I haven’t been very inventive in the kitchen lately because of a super busy schedule and back-to-back weekend trips to Maine, but one culinary delight to come out of a caffeine-fueled, jam-packed calendar is this banana-hazelnut coffee protein smoothie. I don’t drink coffee regularly because I hate the feeling of being dependent on caffeine to function in the morning (there was a dark time in my life when I was fully addicted to coffee for a solid month and had to endure splitting withdrawal headaches for two days to break the habit), but I do enjoy a nice iced coffee here and there.

My go-to for coffee is P.S. Gourmet which, in true Southie fashion, is an absolutely hilarious establishment without even realizing it’s hilarious. It’s just so….so “Southie.” They mark any bill over a $10 to make sure it’s not counterfeit—even if you’ve clearly just taken the $20 bill out of their ATM. Every morning I walk in, I overhear bits of conversation like, “Yeah, I’ve been goin’ tannin’ because Robbie likes it when I’m wicked dahk.” And they have a sign on the door warning you not to sell drugs inside. I fucking love that place.

Anyway, the other day, I had half of a large banana hazelnut iced coffee left, so I decided to pour it into an ice cube tray and turn it into smoothie fuel. (As a side note, freezing coffee in ice cube trays is also a great way to keep (unfrozen) cups of iced coffee cold without watering them down with regular ice cubes.) I added in a banana, rice milk, some vanilla protein powder and flax seeds and blended it together into a perfect post-workout breakfast smoothie. It wakes you up and gets you the protein fuel your body needs.

Ingredients

This will make one glass, on the smaller side.

• 1 cup banana hazelnut coffee ice cubes
• 1 banana
• ¼ cup vanilla rice milk
• 2 tbsp vanilla hemp protein powder
• 1 tbsp flax seeds

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 259
–Calories from Fat: 54
Total Fat: 5g
–Saturated Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 39mg
Total Carbohydrate: 44g
–Dietary Fiber: 11g
–Sugars: 19g
Protein: 8g

I’ll end with P.S. Gourmet’s television commercial for those of you who don’t live in the Boston area and haven’t had the pleasure of watching it. I can’t decide if it’s the worst commercial ever or…the best.

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When I’m planning to host a get-together, I have a neurotic fear that there won’t be enough food or enough alcohol for my guests. So I always end up planning this entirely ridiculous menu of foods and doing like 18 trips to Whole Foods in the upcoming days and force-feeding everyone snacks they don’t want like the overbearing Italian mother I am destined to become.

My book club last month was no different. Luckily, about halfway through my cooking frenzy, one of my friends was like “dude, enough.” It saved me from making too many snacks, but left me with a bunch of pears, melons and cantaloupe that I had been planning to grill, wrap in goat cheese and prosciutto, and drizzle with honey (delicious—try it!). Since making hors d’oeuvres for yourself is…awkward…I decided the next best use for the melon was clearly a smoothie.

Now, I almost didn’t post this recipe because I found the texture a little…different. The avocado makes this a creamy smoothie, and I’m not entirely sure what I think about that. If you’re into that thick, creamy texture though, then this is the smoothie for you.

Melon Avocado Super Seed Smoothie

Ingredients

This will make 1 large smoothie or 2 smaller ones.

• ½ an avocado
• 1 cup chopped melon
• 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• Juice from ½ a lemon
• ½ a banana
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp flax seeds
• 1 tsp hemp seeds

If you try it out, let me know what you think about the texture of the smoothie.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 395
—Calories from Fat: 156
Total Fat: 17 g
—Saturated Fat: 2 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 41.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 61 g
—Dietary Fiber: 13 g
—Sugars: 37 g
Protein: 7 g

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