COOL CHOCOLATE BANANA ALMOND SMOOTHIE #recipe #mystery @abbottmysteries

BY VICTORIA ABBOTT aka Mary Jane and Victoria Maffini

We are the biggest oatmeal fans ever, but really, on these hot and humid summer mornings something cold and refreshing sounds better. If the cold refreshing something has chocolate in it, then no question, we want it.  Breakfast in a glass? You bet!

 That’s why when we started to stumble across smoothie recipes with bananas, almond milk, cocoa and other good things,  we decided to give them a try, naturally changing up any ideas we came across.  We have some friends and occasional visitors who can't do dairy and it's nice to have some options.  We loved the result.  And it’s hard for anything to be much easier.   

 You can add more or less of any ingredient according to your own preferences or change the sweetener or flavoring. We know you do that anyway!  We hope you'll drop in with your favorite smoothie suggestions today too.

COOL CHOCOLATE BANANA ALMOND SMOOTHIE

All you need:

2 medium or one large ripe banana, preferably frozen – it’s much better!

4 ice cubes

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 ½ tablespoons almond butter

1 ½ to 2 tablespoons cocoa powder  (we used two but will dial it back next time)

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp almond

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Slice banana (s)

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth (ie)!

Find a pleasant spot and serve.  

Speaking of cool, we think these fedoras are pretty cool too. They're our way of celebrating the count-down to The Hammett Hex.  Probably Hammett is rolling in his grave, but we like them anyway.

This smoothie and the fedoras and the coming releaase are not all we feel great about this week.  We've  learned that the e-book version of The Christie Curse, our FIRST book collector mystery is available on all platforms (Kindle/Kobo etc) for the amazing price of $1.99. 




Here's one link: Here's one link  But you can try others!

 If you haven’t read The Christie Curse or would like to send one as a gift, here’s your chance.  Our sleuth Jordan Bingham, the first person in her large Irish family to go straight, is tasked with finding a previously unknown and un-performed play that Agatha Christie may have written during her mysterious eleven-day disappearance in 1926.  Too late, Jordan learns that her predecessor died searching for the same play.  Will her dream job turn into a nightmare?  Find out! And have fun meeting Jordan, Vera Van Alst, Signora Panetone, Walter the Pug, the crooked Irish uncles and all those collectible mysteries from The Golden Age of Detection. 

And now, (DRUM ROLL)  here's the trailer for The Hammett Hex!  Watch the trailer!

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Happy summer reading, everyone!