Portland Smoothie

This past fall I had the privilege of taking a 10 year college reunion vacation with my college roommates/best friends. We decided on Portland because it was a new place for all of us and one that we have heard great things about in the past.  For the first time in my life, my high expectations were truly exceeded, Portland was MAGICAL. If you know me well, you know that I am quite shy and that I don’t often talk to strangers, well not Portland Danielle, I was having full on conversations with uber drivers, feeding the homeless with our leftovers from various dinners, asking baristas what their favorite drink was on the menu, actively looking for an opportunity to meet the members of my favorite band, Ages and Ages, and smiling while walking in the rain … Portland. Was. PERFECT! We stayed in the cutest AirBNB along a street packed with culture, unique shops, vegan and vegetarian restaurants, a kombucha bar and a double decker bus that was actually a tea place! We stayed up late doing nails, sipping tea, chatting and acting like we did when we all lived together. One of my roommates Traci is an incredible artist and she documented the joy of that trip perfectly in one of her daily drawings. She creates a Daily “Quipple” which is an inspirational drawing or quote and if you sign up, it gets delivered to your inbox every single day! In college she would literally document every single day with drawings of “us” that we housed in “the book.”  This was one of her inspirations for creating the Daily Quipple!  Please check it out, she’s AMAZING!  Click on the picture to see  more of her amazing work and to learn more of her story!!

Anyway, back to food.  My other roommate/best friend, Olivia, found this great smoothie place for us to have breakfast at and we went every day while we were there. I ordered the same smoothie each day and have been dreaming about that smoothie since our trip to Portland. It has been my mission to recreate it as best as I could... so, today, I decided to and.. WOW, I did it! This is my dedication to Portland, my soul city, and one that showed me one of the best vacations of my life!!! Cheers to soul friends, soul cities, health and happiness!

Ingredients (makes one large or two small smoothies)
1 frozen banana
½ cup frozen strawberries
1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk
1-1.5 T creamy peanut butter
​1 tsp vanilla extract 
1 acai packet (can be found at Trader Joes in the frozen aisle) 
Sprinkle of raw hemp seeds

Directions to enjoy right NOW!

1. Combine all of the ingredients minus the hemp seeds into a high speed blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy.
2. Top smoothie with raw hemp seeds and ENJOY! 

Directions to Make Ahead

1. In a freezer safe bag, combine the frozen banana, broken up acai packet, frozen strawberries and peanut butter and place in the freezer overnight. 
2. In the morning combine the contents of the bag along with the almond milk and vanilla extract in a high speed blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy. 
3. Top with raw hemp seeds and enjoy on the go in a reusable to-go cup!