When it starts getting so hot out, one of my absolute favorite summer treats to make is an acai bowl! For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of trying these delicious treats before, acai bowls are essentially smoothie bowls blended with acai berries–a high antioxidant superfood from Brazil– and are topped with granola, fruit, or any other goodies that your heart desires.  *Translation: It looks like ice cream, it tastes like ice cream, and you get to have it for breakfast, totally guilt-free.  Sound good? Sounds like a total win-win situation to me.

Acai bowls are commonly found in smoothie or juice spots in major cities or in more tropical destinations, but have no fear–they’re also easy and very cheap to make yourself! Here’s my step-by-step guide to making the perfect acai bowl.

First, for the smoothie base, I love to use these acai berry superfruit packs made by Sambazon. I buy mine from the freezer section at Whole Foods, and I love that they’re already portioned out into ingle serving sizes and come unsweetened. Typically, I’ll blend mine with 1/4 – 1/2 cup almond or soy milk for a smoothie bowl, or a full cup for a smoothie drink.

You can really use any type of vanilla-flavored protein powder here, but my favorite comes from a little superfood store in LA called Live Breaming, which also sells individual packs. For those of you in LA, their vanilla bean and cinnamon protein blend is great! Not only does it have 12 grams of plant protein per serving, but it’s also low glycemic and is soy, dairy, and gluten free and is packed with condensed superfoods like spirulina, maca, coconut sugar, chlorella, and hemp and pea proteins.

*Translation for all of you non-foodies out there: it tastes great and is really, really good for you, especially in terms of boosting energy and muscle recovery after a workout.

Back to the recipe! Blend together your acai pack, protein, and liquid of choice together until smooth. The result should be a thick, creamy smoothie that looks something like this:

Now, for the best part–toppings! This is where we have some fun. For my base, I always start with granola. This granola also comes from Live Beaming and is a beautiful mix of oats, chia, sunflower seeds, and other whole ingredients.

For added protein and crunch, I also love to add hemp seeds. Raw hemp seeds are a complete protein and are rich in Omega 3 & 6, vitamin E (for beautiful skin and hair), and fiber. Fun fact for you vegetarians out there: hemp seeds have more digestible protein than meat, whole eggs, cow milk, or any other high protein food.  Who knew? 2 tablespoons contains 11g protein, 1 g fiber, or about 20% of your daily iron value.

Next, I love to add in berries. Here I used blackberries and strawberries, but bananas, raspberries, or almost any other fruit will do.

Finally, for some good measure I love to add in sliced almonds for extra crunch. Unsweetened shredded coconut is also a favorite. Enjoy!