Hey everyone. My name is Lisa DeFazio, I'm a registered dietitian with a masters in nutritional science. Today, we are making a meal smoothie. Now the thing to remember is that this is a meal, not a snack. So you want to aim for about 300 to 400 calories in this shake. If you're a guy, you probably can get away with five or six-hundred, because this is going to be about a third of your daily caloric intake. So again, three or four-hundred calories is kind of what we're aiming for here. So have your blender out. So first off is the liquid. You can use a variety of liquids. I always use almond milk, vanilla almond milk for my smoothies because I love the taste, and I always like that little vanilla flavor. We're going to throw in about eight ounces, I guess, of liquid here. And, you know, you can use soy milk, you can use milk, whatever you'd like. It doesn't matter on the liquid that you use. Just have kind of that milky base. Then we're going to add a banana for potassium and again adds a really nice texture and creaminess to the smoothies. I usually always add bananas. So one medium-sized banana. Toss that in there. And you can add whatever fruit you'd like, but I always add frozen strawberries. So frozen strawberries are nice because they're cheap, they're going to last a long time in the freezer. And we're going to use about half of this actually. We're going to use about a half-cup of strawberries. Get that in there for a nice flavor. You can use pineapple, mango, you know, whatever you like, but I really like the banana-strawberry concoction. Now, another tip is peanut butter. So, you always want to get the natural peanut butter because it wont be hydrogenated, which means it's healthier for your body, and I love the protein that it's going to add. This is going to add, let's see here, oh we're adding around seven or eight grams of protein to our smoothie, and who doesn't love peanut butter? I mean the taste is so good with those bananas in there too. So, you know, about a tablespoon. The nice thing about smoothies is that, you know, a half-cup off, or a quarter-cup off, or a tablespoon here and there, it's not going to make a difference. It's all blended together, so, don't worry about it. Now you can also add, if you'd like, some wheat germ or flax. A lot of people these days are adding flax seed. I add some wheat germ for some extra nutrition, some extra fiber. So again, about a tablespoon of that. You can hide a lot of things in smoothies too, which is really nice. And, the star an main ingredient of a meal smoothie is the protein powder. So you go to the health food store and there are like 30 to choose from, and it gets pretty confusing. So once again, it depends on your diet. If you're a vegetarian, you'll go with a soy protein powder. If you're a body builder, you're going to go with the whey protein powder. So, I like protein powders that are going to give me at least 20 or 30 grams of protein, because remember, this is your meal. So, for example, a chicken breast at dinner is going to have 20 or 25 grams of protein. So you want to try to get 20 or 30 grams of protein in your smoothie. A give gram protein smoothie is not going to be equivalent to a meal. So, this one is 45 grams of protein, which is huge, and I really shopped around to find this one. And again, but at least 20 grams of proteins in a protein powder is really important if this is a meal replacement. And again, this will be vanilla flavor, because I like to stick with that theme. So one scoop of your meal replacement powder. This has vitamins, minerals, so keep that in mind, and you know, ask the clerk when you're at the health food store. And we could add a little bit of ice, but once again, we use the frozen strawberries, so we don't have to use as much ice. So, a few ice cubes there. I always like my smoothies thicker, and so I don't use as much liquid and as much ice. So that's pretty much it. So let's put on the top here, and we are going to blend away. Alright, looks good. Have a nice big glass out, and you know again, about 12 to 20 ounces is a good portion for a meal replacement. Remember, this is our meal. Wow, look at that. Thick, creamy, beautiful color. I can't wait to try it. Oh, I can already smell, I can smell the peanut butter. I always throw peanut butter in my smoothies, such a neat little trick. Oh my god, oh my god, you have to make this. You have to make this at home. Peanut butter and banana, it tastes like I'm eating cookies here and cheating on my diet. With the vanilla protein powder, you have the vanilla, the peanut butter, the banana, the creaminess from the banana, combined with the strawberries, oh my god, totally. You can, and you can lose weight doing this. So, dieting and eating healthy does not have to be difficult. So that's my tip, the biggest one. Throw some peanut butter, or even almond butter, in your smoothies. Thanks for watching. That is how you make a meal-replacement smoothie. Check out my website LisaDefazio.com. See you guys next time.
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