Peanut Butter Banana Protein Smoothie

Now does it feel like summer or what? I had another fantastic cottage weekend (2 in a row) this past long weekend. It is so nice to be by the water with friends, relaxing by the water, boating, canoeing, making s'mores, drinking some beer, and getting mosquito bites. Well, maybe the last part isn't so nice, but it comes along with all the pleasures of a cottaging weekend.

Cooking kind of takes a back burner in the summer I think, as making a fresh salad and not turning on the oven sounds like a better idea. The recipe I am going to share with you today is just what the summer calls for. It does not require cooking, could replace a hot breakfast, is cold, and tastes like a delicious milkshake. I have been delaying sharing this recipe because I don't have a picture of it, but a request for a smoothie came along and did not want to delay in sharing this amazing recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Protein Smoothie

1 cup soy milk
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1/2 medium banana
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp peanut butter

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.

This smoothie is actually amazing. It tastes so rich and the peanut flavour really comes through. I have yet to take a picture of this beauty, but it is a beige thick liquid with specks of flax throughout if not having a picture is throwing you off ;). A picture adds nothing to the story here.

In lieu of a picture of this plain looking smoothie, I am going to show you a picture I took of my meal two weekends ago when we went out for dinner in the Muskokas. It is just an iPhone pic, but it will have to do. A friend of mine has a fantastic picture, but he is being a bit slow in sending it to me *hint hint*. This post just could not wait. I am sure I will update the post with the much better picture, that my talented friend Derek took (me sucking up a bit), soon enough.  Updated picture from my friend Derek!

This was a beet risotto from the restaurant we went to somewhere in Muskoka. It was amazing. It was one of the few vegetarian dishes on the menu (unless they used chicken broth, but I don't think they did) and I ordered it out of curiosity. The risotto was creamy, sweet and had a touch of lemon, potentially just from the lemon zest. In the middle of the bowl was a thick slice of baked brie cheese, and pistachio pieces were sprinkles on top. The flavour combination was unreal. I hope to one day recreate this dish but I have a feeling it wont happen until the fall, as I could not bring myself to stand over a pot for an hour and a half in this heat. Instead, I think I will make a peanut butter banana smoothie.

Here are some other pictures of where I have been hanging out on the weekends:

Lake Joseph

Lake Joseph

Maple Lake

Banana Walnut Oatmeal

I start five out of seven days of the week (on average) with a bowl of Vegan Overnight Oats, which I initially discovered on Oh She Glows. As much as I love this breakfast, I like to change it up sometimes too, particularly on the weekend. I came across this Banana Pecan Oatmeal Brulee recipe on Pinch my Salt a couple days ago, and thought it would be the perfect recipe to try this weekend. I made some slight changes to the recipe based on what I had on hand.

Banana Walnut Oatmeal adapted from Pinch my Salt


1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal
2 cups water
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 banana
Sucanat or brown sugar
walnut pieces

1. Put quick oats, hot cereal and water in a microwave/oven safe dish and heat on high for 3-4 minutes*, until desired consistency is reached.
2. Mix in ground flax seed and soy milk.
3. Slice banana and place on top of oatmeal. Sprinkle with sucanat or brown sugar.
4. Place under preheated broiler for 5ish minutes to melt sugar.
5. Sprinkle with walnuts.

* Alternatively you can make an equivalent quantity of any kind of oats/hot cereal on the stove stop, such as steel cut or scottish oats.

This was a nice treat yesterday morning, being so rainy outside. I liked the combination of the oats with the 7 grain cereal, something I have not done before. Even the leftovers were good this morning, when instead of rain, I awoke to snow... Not really jelling with my spring fever.

I came across an interesting article the other day as well, so I would like to share it with you.

It may be scary for some who have been told their whole lives that "fat is bad!", but it is becoming increasingly evident that saturated fat is not the problem with our diets. I was first introduced to the saturated fat myth by Michael Pollan when I read his book In Defense of Food. This article was brought to my attention on twitter and I think it is a good read, especially if this is news to you:

http://civileats.com/2011/03/04/a-big-fat-debate/

This doesn't mean go out and start deep frying all your foods. What it means is that be weary of 'low fat' convenience foods. What is taking the place of the fat? Most likely sugar, which we are now learning is our immortal enemy. I think the worst culprit I have seen for this type of advertising is any Special K product. While the fat debate will mostly go on far past our lifetime, there is one thing we can be sure of: there is no debate on trans fat, it is most definitely very bad for us.