It’s smoothie season! Don’t you feel like January should be National Smoothie Month? It seems like everyone is on some sort of juicing/smoothie craze at the start of the New Year to recover from all the holiday indulging.
While I am not an advocate of juicing diets, I do love a good smoothie after a workout or to start my day when in the mood for something refreshing! There seems to be a ton of kale, veggie and detox smoothie recipes roaming the web right now, so I decided to spike your taste buds with the classic chocolate peanut butter combo.
Not trying to gear you away from those vitamin packed green smoothies, because I will always say yes to adding a handful of spinach to my breakfast shake! But we all need a healthy alternative when the chocolate craving strikes and the greens aren’t cutting it!
If you’re like me, you adore dessert and did your fair share of holiday splurging this season. And to be real, there’s no reason to feel guilty over it because we all deserve to treat ourselves, which is why I did not give into any “New Years Detox Diet” to start off 2015. I’m a huge advocate of balance and while I may indulge in Sprinkles cupcakes here and there, I also make room for those “green” smoothies.
That being said, we can’t live off chocolate peanut butter cupcakes everyday. It may sound like a good idea but don’t you think it would take the magic out of cupcakes? They wouldn’t feel as special anymore and send you to that happy nostalgic state of mind if you were constantly eating them all the time. So let’s save the cupcakes for another day and make this smoothie instead.
You’ll still be abiding to your healthy resolution and keeping the magic of desserts alive, all the while satisfying your chocolate-obsessed cravings. All about that life.
The recipe is super simple with pantry staple ingredients. The only thing you may not have is peanut flour which can easily be replaced with regular peanut butter. Although I would recommend getting your hands on the flour stuff because certain brands pack in more protein per serving and it goes great sprinkled into yogurt, ice cream or incorporated into baked goods. I honestly add a spoonful to most of my weekly smoothies and it works wonders!
The brand I use is Protein Plus Peanut Flour and it solely uses roasted peanuts, no weird additives or chemicals! There are a ton of different brands on the market though you can find on amazon or iherb.com as well!
This smoothie is my new favorite go-to breakfast and packs in so much healthy goodness as well as chocolatey richness. Don’t forget to top it with granola and some melty peanut butter, this is essential for the ultimate peanut butter cup cookie effect! Happy smoothie season everyone!
Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Smoothie
- Yield: 1 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 large frozen banana, sliced
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 2.5 Tbsp peanut flour*
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2–1 Tbsp maple syrup (depending on how sweet you want it)
- Toppings: Granola + Melty Peanut Butter
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except for the toppings into a high powered blender and blend until smooth. Taste the smoothie to see if the sweetness is to your liking, and add more maple syrup if desired and continue to blend.
- Distrbute a few spoonfuls of granola into the bottom of a cup then poor smoothie over it. Top with another few spoonfulls and drizzle with extra peanut butter then drink up!
Notes
You can use any powdered peanut flour, the ones I have found for the best prices are on amazon or iherb.com. My favorite brand is Protein Plus Peanut Flour (link above). You can alternatively use 1.5 Tbsp of regular peanut butter instead as well.