*These Toasted Coconut Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies are dairy free, refined sugar free, and vegan.
If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’ll tell you right here, right now: we make a lot of smoothies in this house. Most frequently on rotation are tropical green smoothies and these chocolate peanut butter smoothies. Guess which ones my kids ask for each morning?
Yeppers. The chocolate peanut butter smoothies. I can say that it is thanks to these smoothies that our family single-handedly goes through 3 dozen bananas a week. And you know I won’t touch those bananas in their raw state (see explanation here), but bananas in smoothies are a whole other story. I can put away disturbing amounts of bananas when in smoothies. My kids will eat bananas like little monkeys and are basically swimming in potassium.
I can’t really blame the kids for wanting one of these smoothies every day. They really seem like the most decadent treat. In reality, they are made with so many good-for-you ingredients and are even dairy and refined sugar free.
Thanks to the sweet bananas, you don’t really need to add much sweetener at all to these smoothies. I add about 1 tablespoon of Maple syrup to the whole blender full of ingredients. You could also use honey in place of the maple syrup, or forgo sweetener all together.
We use natural, unsweetened peanut butter in our smoothies (well, everything). Most conventional peanut butter that you’ll find at the grocery store has added sugar, so check the label before you buy. Though you may have to stir a bit to redistribute the oils, natural peanut butters (their only ingredients should be peanuts and maybe salt) are a better option and I think they give things like smoothies a much more authentic, peanut butter-y taste.
Even better? Make your own peanut butter. If you have a High Speed Blender
or food processor all you need to do is add peanuts and process until smooth. It’s suuuper simple. We make almond butter ourselves instead of buying it and it’s incredibly easy.
I do use a specific milk to get the toasted coconut flavor in these smoothies. Califia Farms
has a Toasted Coconut Almond Milk that I am in love with. This post is not sponsored by this company, I just really, genuinely love it. I adds the most delicious toasted coconut flavor to my smoothies and is perfect for the chocolate/peanut butter combination.
If you don’t have this milk, you could toast about 1/4 cup of shredded coconut in the oven add it to the smoothie (after it cools!) along with your choice of nut milk to blend.
The trickiest part of making these smoothies is keeping frozen bananas in stock. Any time I see a banana that is turning a little to yellow, or beginning to sport brown spots, I peel it, break it into fourths, and throw it in the banana bag in the freezer so that we always have a generous supply for smoothie making.
Well, that. Or I leave the ripening bananas to ripen a little further because banana bread.
It’s a tough call for me.
More Good-for-you Sweet Sips:
Super-charged Anti-inflammatory Sunshine Smoothie
Immune-boosting Peach Iced Tea
- 3 small Bananas, broken into pieces and frozen
- ⅓ cup Peanut Butter
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- large pinch of Sea Salt
- 1 tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 2 tablespoons Raw Cacao Powder (cocoa powder also works)
- 2 cups Toasted Coconut Almond Milk (I use Califia Farms and it is my FAVORITE milk!)
- Add all ingredients to a high speed blender and process until smooth. Add more maple syrup if a sweeter taste is desired.
- Pour into glasses and serve!
