Tropical Smoothie Bowls: Make your own Acai, and Super Green Bowls
So, let’s start this one with YUM!….
If you’re not hooked on tropical smoothies and smoothie bowls yet, then let’s just get this party started, shall we?
Smoothies and smoothie bowls have been popular in Hawaii for years, and if they haven’t hit your neighborhood yet, then just give it some time and…they likely will. But no need to wait, you can start making your own smoothie bowls right at home!
A smoothie bowl is basically all of the goodness of a fruit smoothie, with a little more density, and a spoon. It’s good for those who want to slow down and enjoy their food. (which would do us all some good, right?) The most common smoothie bowl is made with Acai, the superfood from Brazil. These dark berries are known to be full of great antioxidant properties, and have a sweet and slightly tart flavor. Blended with other berries, or frozen banana and a touch of apple juice or coconut milk, you can customize acai however you like.
Of course my boys love to drop $8 for one at a food truck by the beach, but thanks to frozen Sambazon packets (found at health food stores and even Costco), Acai bowls are really easy to make at home. (Make them at home, boys!)
A typical acai bowl is topped with granola, banana slices, and shredded coconut. Berries (fresh or frozen) are a common topping as well. Then a nice drizzle of honey to top it all off and it is pretty irresistible.
Since I love a green smoothie, I have found green smoothie bowls to be my favorite. Combining the sweetness of fresh pineapple, with kale and/or spinach, almond butter for protein, and the fatty acid benefits (and creamy texture!) of avocado, green bowls are pretty much a perfect meal. (they taste like sweet creamy pineapple. really!)
Smoothie bowls are one food trend that I hope never goes away.
My kids love them, and I love all of the good stuff that I can sneak put in them.
And on them…
Because yes, Levi will eat a green bowl if there are chocolate chips on top. 😉
So print a recipe (or two!) and enjoy.
And as always, please pin and share ^^^ so you friends can enjoy these recipes too! 🙂
Green Tropical Smoothie Bowls
Ingredients
- 1/4-1/2 ripe avocado
- 2 medium ripe bananas previously sliced and frozen
- 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
- 2 large handfuls spinach or kale or mixed.
- 1 Tbsp flax seed meal optional
- 2 Tbsp almond butter optional
- TOPPINGS:
- Shredded coconut
- your choice of nuts or seeds
- fresh or frozen berries
- sliced bananas
- Chia seed and/or flax seed
- Granola
- Chocolate chips
Instructions
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Combine all ingredients in a blender (Vita-mix for best blending) Combine until smooth and consistent texture. Pour/spoon into bowls, and finish with favorite toppings.
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Enjoy!
<span class="mceItemHidden" data-mce-bogus="1"><span></span>Acai Bowls or smoothies</span>
Ingredients
- <span></span>2 packets of frozen acai concentrate I buy Sambazan at Costco
- 2 frozen bananas
- 1/2 cup fresh pineapple optional
- 1/2 cup apple juice or milk of choice optional--for bowls I do not add liquid, for smoothies I do.
- Ice also added for smoothies only
- TOPPINGS:
- shredded coconut
- granola
- sliced bananas
- honey
- berries or other toppings as you like
Instructions
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Combine all ingredients in blender (or vita-mix for best results)
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Spoon into bowls or pour into glass.
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Add toppings.
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ENJOY!
Comment below with any questions, or what kind of smoothie or bowls you have discovered! If you make them at home, what do you put inside?
We’ll be standing by with our banana-phones waiting to hear from you…
XO
Monica and her crazies.
PS All photos, compliments of my handsome and talented son, Josiah Swanson (<—-check out his website, and enjoy his photos and his writing.)
PPS For more of our favorite smoothies, click HERE! 🙂
For favorite JUICING recipes, click HERE.
These bowls are great but you left out the Starfruit bowl. It’s very similar to Acai however, it’s bright pink instead of dark purple and has less sugar. It has a lot of antioxidants and is delicious. Kids love the color which is almost florescent.
Kids all up and down the California coast love all of these bowls.
Yes, there are so many bowls now, and all so good!…But I think you might mean the dragonfruit (or pitaya) bowl? Starfruit is not bright pink, but the pitaya fruit, (also called Dragonfruit) is. https://www.pitayaplus.com
It’s definitely a fun new trend–all of these bowls! Thanks for commenting!! ALOHA!
Yes you are right!
These look delicious – thank you for posting! If I didn’t have a foot of new snow on the ground, I’d be going to Costco this morning to look for frozen açaí. Hopefully tomorrow! 🙂
We were loving acai bowls on our trip to Hawaii last summer. Now I can make them at home- thanks! And no matter where you live, a Costco run is always in your near future, right? Do you think frozen pineapple would work in a pinch? Also, have you ever frozen ripe avocado for future smoothie use? I might need to upgrade from my standard “got it as a wedding gift” blender…
Shannon–Yay. And yes! I haven’t used frozen pineapple, but I’m sure it is just fine. And I totally forgot to mention that my green bowls were actually made using frozen cubed avocado! I had frozen what was left of our home-grown avo a while back and the ones in the photos were store-bought and not ripe! 🙂 SO, I used my frozen ones and they worked just fine! (Maybe even better because it adds to the texture.) I say yes to the upgrade too. A vita-mix is a big investment, but everyone I know who has one actually gets their money’s worth! Aloha —
Sounds so good!!!