Bianca's Smoothie System!

Hi y'all! This post features Complement Protein, a clean vegan protein powder made without fillers or sweeteners. I love the stuff so much that they made me a Complement Ambassador, meaning I'll make a little money if you decide to purchase some from my affiliate link. This is not a sponsored post, but I did receive a free bag of Complement Protein. 

I've been enjoying protein smoothies after my runs for years. I've tried switching to other post-run protein treats, but I always go back to the smoothie. Now that I'm trying to eat seasonally, I'm thinking about moving toward protein muffins and protein oats in the cooler months, but here in South, it stays pretty warm through most of October. So it's still smoothie time! At least for a few more weeks!

I thought I'd be fun to share with y'all my tried-and-true Smoothie System. I used to follow recipes or the No Meat Athlete Smoothie Formula, but over time, I developed my own blueprint for what goes in every smoothie. The fruit, nuts, and seeds can vary, but I always include Complement Protein, which is vegan, unsweetened, made with whole food protein sources, and free of heavy metals.

I drew the fun little chart above. I'm no artist (I googled "how to draw a Mason jar!!), but it gets the point across. I used to rely on flavored vegan protein powders, and while flavors like "cookies and cream" or "mixed berry" were fun, they were also made with artificial ingredients. Yuck. Now I make my own flavors by adding things like cocoa powder, vanilla, matcha, powdered peanut butter, etc. Here's a smoothie with strawberries and cocoa powder, plus Complement, banana, spinach, sesame seed, sunflower seed, spinach, cashew milk, and walnuts.

And here's one a frozen triple berry blend, banana, sunflower butter, spinach, sesame seed, sunflower seed, and Complement.

And this has all the same ingredients as the one above but I swapped mango for the berries. I also added ashwanganda to this one because I love it's stress-balancing effects.

I typically enjoy my smoothie right after my run, around 7:30 am, and thanks to the protein powder, I don't get hungry again until 11ish when I have a morning snack (sometimes, I make it to noon!). I've noticed when I make a smoothie without any protein, I'm hungry an hour later.

If you're looking for a new protein powder, I highly recommend Complement Protein! I switched to Complement about a year ago, and it's the first powder I've tried that doesn't taste chalky. It's also made with a combination of REAL food protein sources, like almond, chia, pumpkin seed, watermelon seed, and yellow pea protein. No rice protein or hemp protein. Each scoop has 15 grams of protein, and it comes in a compostable bag.