Irish Chocolate Mint Smoothie and Rock Climbing Adventures.

We had such a fun Sunday… or Funday! I’ve been so anxious to tryout a local rock climbing facility with the family. Most of us are adventurous, my oldest daughter is the more sensible, cautious kid. So I figured this was a good challenge for all of us… never having done anything to these heights before. This place was amazing and we had the best time! Life does start outside your comfort zone! Once you let go of your fears, it’s amazing what you can achieve – mind over matter. Even my oldest said how much fun it was letting go of her control. I agree as I’m totally the type A personality… control is everything or so I thought.

We came home to my version of a healthy Irish (in honor of St. Patty’s Day) mint chocolate smoothie. Protein to rebuild muscles used to scale “rocks” was a good thing! Would be a fun breakfast idea on the go too!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of almond milk (I used chocolate but you can use vanilla almond milk or vanilla unsweetened)
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (I found World Berries organic raw cocoa powder that is raw and vegan but regular cocoa powder would work)
2-3 frozen bananas
1/2 cup of vanilla Greek yogurt (I used Cabot)
8 ice cubes
2 tablespoons hemp protein powder (you can use whatever protein powder you prefer if you don’t have this)
1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal
1 teaspoon of mint extract
Optional: 6 fresh mint leaves
Topped off with cocoa nibs (you can use mini chocolate chips)

Directions:

Place all of your ingredients into your through mint leaves into your Vitamix or blender. Blend on the smoothie setting until creamy. Add more milk if you want it thinner. Pour into glasses (makes 3 servings) and top with cocoa nibs or chocolate chips. Serve immediately.

Here are some pics from our climbing adventures.

Me with my youngest, most adventurous daughter.

This was a cool climbing wall with pvc pipes. Made for slippery conditions.

Bill and I had such a blast working together plotting our directions and how to get to the top. Lots of laughing and memory making.

While climbing, I took a lot of directional help from my family and some random kid who was shouting out where to go. After coming down I watched him and he didn’t get halfway up the wall… be careful who you take directions from 😉