The combination of indulgent chocolate and the tart sweet fruitiness of the cherry is perfectly balanced in this chocolate cherry smoothie.

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The rain is torrential, and it is freezing cold. At this time of year it stays light all night long and the tent is leaking.  Was it a good idea to take my baby camping for the first time last weekend?

I’m going to share my camping experience with you and let you know how I managed to keep drinking my green thickies while I was away.

I also have a recipe for a chocolate cherry smoothie that has been so popular, people can’t help but share it with others.

Camping in Scotland: Wet, Cold and Very Very Light

We decided to try a camping trip with friends who also have a baby and 2 other children for the first time.

We all had loved camping before having children but had never tried it with children yet.

We booked the campsite a long time ago hoping it would actually be nice weather in summer.

We live in the north of Scotland though and were being a bit optimistic.

I can count the number of glorious sunny days in Inverness so far this year on both hands.

Of course it was going to rain!  It rained, and it rained and it rained some more.

On the way to the beach side location called Nairn (just 30 minutes away from our house) it rained so hard we couldn’t even see the road in front of us.

We decided to camp anyway as we’d been packing for 2 days for this trip. We finally got the tents up just as it was time for the kids to go to bed.

We’d decided to go just for one night as an experiment to see how well the kids would handle it.

The older kids were fine but the two babies didn’t like it at all.  They didn’t like the cold, the strange environment of the tent and the fact it was still light even at 1am.

It never really gets dark at this time of the year and both babies are used to a blacked out room to sleep in.  So there were lots of tears, lots of warm cuddles and finally everyone settled down to sleep.

In the morning both of our families woke to little puddles of water in our tent and wet sleeping bags.

Thankfully we were only staying one night and we could load all the soaking wet stuff into our cars and head back home.

Camping Food

It was actually very easy to eat vegan food for just the one night camping.

We had a BBQ which amazingly, stayed alight in the rain.

So I had a veggie burger for my dinner and I packed some fruit and other snacks for my baby.

I did actually manage to still have my green thickies for breakfast as I’d made them at home and kept them cool with some freezer blocks and a cool bag.

Although the temperature was so cold anyway I needn’t have bothered with the cool bag.

In future posts I am going to share with you how to travel easily and still have your green thickies every morning, even with no electricity!

Chocolate Cherry Smoothie

I don’t have much chocolate in my diet as it doesn’t really agree with me and I find it far too addictive but this is one smoothie I would allow myself to have on a special occasion because it’s still fairly healthy and tastes absolutely amazing.

If you don’t want any caffeine in your smoothie, you could buy carob powder in a health food shop which will still give you that great chocolate taste.

The combination of the rich indulgent chocolate taste and the tart sweet fruitiness of the cherry is perfectly balanced.

You can definitely taste both flavours at the same time which will make it a firm favourite with you as much as it is with me.

Although cherries are in season at this time of year, It can be hard work to manually pit enough cherries using a knife as you have to cut round the stone on each cherry.

A great device I use for speeding up this job is a Cherry Pitter.  [amazon_textlink asin=’B00KO2KNTW’ text=’This one’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’greethic-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c6318db8-78ca-4c43-873b-2b1d17653f9a’] actually pits 4 cherries at once so it saves you so much time.

I wouldn’t be without a cherry pitter now as there means there is no waste, it only takes the stone out and nothing else.

If you want to speed it up even further you could use frozen cherries.  You will have to have a look around all the stores where you live, and try the health food shops too.

In the UK some Sainsbury’s and Asda’s sell frozen cherries.

When I find frozen cherries I buy a few bags as I love them so much.

The best thing about this smoothie is the secret stash of greens that nobody would ever know is lurking behind this luxurious chocolate exterior.

If you want your kids or your partner to gobble down 2 cups of spinach, this is the fastest and the tastiest way you’ll ever find.

They probably wouldn’t believe you if you told them they were drinking spinach.

It’s almost too good to be true.

So would I go camping again with a baby?

Probably not in Scotland, not in the cold and not in the rain, but when she’s a bit older I’m sure she’ll love it just as much as I do.

Are you a fan of camping?

Do you manage to eat healthily while you are away?

What is your favourite indulgent yet still healthy treat?

If you are new to Green Thickies and have more questions about making the perfect green thickie, please read this guide on How to make a Green Thickie.

* If you want to check if you can drink green thickies on your special diet, please read this first. This will suggest some substitutions so you can still enjoy Green Thickies with ingredients you can tolerate.

Chocolate Cherry Smoothie: Chocolatey, Fruity With A Secret Stash Of Greens

Katherine Kyle @ Green Thickies

The combination of the rich indulgent chocolate taste and the tart sweet fruitiness of the cherry is perfectly balanced. You can definitely taste both flavours at the same time which will make it a firm favourite with you as much as it is with me.

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Ingredients

  

• 2 Cups Water
• 2 Bananas fresh or frozen
• 2 Cups of pitted Cherries fresh or frozen, if you can’t get cherries, try strawberries instead
• 2 Tablespoons Hemp seeds or sunflower, flax or pumpkin seeds if they are easier to find
• 2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder or cacao or carob powder
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract Ground vanilla is the best by far
• ½ Cup raisins or any other dried fruit. Can also be pre-soaked for a smoother blend. Add soaking water to smoothie
• Optional: 1 Cup Oats or other filler. Click here to see the fillers.
• Optional: 1 Cup Spinach tightly packed or 2 cups loosely packed. (Or Kale or any other mild greens)OR if you run out of fresh greens, add 2 scoops of Amazing Green Powder for an extra healthy green boost.

Instructions

 

• Blend the ingredients in the following order: 
• Blend the dry ingredients and liquid first for a short time
• Blend the greens next. (If using)  for a short time
• Blend the fruit and the rest of the ingredients until smooth (or as smooth as your blender will allow. High speed blenders may need 2 minutes for a green thickie, less powerful blenders may need a lot more, sometimes 5-10 minutes)
• More tips Blending this way allows the dry ingredients to be blended for longest, it means the greens will fit in your blender and your fruit gets less blending so it doesn’t become too hot.
• Add more water if required to thin it out.
• Substitute any of the ingredients for whatever you already have.
• If your smoothie is too warm, you can cool it down in the fridge or freeze some of your ingredients before blending.  You can also replace half of the liquids with ice.  Add the ice at the end. It is better to add frozen ingredients at the end to cool the smoothie down.

Notes

• How much should I drink to replace a meal?

Only use a meal replacement if you’ve added the oats/quinoa. This green thickie serves 2 so you should DRINK HALF OF THIS RECIPE.  

But if you have higher calorie requirements you may need to drink more.

• Suitable for Special Diets: Gluten free (Use GF Oats or Quinoa), raw (Use raw oats/quinoa), vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free, wheat free, soya free (don’t use soya milk or tofu), salt free (don't add salt), nut free (replace nuts with sunflower or pumpkin seeds. This doesn't include coconuts)
• See all of my favorite essential healthy ingredients needed to make these recipes AND all of the best resources and products I can’t live without by clicking here.

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Katherine Kyle @ Green Thickies

Founder at Green Thickies

Katherine lost 56 pounds and recovered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with Green Thickies.
Read Katherine's inspiring comeback story, From Fat and Fatigued To Lean and Loving Life In 4 Months.
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