I love making smoothies that are flavored like popular and favorite desserts; I’ve created Orange Creamsicle, Key Lime Pie and Coconut Cream Smoothies, and so many more! Funnily enough, though, I made this recipe completely by accident. I had leftover cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves mixed together from when I was making some pumpkin energy bites a couple days earlier, and threw those spices in the blender while I was making a vanilla smoothie. What came out was a delicious, spiced banana flavor, tasting exactly like banana bread!

Smoothies are a wonderful breakfast choice because they’re quick, they’re full of nutrients and healthy carbs for sustained energy, and you can take them with you if you don’t have time to enjoy your breakfast at home. I have my Vitamix to make my smoothies, and I truly do use it nearly every single day, if not for smoothies, then to make vegan cheese, vegan salad dressing or even to grind nuts and seeds to top my salads with. A high-speed blender is, in my opinion, the best kitchen appliance to invest in. You can use it for so many things, and mine has lasted me many years!

For this smoothie, you don’t need any fancy ingredients, everything is easy to find (and easy to pronounce!) and nothing in it is “cheat food.” The bananas make it plenty sweet, but you can choose to customize this to make it even sweeter with the addition of dates, maple syrup, or even brown sugar if you’d like. The only other ingredients are vanilla protein powder, vegan milk, and a mix of spices; cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves that truly make it into a banana bread-flavored smoothie. It’s so simple to make you’re going to come back to this recipe again and again, and you can even impress your friends and family with this recipe, too, by making this smoothie for them!

No matter what time of year, warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, which are both in this smoothie, are comforting and delicious! Smoothies don’t have to be just a summer treat, and warming spices don’t have to be enjoyed in just the fall and winter.

Frozen Bananas: My secret to making super thick, creamy smoothies is using frozen fruit! I often purchase large bags of frozen berries, pineapple, etc. for smoothies, and for fruit and vegetables that I do buy fresh, if I don’t use them up before they start to go bad, I throw them in the freezer to add them to smoothies later so they don’t go to waste. Tip for your wallet: buying frozen fruits and vegetables is more cost-effective than buying fresh, anyway, so there’s no harm in buying frozen to use for smoothies, or even stir-fries, soups, etc.!

Vanilla Protein Powder: There are many types of vegan protein powders, and vanilla being probably the most popular flavor, this shouldn’t be difficult to find. When shopping for protein powders, make sure to choose one that doesn’t contain whey, a milk protein. It’s important to get into the habit of reading the ingredients and labels of the food products you’re consuming, anyway, whether you’re vegan or not! In addition to whey, some other non-vegan ingredients to look out for are egg whites, animal-derived collagen, and gelatin. Some great brands of vegan protein powders with a vanilla option are Kachava, Vega, Orgain and Sunwarrior, although there are countless options to choose from!

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cloves: This combination of spices transforms this smoothie from a vanilla/banana flavor, to a true banana bread smoothie. Feel free to add extra spices once you’ve blended all of the ingredients and tasted it, if you feel the need. I use dried spices, but using fresh ginger root is wonderful in this, as well. If you choose to use fresh ginger, purchase it from the supermarket in the produce section in its root form. Once you’ve taken it home and you’re preparing your smoothie, peel the ginger with a potato peeler or a knife, and cut off about a 1” chunk. Add it to the smoothie, and you can refrigerate the rest of the ginger root to use later. I personally buy ginger root in bulk, peel it all at once, cut it into 1” pieces and freeze it in a reusable bag. That way, whenever I need ginger root (usually for my smoothies, like this Lemon Ginger Smoothie, or ginger tea) I grab a piece of ginger to use from the freezer! This way, I only have to buy ginger once every few months, and I have it whenever I need it!

Vegan Milk: Any kind of vegan milk works well for this, and of course if you like your smoothies super sweet you can use sweetened or vanilla-flavored dairy-free milk, but it’s plenty sweet with plain vegan milk, as well! I usually use almond or oat for my smoothies.

Optional Toppings: I topped mine with sliced banana, chopped walnuts and cinnamon, but some other options include dry oats, shaved chocolate or chocolate chips, shredded coconut and chia seeds. You could even make this into a thick smoothie bowl by using less vegan milk, and go all-out with toppings of fruit, nuts and seeds, etc. and enjoy it with a spoon.