Playing with Flour: Chocolate banana smoothie

Do you smoothie? I mean...do you make/drink smoothies regularly? It's not something I've gotten on the bandwagon of though I've seen many tempting versions of them. But today, I'm tiptoeing into the smoothie world with this 3-ingredient chocolate banana smoothie that's right up my alley.

It doesn't get any simpler, easier than this so this smoothie is perfect for a beginner like me. Three ingredients: a banana, a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder, and skim milk. Just blend it up!

I was inspired to make this when I flipped through the current issue of Food Network magazine and saw it mentioned in the January calendar. Something that doesn't even require a recipe - just a basic instruction to blend 3 ingredients up - totally appealed to me. Since I eat a banana essentially everyday as a mid-morning snack, I thought I could change things up, swap out my morning frappuccino, and use my blender for this instead.

Can I tell you...I'm a little surprised by how much I liked this! I literally whipped it up this very morning for breakfast with some toast (that's how fast this is - you can make and blog about it instantly). It really tasted like a treat. The one tablespoon of cocoa powder added so much chocolate flavor and the banana provides the natural sweetener you need. Yes, you can taste banana but the texture is so velvety - kind of pudding like - and the flavor so rich that I really felt like I was having a milkshake. It's great just like this and surely, you could build onto it, maybe adding a spoonful of almond/peanut butter or oats and expanding it to include other fruits, if you like.

Once again, I've determined that bananas rule. I think I now have one more thing I have to keep in the freezer...sliced bananas, so I can whip up a smoothie whenever I want.

The one bit of advanced prep you need to make for this smoothie is to slice and freeze a banana. As I said, I'm going to have to stock my freezer with this from now on.

For one serving, I used a medium banana. Obviously, for more sweetness, go with a riper banana. Mine was about middle of the road, not too ripe but not hard. Then, you add a tablespoon of cocoa powder and about 3/4 cup of skim milk (or whatever milk you prefer). Blend until smooth, adjusting the consistency with a little more milk if you need/prefer. Pour it into a glass and enjoy. I sure did!