Peanut Butter and Jelly Protein Smoothie

Oh boy guys, I am tired. And not like my-kid-was-up-all-night kind of tired (although, that did happen the night before last), I’m the I’ve-been-doing-so-much-manual-labor-lately kind of tired.

If I can be honest with you guys (and I know I can), we’re drowning a little bit in our Spring to-do list on the Plow. In the next two weeks, we have to build a chicken coop, get ready for a yard sale, plant our garden, and clean out and organize the barn. All, of course, on top of all the regular upkeep tasks like mowing, trimming, weeding, and baby wrangling.

We’re basically spending every second that we aren’t sleeping, working. And if it sounds like I’m complaining, let me clarify—I love it. Seriously, it feels so good to be working so hard at stuff that I love. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yes, it’s a little overwhelming, but being overwhelmed by too much awesome stuff is a great problem to have.

I’ve been really feeling the increase in manual labor in my muscles over the past few weeks. I lost so much muscle tone during my pregnancy, and while I’m slowly building it back up, I’m still not back to my strong, country girl ways.

Unfortunately, there is just as much work to do as there was back when I was at my fittest, so that means I’m just powering through. And wowzers, my muscles are tapped. My upper body and my lower back muscles are particularly taking a beating! Remind me to really work hard on building those back up once I have free time to spend in the gym again, okay?

To help with recovery after a long day out on our hobby farm, I’ve been trying really hard to make sure I consume a heavy hand of protein to help my muscles rebuild (and prepare for the next day of hard work). During my short foray into nutrition and culinary training, I wrote a post a few years back all about the importance of adequate protein consumption, and it still stands true. Good, quality protein helps your body recover.

Enter the meal of choice in our house right now—a peanut butter and jelly protein smoothie.

Smoothies are fast (great when you’re swamped), they are refreshing (which is awesome considering we’ve apparently skipped right past Spring here and are rockin’ Summer temps), and a great vehicle for all kinds of healthy, nutritious add-ins. And if you pay attention to your ingredients, you can get an entire, balanced meal in a glass! I’m all for sitting down and eating something delicious (with cheese, preferably), but sometimes, a meal in a glass is exactly what you need.

Whenever I’m building my meal-style smoothies—especially when I’m hurting from some shoveling—I work hard to make sure they really pack in the protein. I don’t use a lot of protein powder, but I do like to keep a container of good quality, organic protein powder around for when I need that extra protein boost. When I say “good quality”, I mean it! The protein powder aisle can be a scary place full of artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, chemicals and all kinds of nastiness. It requires a bit of research (and honestly, some cash), but you really want to find a protein powder that is low on the ingredients. Read those labels, kids! I personally don’t like flavored or sweetened protein powders (I’d rather do that with fresh fruit and natural sweeteners), so I stick with the amazing, all natural Sunwarrior Classic protein powder.

Sunwarrior is the bee’s knees. It’s raw, vegan, and organic. It blends wonderfully (none of that gritty, yucky texture that you get from some natural protein powders), and it has almost no flavor. It mostly just disappears when you mix it into a smoothie—which is definitely how I prefer it! It also has nothing artificial in it. Nothing at all. See, look at the ingredients.

This peanut butter and jelly protein smoothie has been standard in our house for a while now—and it’s made a resurgence with all of our work outside. We’re working through the very last of our frozen strawberries (strawberry season is soon, yay!), so this is a great smoothie to help us clear out our deep freezer for the season and recover enough so we can get all those plants in the ground to help us fill it back up with goodies!

Enjoy.

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Protein Smoothie

Yield: 1 smoothie

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

This protein-packed Peanut Butter and Jelly Protein Smoothie is a great meal-replacement to help you recover after a hard workout (or a hard day out in the garden).

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Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened nut milk
• 1/2 cup plain, low fat Greek yogurt
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened peanut butter
• 1 scoop Sunwarrior Classic Natural Protein Powder
• 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey, to taste

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients in the carafe of a high-speed blender. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into a big glass, and enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1 smoothie
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1465Total Fat: 88gSaturated Fat: 18gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 66gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 650mgCarbohydrates: 111gFiber: 16gSugar: 60gProtein: 77g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.