Salted Caramel Banana Nut Shake (Healthy)

Salted Caramel Banana Nut Shake

I’ve always loved a perfectly ripe banana for a quick snack. On hectic mornings, I’d often grab a banana,  a spoonful of peanut butter, a swig of milk and call it breakfast.  Once,  when my four kids were young, we all headed in a crazed mass exit toward the car where I would drive them to school.  Realizing I’d forgotten to eat, I instructed my then-thirteen year old son, Zach, to “run back in the house and grab me a banana.”

I watched, perplexed. as he ran to the front door of the house then took an odd pose, his head slightly to the right, his arms to his side, and then ran back to the car in this weird position. “What are you doing?” I asked.  He answered in all seriousness, “I thought you told me to go to the house and then run like a banana.”

I swear, when puberty hits our children their hormones start eating their brain cells.   But I digress.

Back to bananas for breakfast.  As some of you know, I’m determined to eat my way to lower blood pressure.  One of the ways to do this is to eat more potassium rich foods.  And a banana is loaded with potassium.  In fact,  I read that a bite of a banana has more potassium than most potassium tablets.   Almonds, too, are praised for all sorts of health benefits, including lowering blood pressure.

Another new food craze I love is salted caramel anything.  So I combined a simple banana smoothie with almonds and unsweetened almond milk (only 35 calories a cup!) then added a touch of caramel and sea salt. (Sea salt does not raise blood pressure the way iodized chemically produced salt does, and you need less of it to flavor your food since it so rich in minerals.) There is only 2 teaspoons of caramel syrup (about 40 calories) in each shake, but because you use one of the teaspoons to rim the glass and as a decoration on top,  you get the feeling that it is much sweeter as you get a tiny taste of the pure caramel with each sip.

This new smoothie/shake is the breakfast of my dreams.  I’m hooked.  It also makes a wonderful mid-afternoon snack or a bedtime treat, since the ingredients also relax you for a good night sleep.  It could be a fluke, but I have noticed my blood pressure has lowered since having one of these banana and almond treats per day.

Served in a martini or margarita glass not only adds more elegance but allows you to rim the glass in a bit more caramel and sea salt, and gives you more surface area to garnish the top with the same.

Salted Caramel Banana Nut Shake

Becky’s Salted Caramel Banana Nut Shake (Healthy)

Serves Two

Ingredients

1 rounded T.  roasted almonds (salted or unsalted both work)

1 banana, peeled and chopped into 2 inch slices   (preferably frozen)

1 ½ c. unsweetened almond milk

4 t.  caramel syrup, divided (There are several non-dairy alternatives for vegans, including caramel agave nectar,  or google recipes for vegan caramel. )

½ c. ice

Sea salt – couple of tiny pinches

almond milk, roasted almonds, a frozen banana, caramel syrup and sea salt makes an amazing and potassium rich treat

Directions:

Into a blender put almonds, banana, and almond milk,  2 t. caramel syrup,  ice and small pinch sea salt. Blend until smooth and almonds are just specks.

Pour about a teaspoon of caramel syrup around a plate, approximately the size of the rim of a martini glass. Sprinkle this circle with a tiny pinch of  sea salt, lightly.  Dip the rim of the glass into the syrup and salt, twisting and turning to coat evenly.  Do this twice to prepare two martini glasses.

Create a circle of caramel syrup, lightly sprinkled with sea salt, on a plate,  to rim the glasses

Pour half the smoothie/shake into each glass.   Squiggle a bit more of the syrup (about 1/2 t.) to garnish the top of the drink, and sprinkle with one more tiny pinch of sea salt.   Prepare to fall in love.

Variations:  Add protein powder to buff up the protein and drink the whole recipe to make a complete breakfast smoothie. 

Add liquor (rum, coconut or vanilla vodka) to turn this into a yummy frozen cocktail. 

Try it with coconut milk instead of almond milk.  

In a  hurry? Skip rimming the glass.