Peanut Butter & Jelly (PB&J) Smoothies

Childhood's favorite PB&J sandwich in a glass.

Budget-Friendly. Fresh & Seasonal. Cold & Frosty. Weekday Easy, Weekend Special. Naturally Gluten Free. High Protein. Vegetarian. Great for Meal Prep.

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

Call Me Nostalgic

Old family black 'n' white photos trigger the memory, my mom sending my sister and me to the front step for lunch.

Nothing fancy: it was summer, it was just lunch so a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk would do. The dog waited nearby, ready to snap up errant crumbs.

So call me nostalgic for simpler times, all wrapped up in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich turned smoothie, no bread and in fact, no jelly.

No jelly? How can a smoothie taste like peanut butter and jam without jam or jelly?

The Secret Ingredient.

The "jelly" flavor in this smoothie comes from frozen blueberries! I promise, you'll be surprised how much this smoothie combo mimics childhood's favorite sandwich!

What's In a PB&J Smoothie? Pantry Ingredients!

In all my recipes and most well-written recipes, every ingredient serves a purpose. Each one matters. Each one contributes to the overall dish. It's not that an ingredient can't be substituted by something else but when choosing the substitute, it's important to understand why the original ingredient was present in the first place.

• Buttermilk is my go-to liquid for nearly all smoothies. It's creamy but low-fat with a welcome tang. Plus buttermilk keeps for weeks, so it's easy to keep on hand, not just for light 'n' fluffy pancakes but also for tender biscuits and our house salad dressing plus soooo many other recipes.
• Greek yogurt is a staple in our fridge, some times small containers of full-fat yogurt for healthy desserts and snacks but usually a large tub of non-fat Greek yogurt. In a smoothie, Greek yogurt contributes creaminess, more tang and most importantly, protein.
• Banana A banana adds additional creaminess but is also a natural, unprocessed sweetener. Will it add enough sweetness? That's up to you. A tablespoon of honey will add intense sweetness if that's to your taste. If you keep frozen bananas in the freezer, sure, they'll work beautifully.
• Peanut Butter Tell me, how did this peanut butter fiend end up marrying someone who can suss out even a tiny taste of peanut butter? So yeah, don't be thinking that a PB&J Smoothie will push that peanut butter into the background, hidden among all the other flavors. Still, it adds richness and protein.
• Blueberries Blueberries are this smoothie's super power! It's the berries that put the J in the PB&J flavors and also give the smoothie its beautiful purple color. My recipe calls for frozen blueberries, there's always an open small bag with just a few freezer-burned berries lurking in some corner of the freezer, I'm happy to use them up, no letting them go to waste. Could you use fresh blueberries? Sure. But you might want to throw in a few ice cubes at the end.

What Makes This Recipe Special

• Easy to make on a whim with pantry ingredients
• Really mimics the taste of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• That color! That color!! That color!!!
• Ready to get started? Here's your recipe!

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PB & J (PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY) SMOOTHIES

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time-to-table: 10 minutes
Makes 2 cups

• 1 cup (112g) buttermilk or any other dairy milk or plant milk
• 1/2 cup (125g) non-fat Greek yogurt
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 cup (140g) frozen blueberries, broken apart into small clumps if necessary
• 1 tablespoon honey (optional, taste first, then add only if needed)

Combine all the ingredients except the honey in a blender and process until smooth. Taste and then decide whether the honey is needed.

Serve it up!

MAKE-AHEAD If need be, mix everything except the blueberries and store overnight in the refrigerator right in the blender. Just before serving, add the blueberries and process.

The Smoothie Queen's Tips ALANNA's TIPS When you put the liquid and softer ingredients into the blender first, mostly, the machine can manage its job without getting stuck. But if needed, turn off the blender and use a fork or spoon and move the contents around a bit, that'll usually loosen it back up. The other trick is to process all the non-frozen ingredients first, then drop the frozen ingredients (here, the blueberries but in other smoothies, frozen banana or ice cubes) through the lid one by one. This drops the frozen ingredients right down the center into the blades and works like a champ! Smoothies, of course, are a great way to use up random partial bags of frozen fruit. The trick, of course, after opening the bags is preventing freezer burn, that's the ice crystals that form in frozen foods and break them down, eventually causing them to deteriorate. My solution is super-simple: fold the fruit bag over itself quite tightly, pushing out as much air as possible, then "seal" the bag with a rubber band. Again, it works like a champ!

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Half Cup: 139 Calories; 5g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 2mg Cholesterol; 67mg Sodium; 20g Carb; 2g Fiber; 14g Sugar; 7g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 3 & PointsPlus 4 & SmartPoints 5 & Freestyle 5 & myWW green 5 & blue 5 & purple 5 (FYI, a 1 cup serving is 11 points for myWW plans) WW Reminder: Smoothies aren't "free" for Weight Watchers, even when using ingredients usually free, here, the Greek yogurt, banana and blueberries. Sorry.

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Seasonal Cooking: Late Spring Across the Years

Three Easy Italian Appetizers Chocolate Cinnamon Whipped Cream Cake Roasted Salmon & Asparagus Confetti Potato Salad How to Make Rhubarb Jam & Rhubarb Jelly In An Hour New-Fashioned Sauerkraut Salad Ten Tips for Better Burgers Easy Easy Grilled Mushroom Appetizer Cauliflower Salad with Fresh Herbs Cucumber Dip with Feta Mini Porcupine Meatballs Afghan Chicken & Rice Casserole (Kabeli Palau) Easy Garlic-Herb Mediterranean Chicken ("Med Chicken")

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~ Healthy Smoothies: Recipes & Tips ~

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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ buttermilk recipes ~
~ yogurt recipes ~
~ banana recipes ~
~ peanut butter recipes ~
~ honey recipes ~
~ blueberry recipes ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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