How to Make a Chocolate Banana Protein Smoothie

As a college student trying to maintain a (somewhat) healthy diet, I find I struggle to eat enough fruits, veggies, and to consume the proper amount of protein. This easy, 7 ingredient smoothie is a fun and yummy way to make sure I’m able to get these foods into my body, and it can be taken on the go if I need to get to class!

In order to make this smoothie, you will need a cup, paper towel, small knife, spoon, blender of choice, ice cubes, milk of choice (I used almond milk), chocolate flavored protein powder, vanilla greek yogurt, baby spinach, 1 banana, and peanut butter. Warning: this recipe does include food products with peanuts in them. However, the peanut butter is optional, so if you have an allergy to peanuts, or you just don’t like it, you can leave it out!

First, place the banana on a paper towel or cutting board and cut off the ends of the banana and any bruised spots with a small knife. Once you have cut off those spots, you can slice the banana into pieces down the whole thing. By cutting the banana into slices, I find that it blends easier in my blender. Once you have all of your banana slices, place them in the blender.

Next, grab a handful of baby spinach and place it in the blender. If you don’t typically like spinach and you’re worried about tasting it in the smoothie, have no fear! You will not be able to taste any spinach after completing the rest of these steps, so this is an easy way to add some vegetables to this smoothie.

For this next step, take your spoon and add 2-3 scoops of vanilla greek yogurt to the smoothie. Adding the yogurt helps make this smoothie more creamy. Once you have added the desired amount of yogurt, clean off your spoon with a paper towel.

For this next optional step, take the spoon you just cleaned off and add a scoop of peanut butter to the smoothie ingredients. I find that this makes the smoothie incredibly creamy and adds more flavor.

Next, based on your protein goals, add 1-2 scoops of chocolate flavored protein powder. Often times, a protein powder container like this one will come with its own scooper inside. However, if your protein powder does not come with its own scooper, clean off the spoon from before and scoop it out with the spoon. Since I’m a pescatarian and I don’t get as much protein from other sources, I chose to add 2 scoops to this smoothie. However, this recipe makes a little more than 1 serving, so if you don’t want an overwhelming protein powder flavor, I would recommend 1 scoop.

After adding most of the solids, it’s time to add the liquid. Pour your milk of choice to fill approximately 1/3 the height of your ingredients. This amount of milk will get you a fairly thick consistency. To make your smoothie have more of a liquid like consistency, pour your milk so it covers 1/2-3/4 of your ingredients. To make it even thicker, pour the milk to cover 1/4 of the ingredients. I wouldn’t recommend pouring less than this however, as adding liquid helps to blend all of the ingredients.

The last ingredient you will add is ice. For a thicker, more solid consistency, add 5-8 ice cubes like I did. In order to make the smoothie more liquidy, add between 3-5 ice cubes.

First, make sure to place the lid on top of the blender. In order to make sure the ice is crushed and properly blended, first start blending on “ice crush”, or your blenders strongest setting. Once all of the ice is crushed, you may have to scoop spare ingredients (especially the protein powder) off the sides of the blender in order to make sure it gets blended with everything else. For the next setting, select “blend”, or a medium blending setting. Leave this going for 30 seconds-1 minute, or until all ingredients are blended together.

Lastly, pour your blended smoothie into a glass & enjoy! I was able to fill a glass and half of a small cup with this recipe. I hope you enjoy this recipe, and thank you for reading!