Do you have an appliance that you use everyday? For us it is the espresso machine and the smoothie blender. I make the kids a Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Smoothie every day. I keep waiting for them to get tired of it. Since they have one every day, I prep them three at a time. The accountant in me loves the efficiency of this process.
We have the Ninja Professional Blender and Nutri Ninja Cups. This easy smoothie prep makes our mornings so much easier! It only comes with two cups so I always order another set of cups so that we have extra to make ahead.
Easily prep smoothies three at a time.
Twice a week, I take three of the cups and prep them with ingredients. In this case I put in a small banana, yogurt, cocoa powder, and peanut butter. I put those in the refrigerator until the morning I am ready to blend them up. When I am ready to use them, I will add the milk and frozen bananas. Adding the frozen bananas is key to getting a nice, creamy consistency.
Save money by buying marked down bananas and freeze them for smoothies.
Another tip that I can share is to buy discount bananas. Our grocery store will have the reduced priced produce on a rack together. They will bag up bananas that are close to being over ripe and put a bulk price on them. I get pretty excited when I can score these banana bags! 🙂 These are the bananas I use to freeze for smoothies. I peel them all and break them into chunks so they are ready to throw into smoothies for the week.
Easy Smoothie Recipe
Here is the recipe I use:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Smoothie
- 1 small banana
- 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1 heaping teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup frozen bananas
Blend all ingredients together. Enjoy!
I usually split this smoothie for my kids since they are 3 and 8. If I am making one for myself, I will add fresh spinach to get my greens for the day.
I hope to start doing more meal prep. It makes life as a busy mom so much easier. Plus it is a great way to save money on groceries. Check out some of our other Money Saving Meal Prep Tips!
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Yum, I love peanut butter and banana smoothies.
Thanks Emily! So do we! It is such an easy and filling breakfast for the kiddos!
Looks yummy – first I gotta buy a blender! 🙂
Thank you Andrea! We think the Ninja is a great value! I would love to have a VitaMix but they are pretty expensive.
This is so smart! I never make smoothies because I feel like they are so much work. This would cut down on that work by a ton!
Thanks Rachel! Doing it this way makes it a lot easier. I got tired of prepping one each day!
So yummy! I am always looking for new smoothie recipes, and this one will definitely be added into the mix!
i love banana and pb smoothies! thanks for sharing. i have never seen the ripe bags for sale at my store but maybe i will ask if they have them! good idea!
These look so yummy and easy! I totally need to save this for my apartment because smoothies are probably going to be a good option for a quick and healthy breakfast.
Making smoothies always seems like such a hassle to me – but I love the prep idea. I’d definitely probably do it if they were already halfway made!
This is a great idea! I love the ninja smoothie cups but I never thought about prepping with them like this.
My kids love banana smoothies too; I’ve never added in peanut butter though. Must give it a try!
This is such a great idea. It is so time consuming in the morning to put all my smoothie ingredients into the blender one by one, especially because I use many superfoods etc. I love that prepping a few at a time makes for a quicker breakfast! Thanks 🙂
This is my very favorite smoothie combination! I like to add a little oatmeal as well, if it’s going to be my breakfast.
I live for smoothies! This is one of my favorite combinations!
A must try! Looking forward to try this easy to make smoothies this weekend!
I’m a make-ahead meal queen!! This makes me happy ? love the idea of just prepping the ingredients. We don’t have a blender with the cups, so I make my green smoothies in bulk to last a couple days. These look delicious!