For the love of chocolate shakes

I used to be obsessed with chocolate shakes. My friend Jessica got me hooked on them back in college, and Snackbox in Galway had the best chocolate shake going in the late 90s which became a bit if a habit every time we met, we'd have to go get a chocolate shake. Then we'd go hang in her house and pretend it was the early 90s and that Kurt had never died. Once we were incredibly stoned in Jessica's house on Sligo, and forced our friend Colin to drive about 10 miles to get us chocolate shakes to his disgust. We were incredibly unhappy and deeply unimpressed when he returned with shitty fucking strawberry shakes... so much so that we tried to make them chocolate by adding chocolate sauce. Please note that the addition of chocolate sauce does not transform a shitty strawberry shake into a mighty chocolate one.

Anyway this isn't quite a chocolate shake from Snackbox, but seriously this tastes like the second best chocolate shake I've ever had. I'm having it today as a recovery drink after a long walk and some intense Kettlebells after which I am fucked.

I'd love to hear what other people have as recovery drinks as this is all kinda new to me, even when I weight trained before I never did the protein shake thing...

Delicious shake with bonus background dog

Ingredients:1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 Cup almond milk
2 tbsp almond butter (substitute any nut butter here)
1 banana (I used a frozen banana to make it all cold and icecreamy)

Blend that baby and drink!

Frozen m*^&%rf*&^$ng bananas

Ive been a bit out of commission recently because Ive had one of those fucking awful viruses everyone has thia time of year.

Because my stomach wasnt feeling great, my usual breakfast smoothie of kale and spinach and fruit sounded a bit *barf* to me. And so I decided to try something Ive been meaning to try for ages. I froze some bananas. Ive read on lots of evangelical raw food blogs that frozen bananas are basically ice cream. These are from the people that think nutritional yeast flakes can adequately replace cheese. These people are not to be trusted.

But today I decided to make a nut and banana smoothie to see what all the 'frozen bananas are necter of the Gods' stuff is all about.
AND IT TURNS OUT THAT THEY ARE CORRECT.
This is absolutely hands down one of the nicest, most desert-like smoothies Ive ever had. Next time Im not going to bother with the almond milk and just go straight in there for some ice cream-y banana soft serve.

First off - chop your bananas and pop them in a ziplock bag in the freezer overnight or for a couple of hours.

Ingredients:
Frozen bananas (1-2)
1 large tablespoon of almond butter
1 glass of almond milk
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
1 tbsp chia seeds

Put all this into a food processor, whizz and then enjoy. You can omit the almond milk or use cows or soy milk. Also, if youre bodybuilding or using this as a recovery drink, I bet you chocolate protein powder would bring this baby to a new level of awesome.

Here's some more recipes for one-ingredient ice-cream using frozen bananas.

A little update: Ive lost a couple more inches and Im feeling strong as hell compared to when I started. I have teeny biceps now. My diet has been largely in check and Ive been eating completely clean, and vegan except for cheat meals and the ocassional poached egg with breakfast. I started kettlebell training which is serious business in terms of being fucking hard at first. I cant say enough good things about having a personal trainer to work with for motivation, for pushing yourself beyond where you think your limits are, and for trying new things. Speaking of which, Ive signed up to a 10 week bellydancing course with my friend Stacey who is one of the most amazing bellydancers ever. I'm really nervous and hoping no one will actually need to *see* my belly in class... but I'm excited too. I love to dance but Ive never had the courage to take a full class.

Onwards and upwards, kids.