White Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Tip for this White Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie:Freeze strawberries and sliced bananas beforehand to keep your smoothie cold without ice!

There has always been a deep love in my soul for strawberries. I don’t know where it came from or why I picked that particular fruit, but when I think of fruit or I think of my childhood and fruit together, strawberries are the first to pop up in my mind. I remember going strawberry picking once with the youth pastors wife, I remember by mom buying cartons of strawberries from the grocery store, an over abundance of strawberry milkshakes/smoothies and the memories of getting piles of strawberries on my banana splits from the ice cream shop, so I guess I do have quite a few memories that involve strawberries.

I use to enjoy strawberries year round. I found myself loving them in the summer and throughout the winter months but then something happened when I got older. When I started to teach myself to cook and to really taste food instead of just shoveling it down my throat, I found out that my taste buds didn’t really care for strawberries that were out of season. The strawberries I had in the summer were ripe, bright red, sweet and juicy but the strawberries I was getting from the grocery store in the winter were lifeless and bitter. Two things happened here, I was thrilled that I had started to train my taste buds to pick up on stuff like this and really pay attention to my food, I was also bummed because this meant that strawberries were going to be limited to the spring and summer months.

I suppose that you could say that the wait is worth it though. 🙂

Before we get into the recipe and smoothie I just wanted to write up a tad about what went on yesterday. I got a lot of e-mails, texts and messages once everyone knew that I had to make an emergency trip to the doctor Saturday and since I ended up in the ER yesterday I thought I might outta say something. Saturday morning I was up talking to my dad and brother about our family plans for Saturday night (we were suppose to all go to a bonfire, lantern releasing event that I had to miss ) and 15 minutes later I was laying in the floor from some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Thankfully Thomas came home from work about 30 minutes later and scooped me up and took me to the doctor. The pain was so bad that I was crying and if you know me, that doesn’t happen. The entire left side of my body felt like it was being stabbed over and over. They took me straight back, did x-rays, tests, drew blood and gave me a shot in my tush. The pain has dulled but it’s still there, occasionally coming back with enough force to make my back seize up. Well, they couldn’t tell me what was wrong with me, prescribed a bunch of pain pills and antibiotics and sent me on my way.

Yesterday, it happened all over again but the pain was 100% times worse. I went to the ER an after a few tests and a CT SCAN, we found out that I have kidney stones. Yep, Kidney Stones, not only is this awful pain crippling me but I’m suppose to fly out of NC Thursday morning to head to Florida. I really hope that I can get this all under control before then. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

White Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie, let’s talk White Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothies for a second. I always love strawberries in my smoothies. No matter what flavor combination that you toss together, if you add strawberries to the mix I’m probably going to like it. I got a peach and pineapple smoothie when I was down in Wilmington and while I love both peaches and pineapples, it wasn’t super awesome.

Tried Nikki’s smoothie that had strawberries, banana and white chocolate and I was in love again. There’s just something about strawberries in a smoothie that makes me love them haha. SO I decided to recreate that strawberry, white chocolate smoothie here at home and add a bit more too it. I added some Barlean’s organic coconut oil, a bit of Barlean’s flax-chia-coconut seed blend and some Stonyfield yogurt to mine to add in some more healthy benefits to this White Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie!!

Now for the white chocolate, I use white chocolate chips for mine but I know that some people will want their smoothies to be extra, extra smooth. Now if you don’t mind the little pieces of white chocolate chips in your smoothie, just chop them up or toss them into the blender and blend for a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.

You could also use grated white chocolate but just grating a bar of white chocolate or you can try making your own white chocolate syrup with white chocolate and heavy cream. Either way, the white chocolate with the strawberry and banana is going to be fantastic.