Smoothies are an excellent way to get in a whole host of nutrients while grabbing a quick meal. Why smoothies and not juice? In juicing, the pulp and fiber is removed. Fiber is an incredibly important nutrient which helps keep us full, regulates our bowel movements, regulates the digestive system and helps slow down the impact of sugar in the bloodstream. When we make smoothies, we can retain the fiber of the fruit and all its benefits.
Do you need to add protein powder to a smoothie? The answer is that it depends on how you’re crafting your smoothies, what your personal preferences are regarding supplementation and if you’re replacing a meal or if your smoothie is a “snack” rather than a full meal.
If you’re adding protein rich foods to your smoothies like fortified plant milk, hemp seeds, peanut butter, etc., you may not need to add protein powder, depending on what your protein goals are. If you are someone that is replacing a meal with a smoothie, is looking to build muscle or is looking to increase protein throughout the day, the short answer is, yes, I would consider using a protein powder.
Here are some of my smoothie recipes – formulated with a protein powder. If you remove the protein powder, just know that you may need to adjust the liquid depending on the texture you like: for thinner texture, add more liquid and for a thicker texture, add less liquid. For the sake of simplicity, I’m sticking to only chocolate or vanilla protein powders. The macros listed below reflect the protein powder I use so adjust accordingly if you are counting your own macros.
For my smoothies, I tend to use Ripple Pea Milk. It’s high in protein and extremely well fortified with vitamin D, vitamin B12, and calcium. Most other plant milks are also fortified so use the one that you like most! Other examples include almond milk, oat milk and soy milk. Soy milk is also packed with protein.
Seeds like chia, hemp and flax are excellent sources of nutrients and are added to all my smoothies. I do recommend adding seeds to your daily dietary habits because of the powerhouse nutrition sources they are so you’ll see them often in my recipes but they can certainly be removed for any reason.
To reduce calories in these smoothies, you can eliminate the seeds or you can use water instead of plant milk.
Here are 10 of my favorite smoothie recipes!
Chunky Monkey
1 large banana
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 1/3 cup plant milk
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1 serving chocolate protein powder
Macros:
629 calories. 43g protein. 43g carbs. 31g fat. 9g fiber.
9 more exciting flavors are coming to this page so make sure you check back or stay in touch on social media to get the latest announcements!
