Sunday Smoothie: Caribbean coffee for breakfast

OK, so you don’t need booze for this one. That’s why the gods created rum extract.

I wasn’t planning to post today, but when I made my morning smoothie today, I just had to share. Behold the simple ingredients for this smoothie:

(hits “Save Draft”…not taking any chances)

• ~ 1.5 cups of leftover coffee (I cut myself off at 2 or 10 cups roughly, then the rest has to go into a smoothie, as if it no longer counts as ‘coffee’)
• 1 scoop Chocolate flavored low-carb protein powder
• 1 T cocoa powder
• Squirt of stevia
• 1/2 tsp rum extract
• 1/4-1/2 tsp of xanthan gum
  1/2 tsp of guar gum.
• Mid-blend: a sprinkle more guar when I realized that the smoothie was thick enough but still had ice chunks…the xanthan seems to thicken, but the guar smoothes out the ice chunks. Don’t ask me why- I have no idea.

Edited to add: Stats? You want stats? Here are the stats:

Calories: 150 (yes for the whole Vitamix container...this is why you have plenty of calories left over for toppings-woot)
Protein: 22 g
Carbohydrate 6.5g
Fats 2.5g
Fiber 2.5g

The finished product:

For those of you who are not familiar with the size of a Vitamix, I have put a random-yet-accessible card on top for size comparison. The Vitamix is absolutely not a necessity unless you want to make protein ice cream. For this you need a tamper and a very high powered motor. Otherwise, any decent blender works perfectly well.

(Totally off topic: funky font, right? It’s called ‘Poor Richard’, which cracked me up…so I had to use it today).

Also next to the Vitamix is my little travel blender: The Back to Basics Blender Express. It leaves smoothies more icy than fluffy- sometimes that’s preferable.

FYI- you are witnessing about 10 cups or over 2 liters of gut-busting, air-and-ice-whipped smoothie fullness. I nurse this for the entire morning. Sometimes I tire of it before it’s finished and toss it or save it for the next day.

Crazy thickness- I eat this as above- with a spoon.

.(hits “save draft”)

Because I would go clinically insane without some carb-y crunch, I sprinkle on some delicious cereal as a ‘garnish.’ Here are some Heritage flakes-yum! There was also some of my favorite nut butter: Trader Joes’ Almond Butter with flax seeds. Run, don’t walk to procure some of this crack.

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Obviously a lazy morning as the clock shows 10:30am and there is no sign of a workout happening today…I sense a much-needed “Rest Day” in the works.

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Here is all of the bounty- I store some of the shake in my Back to Basics containers as they are so convenient. All of these go into the freezer and I stir them up every 15 minutes or so, until I’m ready to eat/drink them.

(hits “save draft” and thank goodness, as Windows Life Writer decided to take an unscheduled coffee break)

Someone else is having a “Rest Day” too. Oh wait, Every day is a rest day for Samantha.

Happy Sunday Folks!

Q: Do you like coffee drinks either with or without booze? Do you try to avoid caffeine?