To be honest I wanted to post something more substantial today. Something where you really have to bite, where you need your teeth and mouth muscles… But in the end, time was to limited again, and as I had a beautiful Açai-bowl this week… We were visited by an old friend who we hadn’t seen for 9 (!) years. He was asking what he could bring from the US, and I ordered all kind of funny powders (açai, lucuma, mac, cacao…) You can get them in Germany too, but not as easy and way more expensive. So I was overexcited to have all the cool healthy hipster powders to start my brand new blender career for real :-). In the next moment our friend took out a huge bag of crazy american junk fod for the boys! Just to make sure they also have some fun and not only green smoothies… Hilarious!
Açai is a Brazilian berry, it grows on palms in Central- and South America. It is one of the very famous “superfoods” and there was a huge wave of Açai recipes a while ago. Açai is loaded with antioxidants, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. It contains an optimal combination of essential amino acids – a super fruit! And with a taste between bitter chocolate and blueberries it is even very yummy! Açai-bowls were especially famous in Brazil, Hawaii and California but now you can probably find them everywhere.
The easiest way to get them is as freeze-dried powder and it is very easy to use. But there are also frozen purees around and sometimes you can find them as dried fruit as well. I am happy with the powder and it worked fine for my recipe. I had my Açai-bowl for lunch (good the kids sometimes don’t know everything!). To make it a real meal I added half an avocado which also makes it incredibly creamy. So I used 1/2 banana, 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup frozen mixed blueberries and raspberries, 2tbsp Açai powder, 2 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 avocado, 2 tsp fresh lemon juice. Put everything in your blender until smooth and top it with anything you like. I had some pieces of banana with it, but feel free to top it with hemp seeds, coconut flake, fresh berries, granola… The recipe makes 2 bowls, so my kids were happy for a little snack when coming home from kindergarten and school!
But to give you at least a little bit of crunchy food, I topped my bowl with a homemade gluten free and grain free granola! I found the recipe here on the blog “Dagmars kitchen” another food blog I really admire. So many beautiful inspirations. I had to vary a bit in the recipe as I only had walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts at home, but that is the fun part about cooking, right? Trying out different recipes and vary with ingredients to find your favorite flavor in the end! What I really loved about this recipe is the time it takes to make it. That might sound strange, but we are so often in a rush and just trying to be as fast and as effective as possible that I found it kind of calming to soak the nuts first for a night and then bake them slowly for several hours at a low temperature, to make sure all the great nutritions stay unaffected by the heat.
So have Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!
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