Smoothies have always been a part of our household. We oftentimes have them for an easy and lighter lunch or dinner but never really had them consistently for breakfast because of our love of eggs and toast. That is until now. I think we are now at 6 months straight of smoothies for breakfast. And I owe it to my husband for perfecting the recipe. He didn’t set out to create a blueberry muffin in the form of a smoothie but after a large bag of frozen blueberries kept sitting in our freezer, he threw those in with other typical smoothie ingredients we use and the rest was history.

Plus, I think frozen blueberries (and frozen ripe bananas which are also in this recipe) have the most natural sweetness eliminating the need for added sugar. He also ran across the mason jar blender hack which was resurfacing on the social media swirl and seemed appealing not to have to clean the full blender each time. Every morning he makes these for he and I for a post-workout treat. Our toddler has also been stealing sips but she’s likes more day-to-day variety in her breakfast aka listing off everything in the pantry and fridge ☺ She loves helping him measure the ingredients though!

Ingredients - serves 1

1 cup (8 oz) unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/3 cup crushed ice

1/2 small frozen banana, in chunks, about (3) 1" chunks

1 scoop protein powder*

sprinkle of ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons all natural peanut butter

1 teaspoon honey*

Directions

1. Pour 1/2 cup (or 4 oz) unsweetened vanilla almond milk along with 1/3 cup crushed ice into a mason jar or blender. Add banana chunks and if using a mason jar press into milk/ice mixture slightly to make room for remaining ingredients. Next add the protein powder, sprinkle of cinnamon, and chia seeds. Add the frozen blueberries along with more almond milk, enough to cover the top of the ingredients (usually 2-4 oz). Lastly, add the 2 Tbsp. peanut butter and 1 tsp. of honey. At this point, if there is still a lot of room at the top of your jar or blender, you may add more crushed ice or almond milk to top it off. Leave a small space of room at the top if using the mason jar so you can fit the blade inside.

2. We have been using the mason jar blender hack as I mentioned above. (Though this isn’t a universal hack.) So just throw everything directly into the, standard not wide mouth, mason jar. Top the jar with the blade and in our case, a rubber ring along with the base onto the jar and turn upside down onto the blender. Blend and voila! This way you can make individual smoothies that are perfectly portioned.

Side note: At the grocery store, we buy a bunch of ripe of bananas for freezing and a bunch of greener bananas for snacking throughout the week. To freeze, peel the banana, break into chunks, and throw in a freezer bag for future smoothie usage. Yum!

*For protein powder, we have been using Sprout Living Vanilla Lucuma from EarthTurns.com. I have found that you could eliminate the honey if using this vanilla flavored powder because it has some Stevia. My husband has a sweet tooth so he would disagree and say it's now perfect ;)

Please also keep in mind that after consuming this delicious smoothie you may or may not have countless blueberry flecks in your teeth but it will be worth it.

Enjoy!

PB & B Smoothie