Ridiculously smooth and creamy, this chocolate smoothie packs a serious nutritious punch thanks to the help of a special secret ingredient. It’s vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and totally delicious!
Let’s talk about calorie counting.
A pretty common question I get from readers is “how many calories are in [X recipe]?” and my answer 97.5% of the time is that I’m not quite sure. I don’t calculate the nutritional information for my recipes, and the only reason I might know what it is the other 2.5% of the time is because a reader calculated it and left it in a comment, or another site featuring one of my recipes decided to include it as well.
It’s not that I don’t know how to calculate it myself or that it takes too much time… The reason that I don’t include nutritional information with my recipes is because I don’t believe in counting calories and I don’t want to promote it here on my blog. Spoons is calorie-free.
I can only think of a handful of instances where calorie counting might be beneficial, with all of them being related to specific medical conditions or professions. The rest of the time, and how it’s most often used (read: abused) these days, I think calorie counting is, at best, unnecessary and unnatural, and at worst, harmful.
It really is.
Take it from someone who used to spend up to two hours a day planning out meals, weighing food, and plugging it all in to online fitness trackers. I felt like a little kid who had just gotten her allowance and was trying to figure out what to spend the money on… Okay, I’m allowed this many more calories, this many more grams of carbs, and this many more grams of fat… what’s the best [read: cleanest/healthiest] thing I can spend that allowance on?
I was obsessed with calorie counting and the comfort it brought me. Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment that came with knowing that I ended the day under a certain number of calories.
And that’s one of the biggest problems that I see with calorie counting — it puts too much focus on the wrong kinds of things. You end up listening to dead numbers instead of your living body. You end up restricting and undereating because you can’t believe that you could possibly need that many calories to function (hint: you really do). You end up fearing food instead of seeing it for what it is — a beautiful (and delicious!) source of sustenance that lets you live the kind of life you want and deserve.
Take this Secret Ingredient Chocolate Smoothie, for example…
I have no idea how many calories it has. I could probably figure it out in my head based on the extensive ingredient library that years and years of calorie counting left me with, but I’d rather not let my thoughts go there.
Instead, I’d rather focus on the fact that it’s made with wholesome ingredients. That it’s refined sugar-free and sweetened with the natural sugars from dates and bananas. That it boasts an impressive dose of vitamin A thanks to the sweet potato, which you can barely just taste. That it’s delicious, filling, and soooo silky, smooth, and creamy that the fact that I didn’t stick a straw in it makes it look more like a jar of nut butter than a smoothie…
See? There are so many more important things to focus on than how many calories something has! How it makes you feel (both mentally and physically). How much of it your body wants and needs. How it lets you connect with other people… Counting calories makes you miss all that! And what’s worse is that it gets you completely out of tune with your own body, to the point where you stop being able to hear the signals it’s sending you.
I could probably go on and on about this topic, but this probably isn’t the proper time or place. So I’m going to get off my soapbox and tell you to stop counting calories if you don’t absolutely have to, grab a spoon, and dig right in!
I’d love to know if you make this (or any!) recipe! Tag @runwithspoons on Instagram and Twitter, and be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive more healthy and delicious recipes straight to your inbox!
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Secret Ingredient Chocolate Smoothie
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Yield: 1 serving 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120 g) cooked sweet potato*
- 1/2 medium-size ripe banana, frozen (~50 g)
- 2 Medjool dates (30 g)
- 1 tbsp (5 g) cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 tbsp (16 g) almond butter (optional, but recommended)
- 1 scoop (30 g) protein powder (optional)
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into your blender and blend until smooth. This smoothie can be made in advance and stored in the fridge for later!
Notes
* You can use either cooked and cooled sweet potato that you roasted yourself or buy canned puree from the store. It equals about 1 small sweet potato or half of a larger one. The amount doesn’t have to be exact.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
Looking for more creamy smoothie recipes? Try one of these!
Oatmeal Cookie Dough Smoothie
Healthy Chocolate Mousse Smoothie
Salted Caramel Cookie Dough Smoothie
So delicious! I was craving something sweet and this hit the spot. It is very filling and the sweet potato made it so thick and creamy! My dates were a bit dry, so I had some chunks, but it was like bits of candy mixed in. I knew I should have soaked them, but I didn’t want to take the time. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
Lovely recipe! Not something you’d want to eat regularly but great as an indulgent dessert or special treat.
I’m the opposite of you with the calorie counting. I love it. I like knowing that I am in charge of my own body – that I can gain weight easily and in a controlled fashion when I want to gain muscle, or that I can lose it just as easily when I want to lose fat. I find it very useful and as an “information junkie”, extremely interesting!
If anyone was wondering, the count on this comes to almost 500 calories if you measure everything accurately, which is why I would use it as a delicious dessert! Sounds great, can’t wait to try it, thanks!
I will definitely be making this Smoothie. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods.
I hate banana. What could I use to replace it? Would avocado work?
Avocado would definitely help make it creamy, but the banana also adds some sweetness so you might want to add a splash of maple syrup if you’re not finding it sweet enough.
This looks delicious! I would love it if you did more nutrition type posts like this one!
I’m so happy you put this into words I really could not agree more. Once I stopped counting calories (which I had wasted too much of my life doing) I was able to feed my body what it needed not just complete a math problem every day.
Also, this smoothie looks amazing and I love that you compared it to nut butter because that’s exactly what it looks like! -aka exactly why I have to try it 😉
Amanda, your original chocolate smoothie was life changing. When I see a new recipe post from you on fb, I’m always incredibly excited. When I saw this smoothie I thought, I already have a chocolate smoothie I love and sweet potato?! What’s a girl to do? But, you neber lead me astray so I tried it and OMG, that was so creamy and sweet amazing and I feel great after drinking it. I’m in love, and I’m sorry to cheat on my chocolate smoothie that I’ve been committed to for over a year, but the heart wants what the heart wants. DELICIOUS
I love your philosophy when it comes to counting calories! I am so in favor of wholesome, nutrient dense foods and balance, instead of just counting calories!
O, btw – this smoothie – so yum! Love the dates in it
Never would have thought that there was sweet potato in that fabulous looking smoothie! That’s pretty sneaky – in a really good way, that is! This certainly sounds like a healthy smoothie – forget the calories!
Ahem sister! I’m with you on the calorie counting thing! It’s a dark path that I just don’t want to go down again. It’s too draining!
Now let’s move on to the sweet potatoes! Talk about a surprise ingredient! I was not expecting that! This looks delicious!
My gosh, I remember being so dissapointed if I chose to ‘spend’ my calories on something that didn’t end up tasting very nice… Rather like buying a rubbish outfit with your savings except I couldn’t return it… Yay to food freedom 😀
That looks amazing! Yes you are right about calorie counting…I never had any positive effects of doing that. More often than not I would use it to shame myself or restrict foods that I wanted to eat.
I want this for dessert… but I’m also a creep and eat sweet potatoes with almond butter for dessert sooooo… also love them with eggs and goat cheese for breakfast!!
Confession: I prefer eating sweet sweet potatoes than I do savoury ones. Have you tried adding maple syrup or honey? Un.REAL.
Yummy this looks sooo delicous 🙂
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