We LOVE Acai bowls. If you’ve never tried one, they are a bowl of frozen Acai Berries and other fruit blended with coconut, soy or almond milk. This thick frozen goodness is topped with variations of granola/bananas/berries/nuts & honey. They are SOOO GOOD! Unfortunately, we have no good local Acai spots and Acai berries are expensive to purchase. Our solution is the following wanna be “Acai” bowl (sans acai). This is our breakfast of choice 85% of mornings.

Wanna Be Bowl:

Blend the frozen fruit, almond milk, protein powder & water together n a blender.  We splurged on a Vita-mix – aka the “world’s greatest blender” with money from our wedding in 2007 (7 yrs and it’s still going strong) but any blender would do.  I typically use about 1 cup of almond milk and then add water as needed to get the consistency right.

• Frozen Organic Blueberries
• Frozen Organic Strawberries
• Almond Milk (1-2 cups)
• Vegan Vanilla Protien Powder (we usually buy SunWarrior Blend, but I just discovered MRM Veggie Elite Protein which is really good and way cheaper than SunWarrior)
• Water (to desired consistency)

TOPPINGS FOR BOWL:

• Fresh Bananas/Strawberries/Blueberries for topping
• Granola
• Honey, Agave or Maple Syrup

I can’t bring myself to purchase granola as I think it is way overpriced and typically really high calorie, so I make our own. It’s way healthier and super cheap/easy.

Granola Ingredients:

• Rolled Oats (one large cardboard container)
• Agave Nectar or Maple Syrup (I like to use both)
• Cinnamon
• Flax Seeds
• Vanilla Extract
• Raisins (optional)

Granola Instructions:
In a large bowl mix granola, flax seeds, agave/maple syrup, vanilla,  and cinnamon until all the dry ingredients are evenly coated (amounts of vanilla/cinnamon/flax-seed vary depending on your taste).  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and cover with granola at 350 degrees.  Bake until the granola starts to brown – you may need to move around with a spatula a couple of times to prevent granola on the bottom from burning.  Once everything is evenly browned, return to the bowl (while still hot) and add some more syrup as well as raisins/dried fruit.  The heat from the granola will slightly cook the raisins and the additional syrup will get everything to bind together.  Allow to cool completely in the bowl and then transition to storage container.

CAUTION: if you are going to store in any type of jar/Tupperware container make sure it is COMPLETELY cool before storing, otherwise everything will stick together in the container and be near impossible to get out (I know this from personal experience).  If you store in a ziplock bag you can transfer earlier as it’s easy to break up the granola if it does stick.

“Worlds Greatest Blender” – we blew through so many $100 blenders (burned out motor/worn out “teeth”/etc) we felt the investment in the Vita-mix was worth it (it cost about $600 in 2007)