Mocha Mint Protein Smoothie & Vegan MOFO 2013

Happy Vegan Month of Food 2013! It’s that time again, when your favorite food bloggers will be amping it up and putting out lots of great new recipes and info on their blogs. And there are some great themes this year. Some of the blogs I’ve been checking in with so far will be spending the month on yeast, raw food, and peanut butter and jelly! I’ve decided not to go with any particular theme, so we’ll just have to see where the path takes us. I do have some great recipes and ingredients planned, though, so make sure you check back in!

You can find the complete listing of Vegan MOFO bloggers here.

Today’s recipe was born out of the need for something quick and easy, one of those “I just need to get something into me” times. Some of you may know that I have kind of a love-hate relationship with breakfast. I love breakfast things, but I often kind of hate eating in the mornings. Once I get up and get going on what I need to do for the day, I don’t like to stop for breakfast. I know, I know…. breakfast is the most important meal of the day .  I’m working on it  🙂  …

And if you’ve been following any of my Facebook posts recently, you know that I’ve started running in the past couple of months, and lately it’s been in the morning because it’s still so hot here in the afternoons. Put together first thing in the morning strenuous activity and a non-breakfast eater and you’ve got trouble. So now I’m becoming a morning smoothie lover because it’s so fast, easy and nutritious. I usually make fruity green smoothies, but sometimes will change things up with something like this Mocha Mint Smoothie (and if you’re not into the mocha part, you can leave out the coffee for an amazing chocolate mint smoothie!).

Mocha Mint Protein Smoothie

• 1 banana (frozen is best)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (the stuff from the coconut or a package, not a can)
• 1 cup strong coffee
• 1 tablespoon ground flax
• several fresh mint leaves
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I used Vega Choc-o-Lat) or 1 scoop of your protein powder of choice and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• a dash of cinnamon if desired
• ice

Put all ingredients into the blender and blend into a frothy delicious smoothie!

And tomorrow we’re going to be putting a new spin on one of everyone’s favorite comfort foods …..