Trail Smoothie - v1.1

For several months I have wanted to develop a smoothie to take for breakfast on backpacking trips. Most mornings in my "real" life start with a fruit smoothie, enhanced with protein, vitamins, etc. A smoothie is easy to digest, a real consideration on the trail, when exertion on a full stomach is not fun at all. The energy your body uses to digest a heavy meal is less energy you have to hike!

Today is a cloudy, cold, and potentially rainy day in Georgia. And I have all the ingredients on-hand. So, let the development begin!

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons soy milk powder; one scoop Vega One; 1-10g package freeze-dried pineapple; 1-15g package freeze-dried banana

Method: I cut off a tiny corner of each package of freeze-dried fruit and crushed the contents with a rolling pin. The result was a bit chunkier that I would have liked; next time I will whizz them up in the blender or food processor to get a uniform powder.

I combined all the ingredients in a Nalgene bottle, added 1.5 cups cold water, and shook vigorously!

Verdict: Except for the unwanted chunkies in my smoothie, it was pretty good! I used a straw to avoid the chunks, and it tasted just like my usual smoothie, but was a little thinner than I'm used to.

Notes: I would like to get some coconut milk powder instead of the soy milk powder.

Vega One has a distinct taste and is sweetened with stevia. It does come in single-serving pouches for sampling with minimum commitment. I use the vanilla flavor because I think the vanilla offsets the taste of the protein powder nicely.

The Vega One is not easy to clean out of the blender and glasses at home, and cleaning a Nalgene in the field won't be easy. I need to think about how to manage this...