Blueberry and Banana Smoothie Recipe

The 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 a great daily meal or snack that tastes like a delicacy. During summer, when refrigerated, it is like an ice-cream, very healthy ice-cream.

Published: January 28, 2016.

The recipe is very simple - put a 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 a great source of lean, slow-digesting protein and calcium. In combination with fibers from fruits, it will make you satiated for a longer period of time. If you want, you can add some Meal Replacement Powder (MRP) or even whey protein - this will increase the protein content of this meal. Instead of adding cheese, vegans can add some plant-based protein powder (more on that - later).

Add water and using a 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 a 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 a daily snack or even a full meal, without feeling 'guilty' :o)

 The 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 the fat content is very low. Fiber content is great - almost one-third of fiber recommended daily amount.

Many endomorphs would consider this smoothie as a '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 the 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 the 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 fat contents is still very low. Fiber content is unchanged - around 9g. Although whey protein powder is now the dominant source of protein in this smoothie, whey protein is blended with fruits and low fat/cottage cheese, and its 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 the protein content of fruit smoothies, vegans can and should add plant-based protein powder - usually a 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 a 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 a bedtime protein shake due to its 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.