{My Favorite Smoothie!}

I would like to preface this very first *real* life blog post with a couple of things: 1) my blog photography could be better and there is room for improvement here. 2) I actually blogged this out in my mind while taking the pictures and I was much more entertaining in my own head. 3) I hope you like it anyway!!

Sometime this Summer I went to our local library and checked out a book by Sophie Uliano who is responsible for the"Gorgeously Green" empire.  I found some really delicious and healthy recipes, this one I am sharing today is by far my favorite one.  I could drink it for every meal, and there have been days I have had it for 2 out of 3.  Sophie calls it the "Peanut Butter Good Mood Food" and I cannot for the life of me find the recipe online, but her book was easily found at my local library and includes the original version of this recipe I am going to share.  I have always been a little green, but this book pushed me a little further to really look at waste, content of prepackaged foods and what we put into our bodies.  I am a little bit more on the "light green" side after reading this book.    

 (So, now that I feel confident I have given credit where credit is due...let's move on.) 

The original recipe called for almond milk, natural peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa powder and honey.  I couldn't just stop there...I add in one banana. 

Our commissary here must order way too many bananas because quite often they mark them down to .49 cents a pound and when they do this I grab a couple of bunches, peel them and freeze them just for this purpose alone.  The frozen banana adds a cool, creamy consistency to the smoothie that I love and wasn't getting with the original recipe, plus it gives you extra potassium and who doesn't need some of that?  Not to mention; peanut butter, chocolate and banana were meant to be together!! 

Trick is, pour the almond milk into the blender (8oz) using your blender as a measuring cup, then break up your frozen banana into pieces and toss it in while you get the rest of the stuff out and measured, this allows the banana a few minutes to get a little softer so you don't freak out your old blender (mine is still kicking after 9 years).  Knock on wood.   

Next thing I do...and I recommend you do it too, is I open up that jar of natural peanut butter and stir it all up.  I never bought natural peanut butter until this recipe, mainly because of the scary oil that sits on top of the mixture.  Not so scary I will say now, but messy for someone as uncoordinated as I can be. 

This is by far the messiest most annoying part of this recipe, but once it is done once you put the jar back in the fridge and you don't have to mess with the stirring part again.  As you can tell I am well armed for this part of the recipe; after one spoon, one spatula, and one washcloth I think I have won the battle of the peanut butter.  I know some of you who aren't as "crunchy granola" are wondering "Why can't I use Skippy or Jif?"  I suppose you could, but personally I like the natural peanut butter not having a whole lot of extra sweetness and just pure, yummy peanutty taste in this smoothie.  And it is not as processed so I feel better for drinking it.  Skippy still holds a special place in my heart though, but not in this recipe. 

Once the peanut butter is stirred up, dump everything into the blender.  Mmmmm, cocoa!! 

 Keep a spatula handy and after whirring that mixture around in the blender for a few, give the blender a good scrape down just because sticky peanut butter and sticky honey really like to hold onto the pitcher....notice the peanut butter drips on the counter? It was a nasty battle.

Then proceed to blend that up some more, create the perfect smoothie tornado and when it looks like this it is probably just right!!

{Cue "Star Wars" them song...it just fits} Buhhhh, buhhhh, buuuu, buu, buuuuuh, buuuuhhhh, buhhh. buuuu, Buuuu, buuuuhhh, buuuuhhh, buuuhh...BUUUUHH, BUUUUUHHH, BUUUUH BUUUUUHHH!! (If I am short a few "buuuhhhs" I apologize). 

Drink this up, it tastes yummy and is low on the guilt factor mainly because unsweetened almond milk only contains 40 calories per 8 oz. serving versus 2% milk that contains 130 calories per 8 oz. serving, unsweetened cocoa (you can find an organic one to go even greener) contains only 15 calories in 1Tbsp, and honey which is low on the glycemic index and better for you than white sugar doesn't spike your insulin (you could probably use agave nectar in its place which is even lower on the index), throw in a banana and you've got yourself something that is delicious, satisfying and amazingly addicting!!

RECIPE:

Chocolate-Banana-Peanut Butter-Smoothie

8 oz. unsweetened almond milk

1 banana ( I like mine frozen)

2 heaping tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp. natural peanut butter

1 tsp. honey

Dump all ingredients into the blender, blend until smooth and enjoy!