Chocolate Peanut Butter: The Greatest Flavor Combination Ever

Last January I was immersing myself in my first student teaching experience at a local elementary school.  It was 2.7 miles and 4 turns from my house.  Talk about an easy commute!  The school is in a great community, supported by passionate teachers, and curious children.  The experience in front of my students was invaluable, and I miss seeing twenty 3rd graders do split squats and call them “Tebows”.  A year after student teaching, I’m still learning awesome things from my mentor teacher, Steve.

We got together last night to eat and talk about our love/hate relationships with DOMS.  If you’re near Long Beach, New York, check out Geri’s.  The crab cakes and cavatelli bolognese are delicious.  Like all exercise enthusiasts, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up coconut oils and milk, bison, and other assorted Paleo goodies.  At this point, I was stuffed, but we got back to Steve’s place and he offered to make a delicious protein shake.  My fuel capacity was no match for Steve’s enthusiasm, even as his girlfriend Eileen guffawed at how lame we were.  Srsly, who get’s that excited about protein shakes?

If you couldn’t tell, that picture is a stock photo.  I’m using it because Steve’s shake was so damn delicious that I didn’t have the time to worry about snapping a decent photo; I was hell bent on consuming that glorious concoction.  It tasted like drinking melted chocolate ice cream.  A-mazing. Here’s the recipe, to Steve’s semi-exacting specifications:

• 8-12oz of Chocolate Almond Milk.  (He actually said, “This much!” and eye-balled it, but that doesn’t count.)
• 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder.  (He used Met-Rx Protein Plus.)
• 6 ice cubes.  Exactly six.  This was specific.
• 1 scoop of natural peanut butter, followed by a spoonful of peanut butter for himself.  I’m not positive if that impacts shake taste, but it’s delicious so who cares.
• Some walnuts.  “Some” isn’t very exact, so it’s personal preference.  Regardless of quantity, save the walnuts for the very end, give them a quick pulse, then serve.  It makes for the perfect amount of crunch.

Other than the 6 ice cubes Steve wasn’t very exacting, which makes this the perfect recipe for your inner guestimater.  Grab the healthy, tasty ingredients, eye ball everything, blend to your hearts content (except the walnuts!) and then enjoy.  According to Eileen, using a straw makes the shake extra tasty.  This stock photo has straws in it:

This shake is perfect for people who like delicious things, like healthy things, or fancy themselves a Pinterest princess and like to recreate recipes they found online.  Break this one out for your training partner, friends, and family, and they’re all sure to enjoy it.

Now, I’m off to practice my bowling technique.