devine! Been thinking about getting some protein powder and this one sounds delish and sooo good for me!
Definitely is Pat! 🙂
YUMMM!! Excited about your giveaway!! Love cherries in my smoothies.
Thanks Roselyn!
My favorite protein-rich smoothie is really simple:
Water
5 ice cubes
Handful of spinach
Handful of Strawberries
Scoop of Chocolate Whey
Your recipe sounds much better!! I need to try it out soon. Thank you for the giveaway too!
Simple and delicious! THanks Christine!
I don’t do many protein smoothies simply because I haven’t found many protein powders that don’t upset my stomach… 🙁
I couldn’t before either, but North Coast Naturals has probiotics and enzymes in theirs which helps with digestion – I have a super sensitive stomach and both of the whey and hemp have been good in my system!
Wow! An all natural hemp protein powder! We don’t get that over here, sadly, well not ones that taste good anyhow. The ones I have is a 90% protein one from Nature’s Garden (the other ones had added sweetners) and one hemp one with strawberry flavour which is slightly questionable…will check the lable when I get back form work.
Do you know if this company sells their protein powder and ship worldwide without being beyond expensive?
Also, when I had a chat with a PT about nutrition and exercise, he told me I could drink whatever without counting the calories as these would almost immediately be automatically burnt off during exercise and so I didn’t have to worry about it.
I have been trying to gain a little weight after a massive life style change and make sure to get around 1800-2100 calories a day, making sure I get enough MANfuel as the PT called it 😛
This recipe looks absolutely gorgeous! *wants local health shop to supply it here in Glasgow*
I hope you have a wonderful weekend! And yes, April does already have a great feel to it!
xox NorwegianInScotland
Thanks so much Julie! I’m not sure about their shipping costs! It’s worth taking a look! Lol I love that “MANfuel”.. haha I make sure I get a lot too!! Happy to have you on the blog from Glasgow! 🙂
Looks yummy!
Thanks Emily!
Sounds great is it available locally ( Edmonton)?
Sure is! Superstore and Bulk Barn carry it … I think shoppers might too!
Thank you! This is my favorite smoothie I buy, now I’ll try making this one…..
You are welcome Deanna! THis is a must try! 🙂
Would LOVE this
It’s delicious Janine! 🙂
I’ve been looking for a good protein powder that is natural without fake sweetners. Hoping it also comes in vanilla. I’ll google them. 🙂
I’ve got a bag of frozen cherries I’ve been wanting to get out.
I don’t think the smoothie mix comes in Vanilla, but the 100% Whey isolate does!
Joyce, you should try Arbonne — it’s vegan, gluten, dairy, & soy free — their protein comes in vanilla & chocolate (the vanilla is sweet so it’s really good even on its own). I mix it with almond milk it’s super creamy! Let me know if you want some samples, [email protected]