Banana Oat Smoothie with Chocolate Sauce

I'm writing this post now at 1pm on Saturday partly because I'm procrastinating when it comes to doing my long run today (6 miles) and partly because it's the weekend, I have no pressing engagements this afternoon and I can actually take the time to write this! I woke up later today because I went to bed super late but I was productive as soon as I opened my eyes. I donated three big bags of clothes and one big bag of shoes to the farmers market reusable clothing collection. I donated clothes, towels and shoes. It feels great to unload everything and to clean up my apartment. I live in a tiny apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan but damn, I have a lot of shit! Also at the farmers market, I dropped off my compost and bought organic spinach and come organic carrots. Do you collect your food scraps for compost? You should!

Since I started collecting my food scraps, I have no trash, I literally have not put a trashbag in my kitchen trashcan since. My throwaway crap is as follows: food scraps, plastic or paper (recycled) and tissues or other random stuff I throw in my bathroom trash, which amounts to nothing in a week's time. For my food scrap collection, I keep a plastic bag in my freezer, throw all my food scraps in the bag then empty it every Saturday morning at the farmers market a block away from me. It's awesome. I feel like I'm barely making a mark on this planet when it comes to my waste. I no longer feel guilty about throwing mad amounts of banana peels in my regular trashcan. I can put the avocado peels in the scrap bag, I can throw away leftovers (though it doesn't happen often) in the food scrap pile. You can also put used tea bags in your compost bag! Do something today to diminish your carbon footprint. Oh and ladies, I use the Diva Cup now so no more pads and tampons! I bought it on Amazon, read up on it. There are also other menstrual cups out there.

This smoothie came about within minutes. Last night I made a chocolate sauce for my nana ice cream and it was just out of this world scrumptious. So, I made the sauce again today and experimented with my frozen bananas and out came this delish smoothie that is pretty much a dessert. Clean eating can be so delicious and refreshing, I love it!

For the oats, I used the leftover oat pulp from the oat milk I made last night. If you don't make oat milk, just soak some oats in warm water for about an hour before making this smoothie. Or you can always just throw in dried rolled oats but it's better with soaked oats so I recommend that. You can make the chocolate sauce while the smoothie is blending; it literally take a minute, minute and a half. After this smoothie, I'm ready to run. The other reason I procrastinate with my run on weekends sometimes is because Central Park is almost a mile from me and I hate running there, then running around the whole park then running home. So, sometimes I jump the bus and then run when I get there. Sometimes there is alot of planning before you go somewhere in NYC!

So, this week my training went well, although I'm tired. I did weight lifting this week at the gym with my running coach, Runstreet, and a little speed work and two medium runs but I still don't feel as energetic as I remember being when I was training previously. I always compare my training runs to previous training runs and feel myself getting frustrated and annoyed that I don't feel as fast or as excited and motivated to get out there and run. When I trained for my last half marathon, I would have been done my run by now. Instead I'm blogging and doing other things. Which is fine. I just need to chill, I think! And give you this smoothie recipe.

Chocolate sauce (to be used on ANYTHING):

1/2 cup of non dairy milk
2 tbsp of cocoa
3 tbsp of maple syrup or coconut sugar
2 tbsp of coconut oil

Add the milk to a small sauce pan and turn on the heat. Add the cocoa powder, maple syrup and oil and mix well. The oil needs to melt and the cocoa powder needs to blend well into the mixture. Within seconds, the mixture will turn super thick so turn down the heat and keep stirring like crazy. It will be a thick chocolate sauce at this point so keep stirring to blend all the cocoa powder in and make sure the coconut oil is completely liquid. Keep stirring and remove from the heat altogether.

Smoothie:

3 frozen bananas
2 ounces of milk or coconut water
1/4 cup of oat pulp or soaked oats

Blend well. The smoothie will be thin and easy to pour but the oats give it heartiness when you drink it. Pour into a mason jar and add the chocolate sauce. You will have alot of chocolate sauce so if you want to save some, transfer it to a small glass, airtight dish and refrigerate. Keep adding on the chocolate sauce and serve. Because the sauce isn't heated for that long, it should not be scorching hot.

Notes: the only real healthy fat in this recipe is the coconut oil so I don't think this recipe needs to be lower in fat. You can skip the oil but your sauce won't be as thick and rich. Add more sweetener to the sauce if the cocoa powder taste is overpowering. Add almond butter and just go nuts and make a sundae. Use any non dairy milk you wish. This recipe makes about 3 cups of smoothie.

Did you follow me on facebook yet? I'm going to keep posting half marathon updates and more clean fabulous vegan recipes!!