Strawberry Banana Chocolate Smoothie

Enjoy this healthy strawberry banana chocolate smoothie as a delicious breakfast or a fun and sweet snack.

I am in a bit of a strawberry kick lately. You could probably tell with my last post of whole wheat strawberry bagels, and now these delicious strawberry banana chocolate smoothies!

How is a strawberry banana chocolate smoothie healthy for me?

Smoothies are a fun and delicious way to pack more nutrients into your diet. This smoothie in particular uses milk and plain nonfat Greek yogurt as the creamy base, followed up with strawberries and bananas, of course! Strawberries provide our bodies with vitamin C, manganese, folate, potassium and fiber. Plus, they have a high water content to help hydrate us, as well!

Bananas are already well known for their potassium content, but did you know they also contain vitamin B6, manganese, vitamin C, copper and magnesium? They also contain fiber and pectin, which can help moderate blood sugar levels – particularly from more unripe (greenish) bananas.

Now to the chocolate! Yes, chocolate can be included in a healthy, balanced diet. I call for dark chocolate and only 2 Tablespoons of it. It is enough to give a bit of chocolatey flavor to this smoothie while not overpowering it.

As for the rest -there are minimal added sugars in this smoothie, meaning the majority of the sugars comes from the food itself. Essentially, most of the sugar comes from the whole foods used in the smoothie: strawberries, banana, medjool date, milk and yogurt. The small amount of added sugar comes from the dark chocolate chips.

So while one smoothie contains 30 grams of sugar (46 g carbs), it also has 6.6 grams of fiber and 14.2 grams of protein. The fiber and protein (along with 6.5 g fat) help our bodies by reducing the digestion time of the sugars.

If you have diabetes or need to watch your carbohydrate levels, you can still enjoy this, but note how your body and blood glucose levels react after enjoying it. I recommend using an unripe banana instead of a ripe banana because of the resistant starch found in unripe bananas.

How do I make a strawberry banana chocolate smoothie?

This is the simple part: dump everything into a blender, put the lid on, push go and voila! It’s ready!

Aside from how easy this recipe is, I do want to make a note. I prefer to use frozen strawberries and bananas to give the smoothie a nice thick and icy consistency. I buy frozen strawberries at the store, but you could buy fresh and freeze your own.

As for the banana, I slice up a fresh banana and put it in a sealable bag, date it and freeze it. Then when I want to use banana in a smoothie, all I have to do is grab a bag out of the freezer and toss it in.

You don’t have to use frozen fruit if you don’t want to or it you forgot to freeze your banana (or strawberries). You can use fresh, it just won’t yield as thick or icy a consistency. If you want or prefer, you could add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of ice to help.

Also, this recipe makes 2 smoothies. If you are only making 1 for yourself cut the ingredient amounts in half.

My kids and I loved making (and eating!) this strawberry banana chocolate smoothie. It will definitely be in out regular smoothie rotation from now on!

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