cacao nibs

My Vita-Mix has become a breakfast making machine as my cacao smoothie kick continues to roar on. And, this is coming from a girl who never thought a smoothie could hold me over for a meal….

I had a cao pow smoothie with some additional chia seeds for breakfast Friday morning.

And some raw cashews.

And another cao pow smoothie (with chia seeds added) made a debut this morning. You can’t help but love this smoothie. IF you have some cacao powder on hand, I definitely recommend giving this smoothie a try.

A couple readers have been interested in what I’ve been using to make my veggie pasta noodles. To my dismay, I don’t have a spiralizer (I need to get on that) but I do have this TITAN Vegetable Peeler with a Julienne blade.

It does make great zucchini, carrot, or other veggie noodles, only I really can’t recommend buying this AS SEEN ON TV product because this is what it looks like right now:

Gross right? AND I can’t get it clean for the life of me! I’ve soaked, scrubbed and searched online for cleaning methods. Nothing works! And as an aside the peeler is also starting to rust a little bit. Needless to say, I might have to take TITAN up on their 60 day money back guarantee.

Have a great weekend folks and if you have any good AS SEEN ON TV product stories (Snuggie anyone?), please send them my way.

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I mentioned yesterday that I received a package from Navitas Naturals. It was a delightful little package indeed- I am super pumped to try all these super foods.

Said package contained the Trail Power (tasted for the first time yesterday and the bag is now one bite away from being empty- oh yea, it’s that good) chia seeds!!, goji berries, maca powdered, sweetened cacao nibs!!, and cacao powder, plus a sweet little water bottle.

All of the above foods are considered super foods and have a ton of great benefits. Rather than bore you with one long post on the benefits of each. I’ll elaborate on each as I use them.

So, Nativas Naturals touts that they are Power Foods for the Modern Lifestyle. With this in mind I decided to add a little power to my morning routine by having a cao-pow smoothie for breakfast.

This was one of the best smoothies I have had in a long time- I absolutely loved the texture that the cacao nibs added.

Cao-pow Cacao Smoothie

1 frozen banana
¾ cup frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. nut butter of your choice
1 Tbsp. cacao powder
1 Tbsp. cacao nibs
3 cubes of ice
¾ cup almond milk

Blend all ingredients in a high-powdered blender until smooth. Pour into your favorite glass and enjoy!

Cacao plants produce cacao (pronounced Ka-Kow) beans, the source for all chocolate and cocoa products. We all know that the darker a chocolate is, the better it is for you! Well cacao powder and cacao nibs are straight from the source, darker than dark, and have great nutritional benefits. These benefits include a rich supply of antioxidants, flavanols – which increase blood flow to the brain and offer other circulatory health benefits, dietary fiber, magnesium and essential minerals.

And incase you were wondering what the difference between cocoa and cacao is, because I certainly was.

The official name of the chocolate tree is Theobroma cacao but, some experts say, over the years the word “cacao” became Anglicized, and probably through error, people started replacing it with the word “cocoa”. I’m pretty sure most of us grew up saying cocoa bean, not cacao bean – I know I did. But the raw foodies out there and super food companies alike are going back to the roots and calling it the proper name which is cacao.

Cacao Powder Nutrition Facts: Needless to say, the cacao powder is good for you, but it’s also tasty. Perfect for smoothies, desserts, sauces, and chocolate drinks. I wouldn’t recommend using it plain because it is bitter-sweet and definitely isn’t as sweet as cocoa powder. (Notice the 0 sugar grams below)