Dessert for Breakfast

“Shut the front door!  This tastes like a milkshake.  It’s basically a dessert!”

That’s what I said in my best Stacey London impersonation when I tried this shake for the first time.  Betsy and I had something similar to it in an airport and it was so good that we tried to re-create it when we got home.

Our version tasted even better.  It tastes so delicious that you would think it has tons of bad stuff in it, but it’s completely healthy.

It’s a fantastic way to start the day.

If you’re not a fan of the fruit smoothie (or just want a change), this is an awesome weekday breakfast.

Smoothie Ingredients

The base of this smoothie is a good amount of ripe banana and creamy peanut butter.  These blend together perfectly and make for a really delicious flavor base.  Both ingredients have a lot of good stuff going on.

I also added some agave syrup for a bit of sweetness.  You could use honey or just leave it out.

This smoothie works best with creamy ingredients.  To round out the smoothie, I added some yogurt, milk, and tofu.

Yes.  Tofu.  It might sound strange but you literally can’t taste it and it gives the smoothie some body and a ton of protein.

Two other add-ins that Betsy and I have been putting in our smoothie lately is flax seeds and chia seeds.  The nutritional benefits of these seeds are pretty numerous and kind of unbelievable.

A quarter cup of each seed in this recipe (so 2 Tablespoons per smoothie), will provide you with almost half of your daily fiber needs and about 9 grams of protein.

That’s pretty amazing work for a handful of seeds.  If you can, get the flax seed meal which is already ground.  Humans can’t digest whole flax seeds so you’ll need to grind them if you get the whole ones.  Chia seeds you can leave whole though.

Making the Smoothie

You can basically just toss everything in your blender if you want, but I find that it blends a lot better if you layer it in a specific way.

Start with the bananas and peanut butter which will blend really easily.  Then add the ice on top.

If you add the ice first, the blender might have a hard time getting started.

Once the ice is in you can scoop in all your other ingredients.  The measurements in this recipe are pretty approximate.  I usually just eyeball it.

Put a lid on it and blend it until it’s nice and smooth!

The seeds will never blend smooth so you’ll have some texture to the smoothie which I like actually.

This is a spoonful of my finished version.

This recipe makes two really big smoothies, probably about 2 1/2 – 3 cups each.  Betsy and I have this for breakfast and it keeps me plenty full until lunch!

Plus, did I mention that it tastes like a milkshake?

Whether you’re a smoothie expert or a beginner, I have a hard time picturing how someone wouldn’t like this thing.

The only reason you shouldn’t try this is if you happen to be allergic to peanuts!