When it’s crisp and chilly outside and all the trees are bare it’s hard to get into the holiday mood, especially if there isn’t a coat of snow yet. Not only that, but it is when most people throw all their healthy food habits out the window and go for the greasiest pizza or heartiest stew because the majority think that a salad or a smoothie won’t make them feel warm.
Don’t let the temperature of the food fool you. It’s all about the flavors. Here are five amazingly warm smoothie bowls that happen to be chilled, healthy and will still get you into the holiday spirits, with the bonus of all being vegan and lactose-intolerant friendly! All are possible to create in your dorm or apartment kitchen so there is no need to make a dreaded trip in the cold to Jugos or Revolution Juice.
Not Gross Fruit Cake
Photo by Fernanda Hurtado Ortiz
We decided to take the dreaded but traditional fruit cake and make it into a delicious smoothie bowl for this one. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, this is the one for you.
For this smoothie bowl, we blended together frozen bananas, Salted Caramel Iced Coffee with Almond Milk from Califa Farms and ground cinnamon. The salted caramel milk will help break the frozen bananas when blended to get a beautiful, creamy ice cream consistency.
Toppings were pecans, dried cranberries, medjool dates, salted caramel powder and molasses. It is all organic and nothing processed. The best part is that you can’t even taste the healthy but is for sure a better option than going to buy a milkshake from Shake Shack or UBurger.
Peppermint Chocolate Swirl
Photo by Fernanda Hurtado Ortiz
What is Christmas without peppermint? We decided that a mock candy cane smoothie bowl would both taste and look amazing and we were right.
For the banana nice cream base, we blended together frozen bananas with vanilla almond milk and peppermint leaves. All you need is ripe bananas and a blender for the base. When frozen bananas are blended, they produce a natural ice cream consistency that is perfect for the base of a healthy, vegan and delicious smoothie bowl, as seen here.
For the swirl, aka the red of the candy cane, we made a mix of berries and warmed them up in the microwave for about 2 minutes until they were juicy and tangy. We swirled the ice cream base and the berry mixture together to give it a look of how a candy cane’s white and red intertwines.
For the toppings, we cut up chunks of Peppermint in Dark Chocolate by Chocolove (vegan), sliced bananas and peppermint leaves for an extra flavoring. Tasted just like a candy cane but even better.
Green Gingerbread
Photo by Maria Gabriela Jorge
Pomegranate season is one of the best parts of the weather getting cold since it begins in September and lasts until May. We decided to take advantage of this and make a recipe that combined this vibrant fruit and its tangy seed with ginger to make a mock gingerbread recipe.
Again, for the base, it is blended frozen bananas to get the ice cream consistency and we also added to the blend spinach, vanilla almond milk, ginger, cinnamon.
For the toppings, we used pomegranate seeds, sliced bananas and vegan ginger snap cookie crumples for a crunch. It is a great way to use any gingerbread cookies you may have left over from all the cookie baking parties you had or wish you had.
Fresh Snowfall
Photo by Fernanda Hurtado Ortiz
Fresh and so delicious. Açaí is a healthy berry which promises low sugar and antioxidants with a tangy taste. This is another fresh bowl that will surely make you feel warm as it transports you to a tropical place like a beach in Brazil where they eat açaí smoothie bowls all the time.
To make this smoothie bowl, you don’t have to go to Brazil to get açaí berries (although we could use that as an excuse in order to go). Instead we bought Sambazon açaí berry frozen packs, which can be found in grocery stores like Whole Foods for about $6.99. We blended one pack of açaí per person with frozen bananas to get that striking purple color and a creamy, thick consistency. You may need half a cup of water to help blend it together.
The toppings were toasted coconut flakes, which can be found in any grocery store and sliced bananas.
Mexican Hot Chocolate With Cranberries
Photo by Fernanda Hurtado Ortiz
Hot chocolate is a must for the holidays. We can’t help imagining sitting by the fire and drinking a cup of hot cocoa so we mixed our two favorite things together: spicy Mexican hot chocolate and smoothie bowls.
The base was frozen bananas with organic cacao powder, cinnamon and cayenne (for the spicy kick) all blended up with a bit of almond milk to get the mixture moving.
For the toppings, we chose extra bananas and nothing screams out holiday more than cranberry sauce. Of course, our version is healthy since it is fresh cranberries heated up in our dorm microwave and smashed up by hand. It adds a delicious, bitter, tangy punch to balance the smooth chocolate banana nice cream.
For a colorful final touch, we added more cinnamon, cayenne, sliced bananas and frozen cranberries.