Eat at Home: Super-Healthy Chocolate Breakfast Smoothie Recipe

Life can’t be all wet burritos and pie, but you can have a chocolate breakfast smoothie pretty much every day. At least I have ever since my new blender came into my life. It’s nothing special (the blender, I mean, not the smoothie)—just a $40 machine, but it sure does make a mean breakfast smoothie.

Thus far, I’ve experimented with a couple of different concoctions. I’ve done the yogurt-oj-banana thing and the berry-banana-milk shuffle, but the one that I keep coming back to is a powerhouse blend of antioxidants, vitamin C, protein, calcium, Omega 3s, and most importantly…chocolate.

For breakfast.

Still, it’s not too sweet, and the granola I layer in gives it an earthy quality that makes you feel like you’re some health nut living in Santa Cruz or Berkeley or whatever ultra-liberal college town you’d like to imagine yourself.

Sound good? Well, here’s what you need for one smoothie:

1 banana, preferably frozen* overnight

10 frozen mango cubes, freeze them yourself or buy a bag

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries (spring for organic because blueberries are one the “Dirty Dozen”. I like the frozen berries they sell at Trader Joe’s)

1 tbsp of peanut butter (if you’re allergic, replace with a half cup of Greek yogurt)

1 cup milk (I like mine whole and moo, but you can use almond, rice, or whatever)

1/4 cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Hemp Protein Powder Chocolate Flavored (they sell the same stuff at Whole Foods for twice the price. Don’t be fooled-it’s the exact same thing).

1/4 cup of granola. I like the Galaxy Granola in Not Sweet Vanilla flavor, but use whatever you like.

*Why frozen? Well, at smoothie chains, they use frozen yogurt, which in my opinion, is a joke. You can get the same ice cream-like texture by freezing your fruit overnight, and you get fewer empty calories—I like my calories stuffed with nutrition.

Now, just throw it all in the blender, and if you have a smoothie setting, then push that button. If you don’t, you want a low setting, so that you can get a thick, icy texture instead of a runny, liquified soup. If progress stalls or you smell burning, stop the machine and stir it up. You shouldn’t need any more milk—I’ve gotten it down to a science.

Time to pour. Fill half the glass up, then dump about 3/4ths of the granola in and top with the rest of the smoothie. Sprinkle the rest of your granola on top.

Grab a spoon and meet me in breakfast smoothie heaven.

-Valentina