Frozen Bananas, Maca, and Happy Boyfriends

I'm sitting here downing a mega pitcher of my morning smoothie and feeling so full and satisfied. I say 'morning' smoothie, but it's almost 2 pm. I haven't been hungry until now, which is something I always run with. The further into raw I am, the more my body tells the truth about where it's at. And with all the recipes I've been using lately, it's refreshing to know it still comes down to the good ol' nutritious freshness of green smoothies that my body craves.

Today's concoction had a little of lots of different greens (aka I'm trying to clean out my crisper): romaine, spinach, dandelion, beet greens, parsley, red chard... just a little of each so that the ratio was still leaning 60:40 fruit to veg. For fruit, I had my trusty apple/banana/blueberry combo.

For supplements, I added spirulina, Udo's 369, and *Maca.

A tip about Maca and smoothies: I recently learned this and was over the moon when I tried it and it worked.

Here goes: Let's say you're like me, and you can't stand the malty taste of Maca.

And then let's say you know the benefits, but you use as little as you can get away with in a smoothie to try to keep that taste down to a dull roar.

In the beginning when I first discovered it, I was using a couple tablespoons of it and just plugged my nose and drank it. I find it really overpowers the other tastes, which for me, ruins it.

After a while, I used less and less, figuring that just like eating raw isn't about deprivation, drinking green smoothies shouldn't be about bravery. So I just barely put any in there.

Well, as it turns out, there's a simple solution.

All you have to do is use frozen banana when you make your smoothie! That's it! Not only will it completely mask the taste of Maca, you will then be able to use MORE Maca, which will bring it up to the beneficial dosage.

Apparently, the sugars from the frozen banana are the key to hiding that taste. I say THAT TASTE like it's Buckley's or something...but actually a lot of people really love that malty taste. I've never been a fan, is all. So for me, this tip is revolutionary!

So now, when I get bananas, I peel and freeze them right away. I put them in a clean, clear produce bag and tuck 'em near the blueberries. In the morning, I take one out and snap it in half and pop it in the blender, and I'm back up to a couple good sized tablespoons of Maca again. I throw in all my other smoothie ingredients and let the blender do its thing.

Personally I use maca for hormonal balance, but my boyfriend thinks I get it for him. If he sees the jar gettin' down there, he says, "Hey we're running low! The store is open 'til 9 on Fridays!" I guess I wasn't as 'responsive' before Maca. I don't know, but he notices things like that, hahahaha!

Either way, it works for both of us! I can no longer taste it, and it's amusing to see my boyfriend care so much about what goes into my smoothie!

Here's an archived Rawkin' post about maca

*Read about the Benefits of Maca

Have a sexy day, Rawkers!