Chocolate Raspberry Protein Smoothie

When I was a primary school kid every day would start with a glass of chocolate milk. During the week I would make it for myself, measure out two teaspoons into my 101 Dalmatians mug, add milk, and stir. Then slurp it down before I went off to school. The weekend were always better though, because usually Dad would make my chocolate milk. My Dad would wake my sister and I up to make scrambled eggs and toast for Mum on a Sunday morning and while the adults had tea or coffee, my sister and I would have our chocolate milk drink of choice (Nesquik for me, Milo for her). Dad would always pile the teaspoons high with chocolate milk powder, and often times the milk would be the gold-capped farmhouse gold. Chunks of real cream would fall into the glass as Dad topped it up. Those were the best chocolate milk mornings.

Chocolate Protein Smoothie coming up!

When I got back from my walk on Saturday I really wanted a chocolate milk and breakfast in the same glass. I also wanted it to be easy enough to make on a weekday morning, should the chocolate milk craving strike. Besides, doesn’t chocolate milk for breakfast make going to work just that little bit sweeter? This Chocolate Raspberry Protein Smoothie is thick, and chocolaty and not to sweet. It’s full of protein from yoghurt and chia seeds, which also provide a healthy bump of fibre (5.6g in one tablespoon – much more than your average breakfast cereal). The frozen banana provides a thickshake texture and the whole glass comes in at around 300 calories and 18 grams of protein. Not bad for something that tastes so delicious!

Breakfast time!

This makes one quite large smoothie. I couldn’t finish it all in one go so I simply refrigerated it and then drank the rest when I got hungry at morning tea time. You could of course share it between two with some yummy fruit or toast for breakfast for two. Note: when you have too many bananas in the fruit bowl and they are starting to go bad simply peel, chop, and freeze them so that you can easily pull one out to make a breakfast smoothie.

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium, chopped, frozen banana
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• Heaped half cup non-fat raspberry Greek yoghurt (I used Chobani)
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and whiz until completely combined.
2. Pour into a tall glass and serve.
3. You can rest this in the refrigerator for a while (even overnight) to make it even thicker. The chia seeds will puff nicely and thicken this up, which in turn will keep you fuller for longer.

Dear reader, what did your childhood breakfast start with? Anyone else still secretly a huge fan of tinned chocolate milk powder? I’m searching for one that’s gluten free, but this smoothie definitely fits the bill for a healthy weekday morning breakfast!

Make your Monday better – add chocolate!