As a reward for tackling my anxiety and going to the gym consistently for almost a month, my lovely wife bought me the Oster My Blend Blender with an orange travel cup (have I mentioned I like orange? I do! It's just such a cheerful color.) It's similar to a Magic Bullet in that the ingredients are blended directly in the cup, which has a blender attachment, and inverted into the base and pressed down to activate the blender action (there's a travel lid for drinking.) I like that the base - about 6" wide - takes up very little room on my already cowded counter and requires next to no brain power to use (something very necessary first thing in the morning as I'm most definitely Not A Morning Person.) One cup comes with the blender and they sell additional cups in other colors for around $12 each, which might be good for the future. It really all depends on whether I'm the only one in the house drinking smoothies regularly. Isn't it cute?
Now I can start experimenting with protein smoothies! The first smoothie I made was strawberry banana and it was good but nothing special. The smoothie I made yesterday and today and that I will be drinking every day until I'm totally sick of it is my Nutter Butter smoothie. YUM. YUM! It's called such because it tastes like Nutter Butter cookies, but it's really a combination of almond milk, banana, vanilla protein powder, and PB2.
Which reminds me. Have I mentioned how excited I am that my PB2 has arrived?! For those who have no clue what I'm referring to, PB2 is essentially peanut flour left over from making peanut oil. Because the roasted nuts are pressed for oil before they are ground to make PB2, the product is basically all nut solids with very little fat. The company markets it as 85% fat free. There are about 45 calories in 2 tablespoons and it can be reconstituted w/water to make a peanut butter-like spread, or it can be used to flavor things.
On to the recipe! The banana in it helps to sweeten and thick the smoothie a little (and adds a nice infusion of fruit to my day) and the vanilla protein powder helps to give the "cookie" flavor, while the PB2 gives the peanut butter filling flavor. Use as much PB2 as you like until you're happy with the peanut action. I like it with 3-4 T. but I loooove peanuts and this is my substitute for real peanut butter right now. I didn't find that it needed any additional splenda, but your tastes may be different and your vanilla protein powder may not be as sweet as mine. I didn't include a picture of the smoothie because it's really nothing to look at - just a lightly tan milk shake lookin' thing. Meh. But trust me, what it lacks in looks it makes up for in flavor!
Nutter Butter Protein Smoothie
8 oz. Vanilla Almond Milk
1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (I like the Syntrax Vanilla Bean Torte)
2-4 T. PB2
1/2 Large Banana (frozen or not, it's your choice)
Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Enjoy the Nutter Butter cookie flavor.
Approximate Nutritional Roundup: Calories 298, Carbs 37 g, Fat 4 g, Protein 30 g, Fiber 5 g. (It's also got roughly 45 g of calcium, no saturated fat, and 569 mg of potassium, which is good for your heart.)
Edited to Add: It has recently been brought to my attention that the calorie and carb counts are a bit high for this smoothie, which is true. Looking into it, I saw that you can shave 50 calories and 14g of carbs off of this with a quick and easy swap for unsweetened vanilla almond milk. The other big culprit for carbs in this recipe is the banana, which has around 16g, but also provides around 5g of fiber (making 11g net carbs), for which your digestion will thank you. I personally try to incorporate a fruit or veggie into every meal, but you could always ditch the banana, which would lop off another 63 calories and 16g of carbs. If you go with both of these modifications, you may need to use a little Spenda to sweeten things up, but you'll bring the whole smoothie down to approximately 175 calories and 7g carbs. It won't be quite as thick as with the banana, but you could always add some ice cubes.
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