If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I was absolutely obsessed with my low-sugar chocolate & greens superfood smoothie bowl at this time last year. Well, here I am one year later and still obsessing over smoothies in the negative-degree winter weather (why is that?) – but now I have a new recipe!

Why I took a smoothie break

Let me back up and say that I go through phases with smoothies. After eating smoothies every day for months, I went through about an eight-month period in which I gave up on smoothies and ate soup or leftovers for breakfast instead for a two main reasons.

1. My smoothie was not satisfying me. I was experiencing blood sugar crashes and cravings in the afternoon that I thought might be regulated by a more substantial and protein-rich breakfast, so I tried that for a while – and it worked.

If you are going to have a smoothie for breakfast, be aware that even low-sugar smoothies can spike your blood sugar and lead to cravings, irritability, etc. later in the day. Also, if you are someone who experiences crazy hunger later in the day, you might not be eating enough early in the day! To regulate your hunger, try a more substantial, protein-filled morning breakfast.

2. Smoothies take time! Even ten minutes sometimes feels like to much to spend making breakfast. I went through a phase when I was not willing to sacrifice this time and instead preferred to eat a jar of soup I had already prepared ahead of time.

The smoothie that ended the break

Even given those reasons for taking a smoothie break, I started to crave smoothies in the mornings again a few weeks ago. So, I created this quick smoothie one morning and absolutely fell in LOVE! It tastes absolutely delicious, takes a minimal amount of time, and leaves me feeling great for the rest of the day. I don’t know what about this smoothie is different, but it takes less than ten minutes to make (including Vitamix clean-up) and leaves me feeling GREAT for the rest of the day – no cravings, no energy crashes, no endless hunger. I’m guessing this smoothie leaves me feeling so good because it is thick, low in sugar, and packed with protein and healthy fats. I bet you’ll never guess how many servings of veggies it has either!

In terms of ingredients, Vital Proteins Vanilla Collagen Peptides are the star of this show. I tried them for the first time when my friend Christina from Addicted to Lovely sent them to me for Christmas and I have since become totally addicted (see what I did there?). The product is pricey but most definitely #worthit – I just purchased my second container. (I wish I was cool enough to be sponsored by Vital Proteins, but this is just me expressing my genuine love for this product. 10/10 would recommend.) If you don’t have the Vanilla Collagen Peptides, you can sub 1/2 or 1 tsp vanilla bean powder + two scoops collagen peptides or a scoop of your other favorite vanilla protein powder to keep it vegan.

Also, my favorite trick with this smoothie is to blend in the chia seeds at the very end to keep them from getting totally obliterated by the blender. Blending them in at the end makes the smoothie super thick and a little textured – just the way I like it.

Finally, if you’re into seed-cycling or cycle-syncing (you can read more about that here), you can sub the flax seeds in this recipe for sunflower seeds during your luteal phase. I prefer the taste with the flax seeds but sunflower seeds are an option as well.