Summer Acai Bowl with Big Cluster Toasted Buckwheat Granola.

SOOOO. I am totally jumping on the acai bowl bandwagon.

Why it took me this long I have no clue, but now that I finally made my first bowl, I am SO hooked. I will not even try to deny that the reason I am so hooked is solely because of all the toppings.

The smoothie itself is awesome, but without the toppings I’d be bored. Toppings are my everything…well, when it comes to breakfast bowls anyway.

I feel like I could write an entire cookbook on breakfast and breakfast alone. I was jotting down recipes over the weekend and I somehow manage to have over 80 breakfast recipe ideas. I mean, what?!? Yeah, I know. The thing is, I like to eat breakfast at any time of the day. I think breakfast for dinner is my favorite, but lunch works too, so maybe in my head, that is what I am thinking when I am brainstorming all these breakfast recipes. You know, that they could really be breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner.

Either that or I just REALLY like breakfast, and at this current time the breakfast ideas are flowing.

See, I go through phases when I have a lot of savory recipe ideas and ZERO sweet ideas and vice versa. I have been trying to write absolutely every idea down so I never forget it, but my notes are getting lost and my notebooks are getting full, and looking at them is becoming a tad overwhelming.

I think I need a better system… suggestions welcomed.

OH! And in exciting news, my dad started a garden right outside my house for some herbs and tomato plants. I have been begging him to do this all spring, but it really only just started getting warm enough to actually plant things outside. We are not really sure these said herbs will survive the cold nights, but Dad is saying a tarp will trap the heat in so we shall see.

I really hope it works though because having fresh herbs at my fingertips would be beyond amazing…fingers crossed.

And yes, I do have the very best dad. I mean, he does love gardening, but even still, he’s awesome. And I have to give a shout out to my neighbor Vern who took his big tractor thing and dug up the soil, making it 10x easier for my dad.

Clearly, I have some good people looking out for me. Feeling extra grateful.

And since I don’t want to leave anyone out, I have to give my mom some major points for her efforts of at least trying to help me decide on some recipes for a project I am working on. She did ok for the first hour, but after that she pretty much petered out and kept repeating, “yeah, that sounds good”. She totally gets points for trying though…recipe talk is just not her thing.

She’d prefer to eat.

And rightly so.

Which brings me to these pretty summer acai bowls that I am in LOVE with. No really, I love them. So many fresh summer flavors and textures. Totally my kind of bowl food.

Or well, coconut bowl food, because everything served in a coconut is just that much better. <– Truth.

The smoothie base takes maybe five minutes to throw together. It could not be easier and you can use fresh or frozen fruit and adapt the recipe to use what you have on hand. There are so many different combos you can do, but I went the summer tropical route.

For the granola, instead of a traditional granola I went with a buckwheat granola, because buckwheat and I are currently having a moment. Meaning, I want to make everything using buckwheat. I love its earthy flavor and the crunch it gives. Lately I have been sprinkling the raw buckwheat groats on yogurt with some hemp seeds and almonds. It’s my new favorite snack. I eat it completely raw, which I know is not ideal, but it doesn’t bother my stomach at all and I never seem to remember to soak my groats overnight. Plus, they lose a lot of their crunch then.

ANYWAY, for this granola we are toasting the buckwheat in the oven with a some seeds, coconut and honey. I promise it is addicting and super crunchy, which I love!

Oh, and I also made a quick vanilla cashew butter for drizzling overtop these bowls, but then my toppings got to be a little out of control and I had almost no room for the cashew butter in the recipe box, so I did not include it. BUT if you want to make it, it’s just 6 ounces roasted cashews, 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes and 1 vanilla bean (seeds scraped out). Add that all to a food processor and blend for a good 10 minutes. DONE. And so flipping good. I eat it with a spoon…but wouldn’t you?

Trust me, you would.

Summer Acai Bowl with Big Cluster Toasted Buckwheat Granola.

5 from 2 votes

2 Smoothies

by Tieghan Gerard

calories 2558kcal

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Prep10 minutes mins

Cook25 minutes mins

Total35 minutes mins

The smoothie itself is awesome, but without the toppings I'd be bored. Toppings are my everything...well, when it comes to breakfast bowls anyway.

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Ingredients 

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Summer Acai Bowl

• ▢ 2 tablespoons frozen Acai Berry Packs OR 4 Acai Berry Powder*
• ▢ 1 cup coconut milk, or your favorite milk
• ▢ 1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries, I used blueberries
• ▢ 1/2 cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries
• ▢ 1/4 cup fresh or frozen pineapple chunks
• ▢ 1/4 cup fresh or frozen mango chunks
• ▢ 2 soft medjool dates, pitted
• ▢ sliced mango, granola, hemp seeds, cacao nibs, berries, edible flowers and cashew butter, for topping

Toasted Buckwheat Granola

• ▢ 2 cups raw buckwheat groats
• ▢ 1 cup raw almonds
• ▢ 1/2 cup raw cashews
• ▢ 1/2 cup raw sesame seeds, I used a mix of black + white
• ▢ 1/4 cup chia seeds
• ▢ 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• ▢ 3/4 cup honey or maple syrup
• ▢ 1/4 cup coconut oil
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon instant coffee, optional
• ▢ pinch of a hawaiian sea salt

Instructions 

Summer Acai Bowl

• Run the frozen acai berry packs under hot water and then squeeze them out into a blender. To the blender, add the coconut milk, berries, cherries, pineapple, mango and dates. Blend until completely smooth. Pour the smoothie into a bowl or in my case, a cracked coconut. Top with your desired toppings. I went with buckwheat granola (recipe below), sliced mango, berries, hemp seeds, cacao nibs, a drizzle of vanilla cashew butter and a cherry.

Toasted Buckwheat Granola

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• To the baking sheet, add the buckwheat, almonds, cashews, sesame seeds, chia seeds and coconut.
• In a small sauce pan melt together the honey and coconut. Once melted stir in the vanilla and instant coffee, remove from the heat and pour the mixture over the buckwheat mix, toss well and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring 1 to 2 times throughout cooking. The granola is done when the buckwheat smells toasted and is golden brown. Allow the buckwheat to cool completely before breaking it up into clusters. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Notes

*Frozen Acai Packs can be found at Whole Foods and the Acai Powder I like to buy can be found on [Amazon | http://www.amazon.com/SAMBAZON-Organic-Freeze-Dried-Antioxidant-Superfood/dp/B0016BAB42/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433727472&sr=8-2&keywords=acai&pebp=1433727476692&perid=15MHHZCY3XAAYEW4AXBM]. **if you prefer, you can soak your buckwheat groats overnight to get more nutrients out of them and make digesting the buckwheat easier, but I honestly never do this because I just forget.

Nutrition

Calories: 2558kcal | Carbohydrates: 325g | Protein: 60g | Fat: 164g | Saturated Fat: 79g | Sodium: 196mg | Potassium: 2680mg | Fiber: 54g | Sugar: 144g | Vitamin A: 480IU | Vitamin C: 30.7mg | Calcium: 785mg | Iron: 21.7mg

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

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And yeah, that’s my pink pineapple tank. Not a pink girl, but I love that shirt.