In my quest to rid myself of these bananas and take meal replacement to more-fulfilling level, I remembered making peanut butter smoothies half a century ago. What is not pictured in the photo is the apple juice and the milk. As I was looking for the perfect balance of sweet versus salty/savory from the peanut butter, I kept adding more and more apple juice to this blend until it ended up being about half apple juice and half milk (I used lactaid-free milk because I’m kind of lactose-intolorant, but I think almond milk would make this even better).

What you see in the blender is the finished result of blending everything together. Honestly, it LOOKS pretty unappetizing, but don’t stare at it too hard. It tastes delicious. So what you’ll need to do is:

• peel 3 bananas (I almost always use 3 bananas in any recipe that includes them.)
• add them to the blender
• add about 5-8 spoonfuls of peanut butter (this really depends on how thick and heavy you want the smoothie to be. But a gentle reminder, peanut butter is SUPER filling).
• pour in enough milk for half the amount of smoothie you want
• pour in apple juice for the other half
• blend until your arm falls off or until smooth

Of course, if you like your smoothie ice-cold, you can either pour this over ice or add ice directly to the blender. I rarely add ice to the blender because I feel it waters down the smoothie very quickly, and nobody really wants that, right? This ended up being enough smoothie to fill the green cup in the photos about 3 times, so, essentially, I could’ve replaced a day’s worth of meals with this. It did end up being very filling and you will probably feel as if you did eat. That’s one of the magical qualities of peanut butter. This would be a really good way to baby-step your way into a water fast as this smoothie is so heavy that you might forget that you aren’t eating, which, to me, is one of the things that makes fasting easier.

• Make it vegan-friendly by replacing the milk with soy/almond/coconut/oat milk. (I’m still an almond fan.)

I will be trying a similar smoothie recipe with the addition of strawberries and a few other combinations on days when I’m feeling more brave. I say that because I’ve done some smoothies that just were…blaaaah, to say the least. I’ll share those experiences with you, too so you can avoid wasting food the way I did.