Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie - Healthy Dessert Recipe

I've always had a major sweet tooth - as in, I feel like I need something sweet almost every day. Preferably chocolate. And while I'm certainly not against having the occasional treat and indulging in something not-so-healthy here and there, if I'm going to be eating something sweet on a more frequent basis, I want that food to be something that's going to be fairly healthy for me. 

That's why I've been absolutely loving this chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie. 

This smoothie was something my husband and I came up with one night when we were craving sweets, but didn't want to run to the store to get anything. We grabbed some ingredients we had around our house, threw them into a blender, and bam! Perfect on the first try.

This smoothie is not only creamy and rich, but it has very minimal sugar in it if you choose your yogurt wisely (I like Stonyfield Organic's "French Vanilla" flavor), and packs a good punch of protein - around 12 grams if you split this with a friend, or 25 if you drink it all yourself (I'm not judging)!

So let's get into how to make it, shall we?

You'll need:

2 ripe bananas*
1/4 cup of natural peanut butter**
1/4 cup of vanilla flavored yogurt***
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup of ice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt, optional

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.


And that's all there is to it! Super easy, creamy, rich, and will satisfy your sweet tooth without all the downsides of a typical sugary dessert. Enjoy!

* The riper your bananas, the sweeter your smoothie will be. So don't be afraid to grab those spotted bananas that have been sitting on your counter for days because once again you bought too many bananas and you're not sure why you do this to yourself but here you are again...not that I would know anything about that.

** To make this as healthy as possible, opt for an all natural peanut butter where the only ingredients are peanuts and salt, with no added sugar or oils!

*** If you'd like to make this vegan/dairy free, opt for a plant based yogurt. And if you would like to add even more protein, use Greek yogurt! Also, watch the sugar on your yogurt - yogurt companies tend to sneak a lot of added sugar into their products! As I mentioned before, I personally like Stonyfield Organic's French Vanilla flavor, but something like Siggi's would also be a good option.