How To Make An Acai Bowl

In: bowls, breakfast + brunch, raw, recipes

Yesterday I read this really great article on Pinch of Yum that I wanted to share with you all – entitled “Feeling jealous on the internet… and 12 ways to make it stop“. In the post, Lindsay talked about how easy it is to get sucked into a virtual comparison with other blogs / social media personas. But what was most impressive about the post, to me, was that Lindsay confessed to a lot of, let’s say “less than bloggable-worthy thoughts” that she had about the online game; emotions like jealousy and anger that a lot of us don’t really talk about in our online spaces. And honestly, that took a lot of guts. As much as we all like to keep things positive and peppy online, everyone has negative thoughts. Everyone. Even you, even me. And reading Lindsay’s post was kind of exactly what I needed to read right now. Recently I had been feeling a little jealous of another blogger, knowing that she has more followers than me. (There, I admitted it! You all know my worst thoughts now.)

But there’s something wrong with my nasty thoughts (other than the fact that they’re nasty)… it’s such an insanely human fallacy, but sometimes we feel like if someone else does something great, it somehow diminishes us or belittles our own accomplishments. But that couldn’t be less true.

I kind of want to hit myself in the head for thinking in such a negative and fallacious way. But the first step to fixing a problem is admitting that there is one in the first place. I don’t have a problem admitting that I have negative thoughts (even though it is a bit scary to air online), because every person on the planet has negative thoughts. And to pretend otherwise is just untrue.

But the point of all of this is (and this is a memo to myself as well) – don’t let yourself get jealous. Instead of looking at someone’s accomplishments as a threat to you, see if you can find it in your heart to celebrate their success as an achievement on its own, knowing that you are also capable of wonderful things. :)

(And I would be remiss if I didn’t give a huge thank you to Lindsay, for giving me the courage to be honest about my shortcomings and talk about them with you all.)

And now onto acai bowls! I first heard of them a few years ago when a friend of mine went to Hawaii and posted a picture of one on Instagram. At first I was like, “What the heck is acai?”, pronouncing it “uh-kai” in my head. Little did I know that these little berries are potent powerhouses of nutritional value, being a fantastic source of vitamins and antioxidants. In addition, acai tastes kind of like a chocolatey berry, making it a perfect flavor template for smoothie bowls.

Making an acai bowl is a lot of fun because there’s a ton of flavor combinations you can do. In this recipe I used fresh pineapple as a flavor enhancer, but you can replace that with a cup of any of your favorite fruits, like strawberries, mangoes, or blueberries. You also have total creative license over the toppings… in the mood for fresh fruit? Stick ’em on there! Have a bunch of granola on hand? Onto the acai bowl it goes!