This Banana Nut Butter Smoothie is a favorite of our guest host, “Smoothie Operator” Nicholas, age five (watch the video — you won’t regret it!). What I love about it is it’s sweet, but not overpoweringly sweet, thanks to its balanced ingredients.

Speaking of ingredients, I like to use a protein powder with ingredients I can pronounce. Ours is a chocolate-flavored egg-white protein powder by Jay Robb’s. You can use any nut butter, but we love sunflower seed butter, which we started using instead of peanut butter because our school said it’s better for people sensitive to nuts. We kept using it because we loved it. Our favorite brand is SunButter — it’s made with roasted sunflower seeds, giving it a tasty toasty flavor.

The bananas are frozen, giving them a little extra sweetness. Tip: When you notice your bananas starting to get riper than you like, it’s the perfect time to peel them and pop them into a freezer bag! They’ll last for months in the freezer, be ready for smoothies, and may entice your kids into eating them plain as a snack (like my kids do). The honey gets it to just the right sweetness. Because we live in allergy-ridden Austin, we use a local honey to help ward off pesky allergies. (Ahhh-choo!)

I often freeze the smoothies in ice-pop molds because my kids love having frozen smoothie pops. Fun and easy, with ingredients you can feel good about!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 c ice
• 2 c milk (we use almond milk)
• 2 frozen bananas, peeled and broken into chunks
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (we use Jay Robb’s)
• 3 tbsp nut butter (we use SunButter)
• 2 tbsp honey

Tips

• Freeze your bananas when they start to turn brown — that’s when they’re the perfect ripeness to use for smoothies or to serve plain as a snack — just ask my Smoothie Operator! 🙂
• Keep a “soapy sink side”: Half-fill one side of your sink with warm soapy water. After you dirty a dish, drop it in. When clean-up time comes around, any sticky food residue will come right off!