This Strawberry Banana Smoothie is a delicious way to get more fruit into your day. I love having it for breakfast, or as a mid-afternoon snack, because it tastes like such a treat! Even my kids love this one. It’s a great “beginner smoothie” if you’re trying to make one for the first time.
How to Make a Strawberry Banana Smoothie
To make this Strawberry Banana Smoothie, you’ll need a blender and about 5 minutes of time. All you have to do is blend the ingredients together until smooth, then make any adjustments that you see fit once you taste it.
Because fruits can vary in sweetness, you might need to add a little sweetener one day, but not the next. When you make a smoothie at home, you’re in charge of the flavor, so keep in mind that you can always tweak each batch to suit your tastes.
Do You Have to Use Frozen Fruit in Smoothies?
This recipe calls for frozen fruit because I find that to be the most convenient and the most affordable. I love how frozen fruit gives this Strawberry Banana Smoothie a thick and slushy texture, almost like a milkshake.
However, you can use fresh strawberries and bananas, if you prefer! You’ll need to use much less liquid when using fresh fruit, so start with 1/2 cup of liquid and add more as needed. If you want a frozen, slushy-texture for your smoothie to mimic using frozen fruit, try adding a cup or more of ice until it’s as thick as you’d like it to be.
When freezing bananas, make sure you peel them prior to freezing so that you can easily add them to a smoothie later. It’s nearly impossible to get the peel off after freezing. (Trust me.) If you don’t have a high-speed blender, but the bananas into coins before adding them to the blender for easier blending. I usually freeze my bananas whole and then break them in half before adding them, as my Vitamix can break them down easily.
Are Smoothies Good for Weight Loss?
In my opinion, yes, smoothies are great for weight loss! When you make a smoothie at home, you control what goes into it. That means you don’t have to worry about things like frozen yogurt or sugary “bases” being used in your smoothie, like some chain smoothie stores do.
I like to use smoothies like this one as a meal replacement, so it’s a great alternative to a heavier breakfast. Smoothies are a great source of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and they can help keep you hydrated.
If you’re concerned about the sugar in fruit, sure you read why I don’t limit my fruit intake. One study mentioned in that article shares that eating fruit actually promotes weight loss, compared to another group that limited their fruit intake.
How to Make a Strawberry Banana Smoothie (1-Minute Video):
Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1 frozen banana , cut into pieces
- 1 cup milk (I use almond milk)
- 1/2 cup orange juice (or use more milk )
- 1 Medjool date , pitted (or 1 tablespoon honey), if needed for sweetness
Instructions
- Add the strawberries, banana, milk, orange juice, and date for sweetness, if desired, and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust anything as needed, then serve right away.
- Leftover smoothie can be poured into mini ice pop molds for a frozen treat later.
Video
Nutrition
Strawberry Banana Smoothie Nutrition (for the whole batch): Calories: 308; Fat: 4g; Carbohydrates: 69g; Fiber: 8g; Protein: 4g
Recipe Notes:
You can use any other type of fruit to replace the strawberries or bananas, just keep in mind that you’ll need to use similar amounts to get a similar milkshake-texture. Mixed berries can be used, but keep in mind that raspberries have seeds that will wind up in the final texture, and my kids don’t like that.
I like using orange juice in this smoothie to give it a little boost of sweetness and a slightly tart flavor, but if you leave it out the smoothie will be less-sweet and much more mild in flavor.
More Smoothie Recipes:
- My Go-To Smoothie for Kids
- Smoothies for Babies & Toddlers
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- Chocolate Avocado Smoothie
- Coffee Smoothie (like a frappuccino!)
- Dragon Fruit Smoothie
- Low Sugar Smoothies
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite smoothie combination?
You always have the BEST smoothie recipes! Thank you for sharing this Strawberry Banana Smoothie. I just made it for lunch and loved it. Better than Jamba Juice!
Thanks, Sara. Glad you liked it!
You might want to consider this when you’re drinking your favorite smoothie. Assuming that you use unsweetened almond milk, the total sugar you are consuming for this smoothie is approx.50.52grams or 12.63 teaspoons or 4.21 tablespoons. I have been making healthy smoothies for my family (every day) for 8 years. You really have to be aware of the combinations of fruit and veggies that you use–so that it will actually be a healthy smoothie and not sugar laden dessert/treat like this one is. I’m sorry!
I would eat a banana and a cup of strawberries in one sitting and consider it a healthy snack– not something “sugar laden.” I would recommend checking out Dr Gregor’s research on it. Here’s a snippet from one: “Seventeen people were made to eat 20 servings a day of fruit. Despite the extraordinarily high fructose content of this diet, presumably about 200 g/d—eight cans of soda worth, the investigators reported no adverse effects (and possible benefit actually) for body weight, blood pressure, and insulin and lipid levels after three to six months. More recently, Jenkins and colleagues put people on about a 20 servings of fruit a day diet for a few weeks and found no adverse effects on weight or blood pressure or triglycerides, and an astounding 38 point drop in LDL cholesterol.” Here’s a link to the full piece: https://nutritionfacts.org/2017/02/23/can-you-eat-too-much-fruit/
The first study you mention doesn’t provide any info on the 17 subjects, and the associated link goes to a blank page. I also don’t think this includes dried fruit, such as dates. I track my blood sugar daily, for curiosity purposes, and find that dates actually spike my blood sugar and tank my energy. Everyone is just so different that it’s hard to make a blanket statement regarding health. McGregor has a solid plant-based slant that could possibly lead to bias as well. Just my two cents!
We don’t limit fruit in our house, either. It’s downright backwards to me that some people are scared of FRUIT, but will then consider cheese or a beef jerky stick a “healthy” snack. To each their own, but I’ll take the fruit! And this smoothie is perfect. Just made it for breakfast!
Thank you for sharing! I made it with just milk at first, but then realized what you mean– the flavor is not very sweet that way. So I added a date and blended again and it was perfect. Next time I’ll use the orange juice because I think that will be even better. I should learn to always trust you, because your recipes are the best!
Yes, the OJ adds a nice tangy sweetness, so the whole flavor is boosted. But we love it with a date added in, too! It’s hard to replicate smoothies that are made with ice cream and frozen yogurt at stores, so the date or OJ helps without the refined sugar.
Made this for my kids this morning, using a freshly squeezed orange, and they gobbled it up! I’ll add spinach in it when I make it with blueberries, so I can hide a veggie in there.
Glad they liked it! I love sneaking spinach in when I can, too. Frozen cauliflower could be hidden in this one without changing the color.
We made this today with raspberries, and it was super yummy. I make your fruit smoothies all the time for my kids, and they are thin as can be. I worry about my 13 year old son because he eats constantly. ( wait until your son is a teenager!) He never gains weight though. So the body must metabolize a 500 calorie fruit smoothie differently than a 500 calorie bowl of chips. Please keep creating yummy smoothies!
My kids love this smoothie!! Thanks for posting this. The girls (10 and 8) can easily make this on their own!
i love this shake! the only problem i had was a strange after taste from the vanilla powder. i switched over to vanilla extract and the after taste was gone.
My favorite smoothie uses honey vanilla Greek yogurt as well as milk, with a banana and several frozen fruits and berries–strawberries or raspberries, blueberries, mango chunks.I sometimes add protein powder.
Hi! Im 12 and i wanted to try making myself a smoothie, i used my mom nutribullet blender and used a little less than half a cup of milk becase i wanted a thicker drink, i came out sooo yummy! Accept i didn’t add a sweetener. and i used sunny D orange juice. I think it taste great!
So happy you included Medjool dates. I love dates, but everyone else seems to hate them.
This smoothie is a little too sweet for my tastes (and my diabetes), as is, but I solved that by taking out the orange juice and throwing in some avocado or spinach. I usually replace some of the strawberries with raspberries and blueberries. I usually replace the banana (big no-no for diabetics) with kiwi (potassium champion!). Depends on what I have on hand, or what I’m in the mood for, or what my body seems to need at a given time.
That’s the beauty of these smoothies–once you get a good recipe, like this one, you can start swapping in or out to your heart’s content.
Oh–and I usually use oat milk (almond allergy) and add some coconut yogurt (dairy allergy) to mine.
Still, anything that gets more fruit and other healthy goodies into my middle-aged carcass, the better. I make do with what I can have.
This is my go to smoothie. I add collagen and it’s delicious.