Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

My young friend, Stephanie, asked me last week to send her some of the smoothie recipes I used to make for her and the other teen moms at Florence Crittenton when she lived there. She had a special request for the peanut butter chocolate smoothie recipe I often made for the group I facilitated, on independent living skills. I love, love, love it when the girls write or call for recipes or ideas for what to cook for their children, or even a boyfriend.

Our kids still call for recipes, though less often as time goes by. And every once in a while I ask my mom for a recipe, like last week when I needed the peach cobbler recipe I remembered making when I was growing up.

Anyhoo, Stephanie — here is the recipe for your favorite smoothie. Sometimes I would make it with chocolate pudding mix, but this recipe is SO much healthier than that one, so try this one first. I’m sure Kristina will love it too. And it’s good for her (unlike the one that uses pudding mix, which really isn’t healthy. heh)

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

makes two 12-ounce servings INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 and 1/2 frozen bananas
• 1 egg
• 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup, honey or agave nectar
• 1 cup crushed ice (about 5 cubes)
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter

 

PREPARATION

1. Put everything in a blender and pulse until it’s nice and smooth.
2. Taste it. If you want it to taste more chocolaty, add a little more cocoa powder. If you love the taste of peanut butter, add a wee bit more of that. You also might need a little more milk, but careful with that — this melts fast and if it looks kinda thick, don’t worry it will thin out as it melts!
3. Pour into cups and sprinkle chocolate sprinkles or a little cocoa powder on top. Enjoy!

 

NOTES

• If you don’t have unsweetened cocoa powder in the cupboard, you can substitute hot chocolate powder. If you do that, then cut down on the sweetener (don’t add as much maple syrup)
• The bananas give the smoothie creaminess and add sweetness.
• If you are serving this smoothie to a child younger than 2 years old, leave out the raw egg, or cook the egg in water for 1 minute, then add to the blender.
• Use real vanilla!!! Fake vanilla is lame.
• If you are not avoiding dairy, go ahead and use milk instead of the coconut milk.
• I crush the ice by putting the cubes in a big baggie and banding it against the countertop. Makes a lot of fun noise. 😉

 

Please let me know if you try this smoothie and like it. And … if you make any improvements or tweaks, I’d love to hear about it. Enjoy!