Okay, I realize that this isn’t a novel concept and, in fact, this has been around for a while. Please forgive me while I crawl out from the cave man sized rock that I’ve clearly been living under. I have to admit that I had no idea that these existed leaving me thinking, what have I been doing my whole life?

A work friend of mine came down to visit last week for some training. She’s a lot of fun and I was excited to get to schedule out a lunch with her. She’s very health conscious, frequenting CrossFit and making good choices when it comes to food. Basically, she’s everything I’m not. I completely admire her for that, so when she suggested trying out acai bowls, I was definitely game.

Now I have to be honest, I was a little skeptical. Most things that are considered healthy meal substitutes are not up my ally. I enjoy smoothies and juices, but that’s about it. I’m certainly not a salad girl. So when I heard that I’d be having a fruit filled bowl with granola, I wasn’t thrilled. However, you can’t judge a book by its cover so I gave this little trend a try.

There’s a new place out by my work called Blenders and Bowls. Apparently, there are a few in Austin but I hadn’t heard of them before. When first walking in, I definitely felt the place was trendy and fun. My first thoughts were if things tasted as good as they looked, I’d be leaving happy. After looking over the menu, I decided to go with The Chill Berry. The bowl featured an acai smoothie topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries, goji berries, granola and honey. After one bite, I was hooked. It was sour and sweet and crunchy. I found myself quickly scraping the bowl clean. The craziest part to me was that I was actually full! That’s right, a smoothie with fruit and granola got this plus sized girl full!

With my successful acai encounter I began to get skeptical. This couldn’t be healthy because it was delicious. There had to be a catch like a lot of hidden sugar or something. Well, after plenty of research it turns out, yeah, it’s totally healthy. All you’re ingesting is fruit, honey and granola. So, it’s totally worth a meal replacement or even an dessert since it has the consistency of icecream. Oh, and there’s a lot of health benefits from acai like:

• It is a great source of antioxidants
• It is a good source of vitamin C
• It is great for your skin

So, if you’re looking for something nutritional that tastes amazing, look no further than an acai bowl. Trust me, it’s totally worth it!