chocolate banana oatmeal smoothie

I've discovered that the best way to sneak healthy food into my toddler's diet is to disguise it with fruit.  For about two months the only vegetables he ate were in the green smoothies I started making him for breakfast every day.  He still won't eat some vegetables, but he's getting a bit better.  And we still do green smoothies fairly often.  (Let's face it, sometimes I don't want to eat my veggies either.  Fruit is just so much yummier!)

When I found some smoothie recipes that call for oats, I figured it was worth a try.  And since I didn't have all the ingredients I needed for the recipes I found, I made up my own.  It was pretty yummy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie
(I couldn't think of a better name...)

Ingredients

6-8 ice cubes
2 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oats
1 1/2 cups chocolate milk*
1/2 cup plain yogurt or frozen yogurt

*you can substitute regular milk and add about 1 Tbsp cocoa powder, but it may be a bit more bitter.

Place all ingredients in the blender, and blend until smooth.  You will probably need to stop once or twice and scrape the peanut butter off the sides, then continue blending.

Makes approx. 32 oz.

If you're worried about the fat content, you can of course use fat free yogurt and milk.

A few of great things about this smoothie:

• It's filling
• It's got protein and carbs (whole grains even!) for a balanced meal
• It's quick and easy to make
• It's delicious!  Even kids love it!

He looks sad in this picture because he's not very good at waiting for food.  Luckily this smoothie is pretty quick to make, so he only had time for a few tears.

See!  No more tears!  Happily chugging away!  He downed his first sippy cup full, and wanted more!