Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie with Spinach

Smoothies make a great breakfast when the weather gets warmer. I love how quickly you can throw them together and get on with your day. Somehow hot food isn’t anything that I am very interested in when the weather gets warmer.

I have decided to try to include spinach in my morning smoothies for a while (basically until I get bored with it and need a change). I like that the spinach adds a lot of nutrition, and potentially helps to fight cancer.

Peanut butter is a very popular ingredient in our house. Both my husband and I love the gooey stuff. Peanut butter is packed with protein, as well as healthy fat, and calories. I buy the raw organic peanut butter that is made with the skins because it contains more nutrients.

I thought that peanut and banana sounded like a great smoothie combo today. Bananas are a good source of potassium which is essential for maintaining your blood pressure. Consuming bananas has also been associated with a reduction in strokes. Eating bananas has also been linked to kidney health and a reduction in kidney cancer. Since I have a particular fondness for kidney protection expect to see more banana based recipes in the future. Hummmm…. banana and peanut butter soy ice cream sounds good. But I will save that for another post.

Flaxseeds always go into my smoothies. Four little teaspoons of flaxseeds contain almost 100% of the daily recommended value of omega 3’s. Omega 3 fatty acids help protect you from forming dangerous blood clots. The consumption of omega 3’s is also associated with lower blood pressure.

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie with Spinach
Makes 2 large servings

Ingredients:

1 banana, very ripe
1 cup of soymilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of peanut butter
2 tablespoons of golden flaxseed, freshly ground
2 bunches of young spinach, about 20 leaves
1 cup of water
2 cups of ice

Directions:

Drop everything in the blender and process until completely smooth. Serve cold.

Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 354.06
Calories From Fat (47%) 166.13

Total Fat - 19.42g
Saturated Fat - 3.35g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 262.77mg
Potassium - 1123.49mg
Total Carbohydrates - 33.96g
Fiber - 9.27g
Sugar - 13.23g
Protein - 15.71g


Comments:

The peanut butter was the dominant flavor in this smoothie. We would like this better if the banana flavor was a little more prominent. I will be adding more banana in the smoothie I make tomorrow. My husband and I are not in agreement on the spinach flavor. I wasn’t certain I could taste it, he thought he could taste the spinach. Either way, the spinach was at most a background flavor. We both thought this was a very good starting point for a recipe.

Nutritional Info updated 07.05.09