I play with food a lot. –> I go to the grocery store a lot. –> I have a lot of awkward encounters with grocery store cashiers.
Let’s talk about the different forms that awkwardness can take at different stores.
Trader Joe’s cashiers are aggressively jolly and overly excited about every item you’re purchasing. They’ve tried it all and loved it! Sometimes I think they are commissioned.
Whole Foods cashiers are trained to engage you in conversation at the expense of your privacy. A simple “how are you?” won’t suffice. “What are you doing after this?” is much more common. <– Clearly I am going home to cook dinner. It is 6 pm and I am at the grocery store. Let’s put 2 and 2 together.
Cashiers at other grocery stores are not necessarily used to seeing a shopping cart full of the type of food I load mine up with.
“I put all your produce in one bag for you, ma’am.” <– Ugh. Did you notice that that’s 90% of what I bought? You literally put a box of tissues and 10 tortillas in the second bag. Why was that a good idea.
Also, the inevitable “what are these?” Recent case in point: dates.
“What do you use them for?”
“Uh, smoothies and stuff.”
“Oh, are they high in something?” <– What?
“Um… sugar?”
I guess dates are weird-looking wrinkly little brown lumps, so I shouldn’t judge too harshly the 19-year-old who isn’t familiar with them. Still, the “high in something” phrase left me pretty confused. Is that how we’re referring to healthy food now?
Luckily, there’s no cure for confusion like a chocolate smoothie.
This chocolate smoothie is one of the most dessert-like I’ve ever made, yet it’s got some sneaky greens hiding in between the berries and chocolate.
I resisted the urge to scoop some Greek yogurt in here, leaving this dessert-like smoothie completely vegan. Also, no bananas for you banana-haters! Instead it’s packed with raspberries and cherries, spinach, almonds in different forms, and of course, a healthy scoop of cocoa powder.
This smoothie is high in all sorts of things… deliciousness being right up there at the top of the list. But I’m thinking you don’t need to be convinced of the lusciousness of the chocolate/raspberry/cherry/almond combo. It is just plain one of the best there is.
Breakfast, snack, dessert… I’m not quite sure. Blend yourself up one of these to enjoy at some point this weekend!
- 2-3 dates, pitted and chopped (and soaked in water for 30 minutes if not using a high-speed blender)
- 2 cups frozen raspberries
- 1 cup frozen cherries
- 2 cups packed spinach
- 1 1/2 cups almond milk
- 2 Tbsp almond butter
- 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- cocoa nibs to top (optional)
- toasted slivered almonds to top (optional)
- Blend all ingredients until smooth. Serve in bowls or glasses and top with cocoa nibs and slivered almonds. Enjoy!
Hahaha – you have me LOLing about the grocery store cashier encounters ;) I always insist that I pack my own grocery bag because I get ridiculously stressed and annoyed when my items are smashed or my bag is 500 pounds! And can we just talk about how gorgeous this smoothie is for a second? I don’t know how you do it but your smoothies are always beautiful… if a smoothie can be beautiful ;)
I once had to tell a cashier at my grocery store what an eggplant was. Did I tell you that story? Yup. Eggplant, kale, sweet potatoes…things that normal people know about. Clearly homeboy doesn’t eat his veggies, but whateve’s. Yup, when you’re a food blogger, cashier conversations are some of the most interesting conversations.
This smoothie looks AMAZIIIIIIING! I want it for bk today! Love me some dates and some cherry chocolateyness. <3
What a great post, I usually go to some type of food store daily and there does seem to be quite a few similarities. Love this smoothie, dates are such a great way to thicken and sweeten things up.
golly gee, i just love medjool dates!
This is downright GORGEOUS! Pinning asap. Almond butter and cacao is such a rockin combo in smoothies. Love that there’s no nanner in here–I’ve been obsessed with dates in smoothies lately! I especially love the medjool ones from Trader Joe’s. They’re SUPER moist and blendable.
I will have to try out the dates from TJ’s! I bet they get rave reviews from the cashiers :)
This was hilarious and SO true! Why do they always ask what your plans are?! I hate that. I don’t need to be reminded of how boring my life is, thanks. And I also wonder if TJ’s employees are commissioned…
This smoothie is right up my alley! Dates are the perfect natural sweetener and I love that you used almond butter. Yum!
I think being reminded of my boring life is the real issue, hah. If I had a super exciting life, I wouldn’t be wearing dress pants and loading a bag of kale into my Subaru, ya know? :)
Haha! You totally nailed it with the grocery store cashiers. And I was thinking the same thing about the Trader Joe’s cashiers…EVERY time they comment about how good something is and then say “If you like these you should try XYZ.” Totally commissioned ;)
This smoothie looks delicious. I’ve never put dates in my smoothies…definitely need to try that!
HAHAAHA “is this high in something”?!?! I laughed out loud at that. Too funny. Sounds delish, however you can never go wrong with chocolate in my opinion! I love the swirly straw :)
I’m taking a much needed lunch break and catching up on all of my blog reading. This had me cracking up!!! I love awkward moments at the grocery store. This smoothie is right up my alley girl! Yum.
Luscious recipe! And the thought I had on my mind was…full of FIBER with those dates. Wow, my mouth is watering up. It looks like a chocolate berry soft serve.
And I start to feel “itchy” around cashiers too Erica!
Haha, your cashier story made me chuckle :) This smoothie looks delicious – I love the choc/berry combo, and what better way to have it than in a smoothie!
Smoothie looks delish! I make like 2-3 trips to the store per week (also making the rounds between TJ, Whole Foods, Safeway, etc.). So I also have a lot of awkward conversations at the grocery store! I’m always buying weird combinations of things and people will comment on them. And it always kind of freaks me out when they don’t know what a particular food item is.
Haha! You know you’re a vegan when . . . you understand all of these things. It’s amazing how many “what is this?” questions I get. I find artichokes and kale confuse people a lot.
This smoothie looks amazing!
This looks absolutely delicious and I don’t eat chocolate.
Holy bleep, this is funny and could’ve come right out of my own head. I am constantly saying to my husband, ‘what’s with Trader Joe’s employees?’. It’s like they’re all given a set of questions that they have to regurgitate to each customer. It’s quite annoying for when you just want to buy your groceries and leave. Your smoothie is totally up my alley. I don’t eat bananas much because of allergies, so I’m so happy to have this recipe to try!
I seem to get that question a lot at grocery stores – probably on account of all the weird food I manage to find. I cannot imagine not knowing what dates are! TRAGIC. I think they’re high in potassium. < my only excuse to eat them by handful. every day.
This smoothie is not only gorgeous, but looks totally delicious! Must try it sometime.
Pinning!