Healthy Circular Spirulina Smoothie Bowl

Smoothie bowls are an amazing way to "play with your food". They offer the delicious benefits of an energy boosting smoothie coupled with a wide canvas for artistic inspiration :)

Since I grow my own spirulina, (and here is a great Instructable on how to do it), I thought it'd be a perfect opportunity for me to use up my harvest! If you don't have access to fresh spirulina, dry powder will work too. With this Instructable, I hope people also learn about the health benefits of different foods. Spirulina, for example, is a type of microalgae that is full of protein and iron among other nutrients making it a perfect food for vegans or vegetarians who sometimes struggle to get enough of these things.

For the smoothie:

• 1/2 banana
• 1 small pear
• 1/3 cup frozen mango
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 3/4 cup soy milk
• 2 tablespoons fresh spirulina (if using dry powder I'd recommend 1.5 teaspoons)
• 1 handful spinach
• 1 handful ice

For the decor:

• 1/2 banana
• Pear
• Mango
• Blueberries
• Chia seeds
• Cacao nibs

Materials:

• Blender
• Knife
• Melon baller
• Wide, sturdy straw
• Piping tip

Throw everything in the blender and pulse until it's nice and smooth. If it's really loud and pasty/chunky, add more soy milk. If it's too liquidy, add more ice or fruit.

Fresh spirulina has no taste so you can add as much of it as you'd like, but dry spirulina tastes more distinct so I'd taste your smoothie before adding a lot of it. Depending on how sweet your fruit is, you might need to add some sweetener as well.

Once it's just how you like it, pour it into a bowl.

Not only are blueberries delicious, they're also super nutritious. Full of antioxidants, blueberries will keep you feeling your best all day! Antioxidants help prevent or delay some types of cell damage including those that contribute to aging.

I put the blueberries in a ring along the outside of my bowl.

Fiber is essential to proper bowel movement and pears contain tons of it: even more than kale!

To prepare the pear, I used a melon baller to scoop out round balls of pear and placed them next in the ring of fruit, on the inside of the blueberries.

Bananas are amazing for active people because they provide tons of easily digested carbs as well as electrolytes, which your body loses through sweat. Bananas can also help reduce cramping because of its high potassium.

To make the bananas pretty, I sliced the half banana remaining from the smoothie into slices and used a thick metal straw to cut out circles. These I placed in the gaps between the pear and the blueberries as well as in a pile in the center of the ring.

Mangoes are full of Vitamins A and C, both of which play big roles in skin and hair health. What better way to get these vitamins than in a delicious mango?

First, I sliced off the peel of the mango and cut part of it into a slab. Then, using a piping tip, I cut out circles. You could use the same straw as before, but I thought it'd look nice if the mango and banana were different sizes.

The mangoes just go next in the ring and the tiny space left over in the middle can be filled with a blueberry.

Finally, to make everything nice and pretty, I sprinkled the pears with chia seeds and the gaps in between them with cacao nibs.

Chia seeds contain lots of omega-3s which are used for lots of things in your body including brain function. Cacao nibs are also super healthy with even more antioxidants than blueberries!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and learned a bit about the health benefits of everyday foods! I'd love to see your pretty smoothie bowl in the comments :)