Nut Butter Banana Smoothie

       This smoothie tastes just like a banana shake, and you'd have no idea how healthy it is for you. My roommate and I are both addicted and have been putting our blender to work multiple times a day for these things.

       I love the unsweetened almond/coconut milk blend so much that I've basically stopped drinking milk. It has less calories than skim milk, plus 50% more calcium and a good amount of vitamins D and E. It tastes really great in cereal too!

      I crave these when I wake up in the morning for breakfast, after a long day of classes or a post gym snack, and for satisfying a sweet tooth. Maybe I'm just obsessed, but really it's good at any time of day!

       Sometimes I'll get creative and throw some fruit in there (mainly strawberries), so it's kind of like a PB&J with banana, and that's really good too! I don't have a lot of extra money to spend on fruit though, and bananas are so cheap so they're my go-to fruit for smoothies.

(Note the bananas are a tiny bit green - they aren't the ones I used in the actual smoothie, they're a new batch. Using brown speckled bananas is good in these smoothies because they are sweeter the more they ripen! The green ones aren't quite ready!)

        If you really have a sweet craving you gotta curb, try one of these with a little squeeze of honey and cocoa powder or chocolate syrup. That's really a treat :)

         When I make these smoothies I use whatever type of butter I have on hand. Recently I've had peanut butter with flaxseed, almond butter and sunflower seed butter (Is that ridiculous?), so I like to alternate. My favorite is the almond butter, but it is just so much more expensive than peanut butter, so I buy it only on occasion to spoil myself :) It's necessary sometimes!

        You could also use any type of milk - regular skim, coconut, almond, soy, chocolate soy, vanilla soy, etc etc. It's really flexible and you can change up the recipe to your preference. I bet you'll end up addicted, too!!