Rocket Fuel Chocolate Breakfast Smoothie

The cocoa and shreddies in this give it a great malt-chocolatey taste but it’s also packed full of good energy boosting things. You could add peanut butter instead of ginger and go down a different route if you want even more of a protein kick.

Chocolate milk! (the grownup way)

1/2 frozen banana
200ml skimmed milk
1 tsp manuka honey with ginger (you could use normal honey and 1/2 tsp grated ginger)
1 level tablespoon cocoa powder
5 dates
2 tbsp rolled oats
1tsbp shreddies
1tsp chia seeds

Throw it all in a blender / measuring jug and whizz it up until it’s smooth.

NB. make sure there’s no stones left in the dates. I discovered that when combined with a stick blender they lead to a rather unattractive, if delicious, splattering of smoothie over ones clothes and work surfaces. Not that I licked my jumper….honest..

I’m not a scientist, but here’s what I think are the good things about the ingredients:

Ginger: anti inflammatory and stomach settling.
Chia: apparently has more omega 3 than salmon, twice the amount of potassium as a banana, and 3 times as much iron as spinach. I’m also told that this seed is great for staying hydrated as it soaks up water (it goes all jellyish if you leave it in a glass of water). It’s tasteless and added a nice bit of crunch.
Banana: contains iron, potassium, natural sugars for an instant boost.
Manuka honey: antiviral and antibacterial (as is other honey but this is more so)
Dates: high in fibre
Oats: high in soluble fibre which lowers cholesterol. Low GI to offset that speedy banana boost.
Milk: calcium – good for the bones (good for runners) Obviously semi skimmed or whole milk is also good for other reasons but we only had skimmed in

I’m running the London marathon this Sunday. Argh! This would have been a good smoothie to be drinking when training but I’m not going to do anything new this late in the day. Ah well next year (mad, me?!) I have been helped along the way by the team at www.upandrunningonline.org. It’s a great community run by Shauna with coach Julia setting the training plans. Whether you want to start running, or you are a runner who needs a bit of a prod, I thoroughly recommend it.

Mmm chocolate sludge

I’m  entering this into Breakfast Club which is hosted by ME this month and run by Fuss Free Flavours. The theme is Rocket Fuel: Breakfast for those days when you need a bit more oopmh.

I’m also entering this into We Should Cocoa because this month’s challenge is chocolate and ginger. I know that the point was to buy local honey, but I have 3 jars of manuka open at the moment that need to be used, so I bought some local honey to send to my Foodie Penpal instead of opening a new jar.The challenge is run by  Chocolate Teapot and Chocolate Log Blog.

I was sent the Chia seeds by ChiaBia to try them out. Thanks very much!