When I was growing up, I was always known as the “strawberry milkshake kid”. I got this nickname due to the fact that whenever I would go out to eat with my friends, I would always be the odd one out who ordered a strawberry shake while they were all going for chocolate. All of these years later and not much has changed as I still absolutely love strawberry flavored drinks, especially smoothies. I’m particularly fond of this quick and easy strawberry protein smoothie recipe. It has been my go-to post-workout meal for the last little while because of how super simple it is to make and due to the fact that it tastes absolutely amazing.

One Tasty Post-Workout Drink

Not only do strawberries provide an incredibly distinctive and delicious flavor when making smoothies, but they’re also full of nutritional benefits as well. I love to use them for everything from smoothies to making yummy desserts — they’re probably my favorite fruit. Strawberries are well known to be a rather potent source of antioxidants that also provide many anti-inflammatory benefits, but more recent research has also revealed that their biological activities are also beneficial for cellular metabolism and survival. (1) They’re also great for giving your immune system a boost and keeping your blood pressure stable as they’re packed full of essential vitamins and minerals like potassium, magnesium, and vitamin C.

With the strawberries covering your nutrient bases, you’ll be using one scoop of vanilla protein powder to provide you with the protein content of this smoothie. While everyone has their own preferences for what type of protein powder to use, I usually stick with a good whey isolate powder as they contain branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) which are proven to increase lean mass and muscle strength while also helping with fat loss. (2) The vanilla protein powder that I use and recommend is made by Nutricost and offers 30 grams of protein per serving. You can purchase it yourself by clicking here. Alternatively, you could also go for a strawberry flavored protein powder if you want to even more delicious strawberry flavoring for your smoothie. In that case, I would recommend this protein powder by Body Fortress as it tastes amazing and offers a whopping 60 grams of protein with 12 grams of BCAAs per serving.

The only other ingredients that you’ll need to add to this smoothie are some ice and a single cup of milk. I generally use 2% milk when I make my smoothies as it offers a good mix of added protein and saturated fat to make the smoothie just a bit more filling. You can definitely feel free to swap it out for unsweetened almond milk if you would prefer though. It works just as well for pretty much all of our smoothie recipes that call for milk. However, if you do decide to use almond milk then I would recommend adding an extra scoop of protein powder as well to make up for the loss of protein and calories, but in the end it’s totally up to you.