Fueled Friday - Chocolate Banana Smoothie

I've been meaning to start sharing some of my recipes for awhile now...I love to cook and have been working on these for quite some time. This smoothie has been our go-to breakfast for over 5 years now. I've tweaked it over the years and this is the latest version that we all love! Robert thinks its ice cream...and well it does kinda taste like a chocolate milkshake but its loaded with goodness. All too often I think people assume if it has chocolate it must have sugar and must be bad for you. The thing is its all about how you use it. Know your ingredients and don't judge food!

Coco powder does not contain any sugar and has very little fat or calories and may even have some health benefits. So if you love chocolate this is a great ingredient to start using to satisfy those cravings. That said there is nothing wrong with eating real chocolate in moderation either.

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana - medium to large
1/4 c. peanut butter or almond butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground flax seed
1 tsp chia seed
1 tbsp cocoa powder
16 oz almond milk

-combine all ingredients in a high powered blender and blend until smooth

*a note on ingredients
- you can use any nut butter, I prefer an all natural peanut butter or almond butter and you can definitely tell the difference in flavor over a more processed peanut butter, but if that's all you have you can absolutely use it
- you can also use any type of milk, I prefer the nutty flavor of almond milk and always have it on hand

make ahead
-freeze banana, cinnamon, flax see, chia seed and cocoa powder in ziplock bags so all you need to do is add peanut butter and almond milk for a quick breakfast