How I Ditched Soda

Hey there beloved reader of my raw goodness!  When I first got into raw foods the most appealing potential benefit wasn’t weight loss, it wasn’t just the abstract idea of health, nah the biggest motivator for me was having more energy!  We all wish we could add a few more hours to each day, but barring access to a TARDIS, we’re gonna have to find another way to get the most out of the 24 we got.  For me that used to be running on lil’ sleep and a butt ton of caffeine.  Then I discovered raw foods and how I felt after I ate them, feeling satisfied, but not groggy.  This alone was worth the price of admission!

Before gettin’ raw, I had been drinking soda, the occasional coffee, black tea and rarely, the dreaded energy drinks.  It’s a problem many out there face.  We eat a lame diet and feel beat.  We can’t go to work beat, so we power up with caffeinated beverages and now more than ever, energy drinks and pills.  Than we come home from work and feel a crash comin’, so we grab another caffeinated drink when we get home.  But like blasting N2O through a car engine, we’re doing ourselves some long-term damage(and I don’t mean the stuff that hit’s you only in those last years) and then we  usually crash BIG time.

When I began to consume more raw eats, I immediately noticed a difference!  It wasn’t quite enough in the very beginning to make me drop caffeine cold turkey, but I didn’t crave it nearly as much!  I still had a bit of a struggle in the morning, so rather than struggling with grogginess while transitioning, I decided to cut myself some slack.  How?  I used chilled coffee as the base of my morning cacao shake.  I ended up with a drink that blew the franchise coffee blends right out the window and it allowed to easily turn down soda when I was at work.  Gradually I noticed myself adding less and less of the chilled coffee to my morning shake blend and within a month or so I didn’t need to add any!  So all those caffeinated, high fructose corn syrup concoctions were easily replaced by my blended chocolaty goodness!  Pretty sweet deal, so I thought I’d share that lil’ chocolaty coffee beast that helped me do it!

 Breakfast Blast ~

This makes about a quart. I like to tote my smoothies in quart mason jars to store in my chilled lunch bag when I head out, so it works perfectly!

~ 1 cup of brewed and chilled coffee (we didn’t own a coffee maker(and still don’t) so I used one of those lil’ plastic funnel deals that ya pop a filter in and it sits on your mug, only I mounted it atop a quart mason jar and brewed through until it was filled.  Note, I highly recommend using un-bleached coffee filters, no need for white coffee filters (or the chemicals involved in producing them) when we’re going to turn them brown again immediately! Haha! I’d allow this to chill on the counter for over an hour, before sealing and popping in the fridge. That step is important!  Ya don’t wanna have to clean the remnants of an imploded jar and a quart of coffee out of your fridge in the morning. This jar would last me four days, at a cup per day.)

~ 1 cup of almond (or your fave nut) mylk

~ 2 frozen bananas  * I loved the combo of frozen bananas with coffee and still love it with Dandy Blend, but Amanda likes to replace the bananas with ice when she makes it.  Give both a shot and lemme know who has better taste! haha :0) *

~ 1+1/2 tablespoons of cacao powder

~ 1 tablespoon of raw honey

~ 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla bean powder (or 1/2 teaspoon of extract)

~ pinch of sea salt

 Occasionally I’d toss in some hemp seeds for protein and omega 3′s and/or a teaspoon of maca or other powdered super goodies, but those are totally optional.  You can add to this breakfast blend any raw protein you’re working with as well, creating a multi-purpose shake!  Blows those Instant Breakfast packets, powders and shakes away! 

Blend until smooth and frosty and prepare for blast off!  Great to tote to work and you can cruise on by those franchise coffee joints.  Added bonus, by dodging those joints, you’ll avoid the temptations in their glass cases at the counter! 

Enjoy!