Acai pronounced (Ah-Sigh-EE) has become somewhat synonymous with the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle these days. If you have an Instagram account you've no doubt seen lots of pictures of Acai bowls and smoothies littered all over. The Acai berry looks similar to a blue berry but closer to the size of a grape. While the fruit by itself isn't all that sweet, a bit tart to be honest, it is believed to offer some anti-oxidant properties. Since this fruit is naturally grown in South & Central America you aren't likely to run across any fresh offerings at your local supermarkets. You can, however, purchase it in frozen (concentrate) flat packs from some nutritional health stores. I have had good luck finding them at my local Market Street stores. They are not terribly cheap costing about $4.99 for a 4 pack. I thought it would be a nice post workout snack after a hard training session and have experimented with some different ingredients. Below is a recent smoothie I mixed up.
Contents:
1-Banana (73 calories, 18.7g carbs)
1-Frozen Acai flat pack (110 calories, 18g carbs)
A little less than 1 serving frozen pineapple (<70 calories, <18g carbs)
12 oz of 2% milk (170 calories, 15.92g carbs)
Total Calories (Approximately): 413 calories
Total Carbs (Approximately): 66.62g
Keep in mind that you can always fine tune the nutritional side based on what you throw in there.
While experimenting with different version of the smoothie I have used yogurt to add some flavor and calories and found it to be very good.. If you wanted to drop the calories and carbs overall I would suggest substituting the yogurt (Activia Light) for a banana. I have also used orange juice instead of milk which was also excellent. The concentrate Acai is very potent and could probably be cut in 1/2 to save on the calories and put towards your next smoothie.
