Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie (with greens!)

This Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie is oh-so delicious and loaded with protein, healthy fat and greens! Healthy enough for breakfast, but tasty enough for a treat. Whip up a batch in the morning to send your crew off happy and fueled up on nothing but the good stuff!

Smoothies in my life

Smoothies hold a special place in my heart for one very important reason…..

….adding them into my own daily diet was the first step I took in creating healthy eating habits.

My first smoothie

For real guys. I actually remember the day I made my first smoothie. I kid you not. So I was in our apartment kitchen, with my daughter (just a baby at the time) cooing to herself on the floor in the living room and my husband, Ken, was in the bedroom getting ready to head off to work.

Ken and I had been talking the night before about cleaning up our diets. Really, really cleaning them up. Out with the diet soda and frozen dinners, in with the fruits and veggies! That morning, with the mission to make my family a really healthy breakfast, I had a staredown with my blender.

I was going to make a smoothie.

Combining veggies and fruit?

Ugh. Just the idea, having never tried one before, sounded kind of appauling.

I had been seeing the glory of green smoothies pop up all over social media and in magazines, but the idea of combining vegetables and fruit into a drink just seemed so…..wrong.

But, I was forcing myself to be open to change for the better. So, there I was, banana in one hand and baby spinach in the other. It was time to see what this green smoothie hype was all about.

I won’t lie. My first smoothie didn’t knock my socks off, but it was tasty enough for me to try again the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Healthy Morning Routine

Pretty soon, smoothies were a part of our daily morning routine and my little daughter crawled briskly over to the kitchen whenever she heard the blender going. Her young palate was developing a taste for all the fruits and veggies I was adding to our smoothies and I felt a bit like Supermom.

Because, no matter what else happened in the day or whatever my family ate (or didn’t eat) they had started out their day with a boatload of nutrient dense fruits and veggies in their morning smoothie.

So, clearly, I am a big time smoothie groupie and advocate.

Regardless of what other people say about smoothies, I feel like they are a glorious way of opening the door to healthy eating for you and your family. But that doesn’t mean you make a smoothie one morning and it’s smooth sailing from there. It takes exploration. Trying out recipes. And maybe a tasty nudge.

Was Mary Poppins right?

It was Mary Poppins who said it best “Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.” I don’t promote coating broccoli in sugar to get your kids to eat it, but I also think that showing children that spinach and avocado mixed with a few tasty fruits doesn’t taste nearly as strong and isn’t nearly as intimidating.

Knowing what real food is

I don’t personally believe in “hiding” or “sneaking” veggies into my daughter’s food, as I want her to KNOW what real food is and what she is eating. I also want to show her that vegetables can taste good, you just have to find the right way to enjoy them.

I’m honest with my daughter (and students) when I make a smoothie. I show her all the ingredients going in and then encourage her to try it. 9 times out of 10, she loves the smoothie…regardless of whether there veggies in it or not.

So, this is kind of my Mary Poppins inspired smoothie for you guys. A little natural sugar from fruit, some nutty goodness from peanut butter (plus a kick of protein), and few scoops of delicious (and heart healthy) cacao powder to make some amazing veggies taste….amazing.

Now go. Blend. Fall in love with smoothies, too. And make them part of your family’s life. Here is the first step for you!

Want to make sure you always have spinach on hand for this peanut butter chocolate smoothie? Check out my tips & tricks for keeping spinach fresh all week!

Other healthy smoothie recipes you are going to adore…

• Red Velvet Smoothie
• Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
• Blueberry Spinach Smoothie
• Simple Spinach Mango Smoothie

Loving this peanut butter chocolate smoothie and hungry for more?

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