Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothie

My new favorite smoothie!  I have been making more smoothies since little Juliana is not too keen on a lot of proteins.  She does love milk though.

This strawberry cheesecake smoothie is from Cupcakes and Kale Chips.  Usually I love my green smoothie.  I have tried others like blueberry smoothies and even the green monster.  I must be the only person on the planet who doesn’t like it because it is all over Pinterest and I can’t stand the peanut butter flavor with the rest of it.  Oh well!  I’m weird – big surprise 🙂

I have tried this several ways of course which is what I try to do on every recipe before posting.  The strawberries are better frozen.  But in a pinch, you can use fresh ones instead and it ends up more like a thick strawberry milk drink instead of your expected frozen smoothie.  The photo is from my iPod because my camera battery was dead!

Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothie
yield 1 serving

1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 frozen banana
3 ounces of vanilla yogurt (also tried and liked it with plain yogurt with 1/2 T. honey and 1 tsp. vanilla because I usually have plain on hand)
1 ounce cream cheese (also tried 1/3 less fat and just as good)
1/2 cup milk

1.  Throw it all in a blender and enjoy!
Tips:  My blender does well when I put in some liquid first and then the frozen on top.  When using most frozen ingredients, I have to stop the blender and stir often.  I didn’t have to stir ever when I used fresh strawberries.  I usually let the machine run the entire time I put the ingredients away to make sure it is blended nice and smooth.