I shared this recipe on my other social medias, but I love it so much that I decided to put it here too. I’ve made quite a number of different protein smoothies over the years, some better than others. But recently, I made one that is absolutely the best – creamy and delicious like a chocolate milkshake. And I don’t mean a “pretend banana tastes like cream” kind of milkshake. I detest banana and think that its use as a food substitute, much like cauliflower, is an abomination.

The first step is to pick out your fruits and veggies. The only one that is a must-have for this particular smoothie is avocado. I use frozen avocado just because it’s easier, but you can use fresh as well. There are no exact measurements, but I’d guess I throw in about a quarter to third cup of avocado. For the rest, you can do as you like. Personally, I find frozen butternut squash to be a good veggie for smoothies because you really can’t taste it at all. Fresh summer squash or zucchini is the same. For this smoothie, I use butternut. Then I choose two frozen fruits, usually peaches and strawberries, like pictured here. Depending on how you like to flavor your milkshake, you can use blueberries, oranges, mango, pineapple, cherries, etc. I personally don’t use raspberries or blackberries because their seeds are too big and it ruins the texture, but that’s entire up to each individual. Why frozen fruits and veggies? I don’t like using ice in smoothies, because the texture never gets thick and the ice stays in tiny melting chunks. Most of the time, I’ll use 2-3 frozen items and one fresh, so that it ends up with a perfect thick milkshake consistency.

Second step: Add your protein powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, and sweetener to taste. I use Puori dark chocolate why protein powder. It’s the only whey protein powder I’ve ever tasted that didn’t leave a nasty aftertaste. With other powders, I have to use peanut butter to cut through that aftertaste, and since I found out I was allergic to peanuts, that hasn’t worked so well!! But Puori has very simple ingredients that are minimally processed, and very little sweetener (a tiny bit of coconut sugar). When I make other smoothies – for example, spinach, squash, peaches, pineapple, and lemon smoothies – I don’t use any sweetener at all. The fruit it perfect. But with this particular smoothie, the added cocoa (about 1-2 spoonfuls) requires just a little bit of sugar. I use a tiny bit of brown sugar, roughly a teaspoon, but you can use whatever sweetener you prefer.

Lastly, add liquid. In this case, I added water, but sometimes I add both water and orange juice, depending on how I feel. I tend to add water up to midway through the top fruit line, though in this particular making (that I photographed), I accidentally added more than normal. The more liquid you add, the thinner the smoothie, and this was more of a thin milkshake texture than full-on Frosty. I prefer the latter! You can tell I added too much by how high above the Fill Line the smoothie goes, heh.

So there you go. I’ve been drinking these a lot lately. Most of my smoothies are low-fat high-protein since they’re just whey protein and fruit/veg, but the added avocado in this one makes it a balanced post-workout snack or light breakfast on the go. It also helps me get in a lot of nutrition when I normally struggle with fruits and veggies. I hope to get to try out more types of smoothies that incorporate a wider variety of freggies in the future. Puori has a bourbon vanilla flavor too, and I think that would work well as a base for a pumpkin-pie smoothie!

What are your favorite protein shakes?