A peanut butter and jelly smoothie, chock full of yogurt, blueberries, peanut butter, and banana—or not, it’s up to you—won’t make you buff overnight but it’ll give you a nutritious and filling start to the day.
Adapted from Sarah Michelle Gellar | Gia Russo | Stirring Up Fun With Food | Grand Central Life & Style, 2017
I love every minute in the kitchen with my kids, even the mess (I’ve learned to embrace it!). I find that in the car on the way home from school, I often get one-word answers when I ask about their day. But when we’re cooking, I get in-depth stories. People always tell me how lucky I am that my kids are adventurous eaters, but I don’t believe that it’s luck at all. By involving them in the process, not only are they more likely to try something new, but also I can count on them to make better choices when I’m not around.–Sarah Michelle Gellar | Gia Russo
WHAT INGREDIENTS CAN I SUBSTITUTE IN MY SMOOTHIE?
For this peanut butter and jelly smoothie recipe, we use the term “recipe” very loosely. Think of the ingredients below more as a template for a smoothie and then play around with them based on your personal preferences and what you happen to have on hand in your pantry, swapping in other berries in place of blueberries, dairy-free yogurt for the Greek yogurt, any nut or seed butter, and maple syrup or agave syrup in place of honey. Simply follow your fancy.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 medium banana peeled and broken into 3 to 4 chunks
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon honey optional
Instructions
- In a blender, toss in the blueberries, banana, yogurt, peanut butter, and, if desired, honey, and process until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds, depending on the power of your blender.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
As far as smoothies go, this peanut butter and jelly smoothie was a hit with my in-house smoothie testers. Taste tester #1, age 10, tasted the banana first and after a second taste he was tasting PB&J. Taste tester #2, age 6, thought it smelled good and tasted like a PB&J. Both taste testers would have liked to taste a bit more blueberry. I agree with my taste testers. I also love the creamy texture of this smoothie.
I’ll be adding this PB&J smoothie to my repertoire to feed hungry boys on the fly!
Admittedly, I’m a bit of a smoothie snob. I have what I believe is a well-curated collection of go-to smoothie recipes, and this peanut butter and jelly smoothie recipe will definitely be added to the rotation. It was quick, easy, used few ingredients (all of which I already had on hand), very filling, and kept my hunger at bay from breakfast until lunch. But the yummy flavor is why I’ll make this PB&J smoothie again.
The nice thing about this recipe is that it involves clean ingredients and you get a good dose of protein from the Greek yogurt and peanut butter. The DayGlo purple color from the frozen blueberries reminds me of jelly and my childhood.
I processed the smoothie for 15 seconds on high in the Vitamix. Then I turned it off, scraped down the sides, and processed on high for another 30 seconds until smooth.
The peanut butter flavor didn’t come through much but that was okay with me; I know the healthy fats and protein from it are there. I like thick smoothies, so I didn’t add any water.
What a fun, healthy way for my kids and I to start out the day! We loved the bright purple color of this peanut butter and jelly smoothie and its taste brought me right back to the good old days of PB&J made with brightly colored grape jelly. I think my kids’ friends will love to have this next time they come over for a play date although I’d also like to have it all to myself after a workout!
This recipe took no more than 5 minutes total. I used a frozen sliced banana, which I feel is the secret to making the perfect smoothie. I needed to add 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk to be able to pour it. This yielded a rich and super-thick smoothie. This makes 1 generous smoothie or 2 small smoothies. For the 3 of us, I doubled the recipe and it was just the perfect amount.
This peanut butter and jelly smoothie is fantastic after a workout, especially if peanut butter is what you crave. My partner slurped this down after an intense soccer game.
I love the classic flavors and am looking forwarding to playing around with some different spices to add a little pizzazz. I used a frozen banana to make it even frostier, but definitely needed to add water (about 3/4 cup) to get the mixture to purée in the blender.
This PB&J smoothie surprised me. It does taste like a PB&J. It was a good smoothie. I usually don’t like my smoothies with blueberries but I drank this one up.
The kid and I are smoothie people. Barbra, our high-powered blender, gets a workout a few times a week, and we generally stick to the same formula of yogurt, almond milk, a banana, and other stuff. Basically, this smoothie!
I followed the recipe to a T the first time and found this smoothie incredibly hard to blend with the fruit on the bottom. The second time I made it, I put the yogurt, peanut butter, and honey in first and that made quite a difference. It was easier to blend but I still had to start pretty low and gradually increase the speed to really get things going. It took about 2 minutes, stopping once to scrape, to get it all blended. I did add 2 splashes (1/4 cup, maybe?) of unsweetened plain almond milk to help things along.
We liked the fruity flavor, but found the honey to be a bit too pronounced. I always use very ripe bananas, so the honey’s sweetness isn’t always necessary. For some reason, the peanut butter flavor (we use natural creamy) got lost in the drink. I hesitated to add more peanut butter and am wondering if the flavor could be enhanced with peanut butter powder instead?
This peanut butter and jelly smoothie is ready in minutes and is delicious.
The first time we made this, we used a frozen banana, which was too thick for our blender. We added 1/3 cup almond milk and the result was good. The second time, we used a raw banana and let the blueberries thaw for about 15 minutes and the resulting texture was thick and the flavor concentrated. This is an easy, nutritious, and, yes, yummy PB&J-flavored smoothie. We have made the recipe since, leaving out the honey and find that sweetened with the fruit alone is plenty sweet for us.
This peanut butter and jelly smoothie is incredibly easy to make and can be whipped together on hectic mornings or late at night as an alternative to ice cream. As an alternative to dairy in this smoothie, I made this with a thick cashew milk. This allows it to blend easier and gives it more of an ice cream texture. It all comes down to preference of taste and texture with smoothies.
I prefer almond butter in mine so I would use that instead of peanut butter. Honey, maple syrup, or coconut nectar can all be subbed in as the sweetener or, if you would rather keep it in the fruit family, use a small handful of raspberries as a natural sweetener. No matter your preference in taste or texture, the smoothie blends best when the banana is previously frozen. I keep a tub of peeled and halved bananas in my freezer.
Delicious, fresh, and healthy! Now where can you find those three words together? Unbelievable, but true, this peanut butter and jelly smoothie is simply incredible. It’s also fast and easy to make. I can’t say enough good things about this smoothie. You will not be disappointed when you make this.
Make sure you have enough ingredients on hand so you can make enough to share with everyone in your house. One is definitely not enough! The yogurt I used was Fage, which is a bit thinner and sweeter than some Greek yogurts such as Siggi’s. So the amount of honey may need to be adjusted to account for the difference.
