Blueberry and Banana Smoothie Recipe

Blueberry and banana smoothie recipe is one more quick and simple smoothie recipe. Fruits are combined with low fat and/or cottage cheese to make great daily meal or snack that taste like a delicacy. During summer, when refrigerated, it is like an ice-cream, very healthy ice-cream.

blueberry banana smoothie recipeRecipe is very simple - put medium sized banana and strawberries into the suitable pot (plastic shaker or blender bottle will do fine).

Put low fat and/or cottage cheese into the shaker. These types of cheeses are great source of lean, slow digesting protein and calcium. In combination with fibers from fruits, it will make you satiated for longer period of time.

If you want, you can add some Meal Replacement Powder (MRP) or even whey protein - this will increase protein content of this meal.

Instead of adding cheese, vegans can add some plant based protein powder (more on that - later).

blueberry banana smoothie recipeAdd water and using hand/stick blender, blend everything. 5 - 10 seconds of blending will be enough. Be careful about blueberry (or any other berries) stains - they are very hard to clean (trust me about making mess - been there, done that).

Smoothie is done - adjust the amount of water according to your needs. If you are going to drink this smoothie, add more water. However, I prefer adding less water and eating this smoothie with the tablespoon.

During summer, put this smoothie in suitable pots and leave it in the refrigerator or even freezer - you will have great delicacy that you can eat as daily snack or even full meal, without feeling 'guilty' :o)

 Nutritional content of this smoothie is given in the following table:

Food Amount Protein Carbs Fats Fibers
Blueberries 150g 1g 13g 0.5g 6g
Cottage Cheese 150g 18g 4g 3g 0g
Banana 150g 1g 32g 0.5g 3g
Total: 20g 47g 4g 9g
Calories: 80 kcal 188 kcal 36 kcal -

 This smoothie has around 300 kcal, mostly from carbohydrates and protein, while fats content is very low. Fiber content is great - almost one third of fiber recommended daily amount.

Many endomorphs would consider this smoothie as 'high carbohydrate' meal due to almost 50g of carbs in this meal, but this meal is very rich in various vitamins, minerals (potassium, calcium etc.), antioxidants, slow digesting protein, fibers etc. If you really want to decrease amount of carbs, don't put banana in this smoothie (feel free to check Simple Blueberry Smoothie Recipe), but banana here and there, especially if you are on Carbohydrate Cycling Diet will do you only good.

In order to increase protein content of this meal, one can add some protein powder (MRP or whey protein). For example, if you add Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey (French Vanilla Creme in this case), you get:

Food Amount Protein Carbs Fats Fibers
Blueberries 150g 1g 13g 0.5g 6g
Cottage Cheese 150g 18g 4g 3g 0g
Banana 150g 1g 32g 0.5g 3g
ON GS 100% Whey 30g 23g 4g 1g 0g
Total: 43g ~50g 5g 9g
Calories: 172 kcal 200 kcal 45 kcal -

This smoothie has around 420 kcal - calories are balanced between proteins and carbs, while fats contents is still very low. Fiber content is unchanged - around 9g. Although whey protein powder is now dominant source of protein in this smoothie, whey protein is blended with fruits and low fat/cottage cheese and it's digestion is slowed down - this meal will keep you going for quite some time.

 Vegan Blueberry and Banana Smoothie Recipe

Lacto-ovo vegetarians can enjoy fruit smoothies with various cheeses (preferably with low fat content), but vegans don't consume cheese. In order to increase protein content of fruit smoothies, vegans can and should add plant based protein powder - usually protein blend of various plant proteins. In this example, we used Arizona Nutritional Sciences NitroFusion (protein blend of pea protein isolate, brown rice concentrate and artichoke protein), Vanilla flavor:

Food Amount Protein Carbs Fats Fibers
Blueberries 150g 1g 13g 0.5g 6g
Banana 150g 1g 32g 0.5g 3g
ANS NitroFusion 50g 35g 7g 3g 1g
Total: 37g 52g 4g 10g
Calories: 148 kcal 216 kcal 36 kcal -

 This smoothie has around 400 kcal, mostly from carbohydrates and protein, with very low fats content. Fiber content is great - 10g, around one third of recommended daily fiber intake.

Vegan smoothie or not, fruit smoothies like this are great daily snacks or full meals. If made with casein protein powder, can be used even as bedtime protein shake due to it's slow digestion.

Anyway, it is very important that these shakes and smoothies are easy and quick to make. If you are unable to find fresh blueberries, feel free to use frozen ones - they are almost as good as fresh ones, but are available year long.