Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothies

I had the pleasure of getting mouth surgery yesterday morning, which has resulted in a liquid diet for the next 4-5 days.  It's the worst.  I made a promise to myself that I will try to follow these instructions for at least 2-3 days, but I'm going nuts already considering the fact that dairy upsets my stomach and they said no hot foods.  What happened to soup and oatmeal being my Plan A?!?!  Clearly I had to get creative to avoid not eating altogether, so I created a delicious Plan B.  My peanut butter banana oatmeal smoothies are not only filling, but taste like a dessert!  And did I mention that they're less than 400 calories (thank you almond milk!); this beats my favorite Mitchell's PB Banana Smoothies by a long shot!

The recipe is so easy.  I started by adding 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 frozen banana (cut in chunks), 1 tbsp. vanilla protein powder, t tbsp. peanut butter, 1 tsp. honey, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon sugar and 1 ice cube to a blender.  You can definitely sub the frozen banana for a fresh, ripe banana, but I think that the frozen banana is the easiest way to give the smoothie a thicker texture without diluting the flavor with ice.  It's also a great use for my "banana graveyard," aka the nickname my friends created for the 1/2 dozen frozen bananas I have in my freezer at any given time.  If you use fresh banana, you will probably need to add another ice cube.  I just blended the mixture until it was smooth, about 20-30 seconds.

After it's perfectly smooth, all you need to do is pour the peanut butter banana oatmeal smoothie into a tall glass, and enjoy!  I going to start making these all the time!