I just made a vegan protein drink that was so good, after slurping down the last drop, I sat down to share the deets.
Introducing my Choco PBB Balance Shake. {The PBB stands for Peanut Butter Banana}. It is:
- Super simple – 5 ingredients (and one of them is ice).
- Super balanced – 355 cals, 28g protein, 30g carb, 10g fat, 88% Calcium RDA, 68% Vit A RDA, 50% Vitamin C RDA, and 42% of my daily fiber.
- Super delicious – this nutrition smoothie tastes like a melted down, rich, chocolate shake. Real talk it does.
Here’s what you need – I’m showing brands for the ingredients because they make a difference in this drink. Click the images for links to buy. (I’m not affiliated with any of these products or merchants – just sharing good food finds.)
Directions:
- In a high quality blender, place a frozen ripe banana.
- Bananas sweeten as they ripen. Super ripe (almost rotten) bananas are perfect natural sweeteners for smoothies and baked goods.
- Check with the produce manager at your local fruit stand or fresh market. They often pull really ripe bananas and will sell them at reduced price instead of throw them out. Buy em ready and ripe so you don’t have to watch and wait for them to get ripe.
- When you get them home, peel the bananas and place them in individual sandwich bags. Place the banana bags in a large ziplock or freezer container and store in the freezer. When you want to sweeten a smoothie or baked good, open your freezer and grab a bag or two. You are good to go!
- Add the Vega Essentials Chocolate Protein Shake mix. This plant-based protein product is the bomb. A single serving has 20 grams of protein, 16% DV fiber, and the nutritional goodness of veggies and greens. It has only 140 calories, no added sugar, and none of the chalky, strange taste of many protein powders on the market. I pick up single serving packets from Target or tubs from Amazon.
- For the PB part of the shake, add two tablespoons of PB2. PB2 is peanut butter powder made by pressing the oil from peanuts. You get peanut taste with 85% less fat calories.
- Next add the liquid – 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I really like the Califia Farms brand made from non-genetically engineered almonds. (I get this at Target as well.)
- Last thing in is about a cup of ice cubes. Blend and get ready to dance. Sooooo good!
This framework can be altered to your liking or nutritional needs.
Want to bring down the carbs and natural sugar in the shake? omit the banana.
Not fond of peanuts? Instead of PB2, add some almond butter or omit it altogether.
Change up the taste by omitting the PB2 and adding some mint extract (for a chocolate thin-minty kinda vibe), or use some cold coffee instead of some or all of the almond milk.
Make it your own.
If you make the shake, I’d love to hear your thoughts.