Chocolate Ba-Nutter Smoothie

“And you should drink a smoothie every morning for breakfast.”

Suddenly, I felt like Brian Regan when he was facing his doctor: “And no more happiness!”

I was sitting across from my naturopath doctor, listening to my doom. I was already going to have to stop eating pancakes, toast with avocado and crumbled bacon (or toast with nutella and bananas--yum!), and every cereal ever made aside from Cheerios for breakfast because I needed to go gluten free. Now he wanted me to replace all that deliciousness with smoothies?

YUCK!

My first experiences with smoothies a few years ago were not so great. The chunks of blueberry skin made me gag. The ground flax made me gag. The chemical aftertaste and grittiness of protein powder made me gag.

Do you see the pattern here? Smoothies made me gag!

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Protein Smoothie Recipe | Hot Pink Crunch

The Search for the Perfect Smoothie

Although my gag reflex is still very active, I wanted to follow my doctor’s suggestions and at least try smoothies again. He’s a good guy, and I didn’t think he would recommend something so vile just to torture me.

I took a deep breath and waded back into the smoothie world with the utmost caution.

There were a few weeks of trial, error, plenty of gagging, and many lessons learned: Frozen pineapple leaves little chunks in smoothies that I don’t like to swallow. Blueberry skins still make me gag. Mangoes are kind of gritty. I found out the hard way that I’d rather just eat spinach than drink it. And there are only so many days in a row that I can drink a strawberry and banana smoothie before getting bored.

Throughout my search, I wisely noted down my favorite ingredients: bananas, chocolate protein powder, peanut butter, coconut milk. Finally, I combined them together to create edible loveliness in smoothie form.

The combination was magical, and my mornings quickly went from “dry heave” to “get in my belly!”

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie Recipe 2 | Hot Pink Crunch

I had managed to create something that was both gluten and dairy free yet does not taste like processed cardboard grossness. Actually, it tastes like a milkshake. Only it’s better than a milkshake because it has a lot of protein to keep me full all morning and no added sweeteners (except what may be in your powders) or blood sugar spiking fruit juices.

Also, it doesn't make me gag.

This smoothie genius is proud to present you with the Chocolate Ba-Nutter Smoothie!