Skip the sports drink for this healthy chocolate post-workout shake! It’s made without bananas and blended into a frosty and refreshing treat perfect for active teens and kids.
When made with the right ingredients, smoothies and shakes offer a delicious vehicle to replenish essential nutrients and electrolytes lost during long periods of physical activity.
In this recipe, I share my secret to a chocolatey shake packed with healthy ingredients and 16 grams of protein, so your kids feel refreshed and refueled.
Best Post Workout Shake with No Banana
One sip of this frosty post-workout shake, and you’ll know exactly why it’s a favorite option to refuel after workouts and sports practice! It’s the perfect solution for a banana-free smoothie and offers delicious flavor with nutritional benefits from flax seeds, chia seeds, peanut butter, and chocolate milk!
Craving more? Check out more of my top picks for post-workout smoothies here.
Benefits of Chocolate Milk After Workout
Surprised to see chocolate milk as a healthy ingredient? It’s a pleasant surprise, but chocolate milk offers calcium and the perfect 3:1 ratio of carbohydrates to proteins that our tired muscles need lots of activity.
And nothing tastes so good as ice-cold chocolate milk when you’re hot and tired from running around.
Nutritional note: check the nutritional label for added sugars content. Some chocolate milks have up to 48g per serving while others are in the more modest range of 20g.
After Workout Shake Ingredients
This chocolate shake is made with low-fat chocolate milk and pantry staples for a healthy and convenient choice to refuel. Here’s the short ingredient list:
- chocolate milk: regular chocolate milk works best, but you can also use your favorite dairy-free alternative.
- oats: to give it a shake-like consistency.
- peanut butter: is a great thickening agent and makes this shake peanut butter chocolate flavored.
- ice cubes: gives it the ‘frosty’ effect.
- chia seeds: a great source of omega-3 and 6 fatty acids.
- flax meal: adds fiber along with additional omega-3 and 6 fatty acids.
I prefer to use Nesquick chocolate milk; each 8-ounce serving provides only 11g of added sugars and 8g of protein, compared to 14g of sugar in popular sports drinks that offer no protein.
However, if you can’t use dairy, non-dairy chocolate milk works great! Most are fortified with vitamins, and soy chocolate milk has up to 5 grams of protein.
How to Make a Kid-Friendly Post Workout Recovery Drink
Grab your blender, and let’s blend up this frosty post-workout chocolate milk!
- Blend
Add the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. *If you want a thinner consistency, add additional chocolate milk or water. - Drink
Pour into a glass and drink up!
Want to pack this for your kids? Transfer the shake to a chilled thermos and stow it away in the lunch bag with an ice pack. It will stay cold for hours, and once other kids find out what’s inside the container, you’ll be the popular parent.
And while we’re talking lunch, here are some helpful, healthy lunch ideas to pack for active teens. Each recipe is full of protein to keep them energized and satiated all afternoon.
Optional Add-ins
Both the chia and flax seeds are optional add-ins, but I find they help thicken the shake while adding great nutritional benefits. If a nut allergy is present in your family, swap the peanut butter for a nut-free alternative such as sunflower seed butter or soy butter.
Here are some great peanut butter alternatives for you to check out in this video:
More After-Workout Snacks
Snack-time is a big deal around here, and below, you’ll find plenty of great post-workout snacks for active adults, teens, and kids. Each idea can be made ahead and easily packed into the lunch bag or gym bag.
- Grab the Gold Bars
- Coconut Brownie Energy Bites
- Pineapple Green Smoothie
- Cookie Dough Snack Bars
- High Fiber Chocolate Bites
Post-Workout Shake with Chocolate Milk
Ingredients
- 1 cup chocolate milk
- ¼ cup oats
- 1-2 tablespoons peanut butter, or non-nut butter
- 4 ice cubes
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds, optional
- 1 teaspoon flax meal, optional
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add a little water or additional milk to make this shake thinner.
Notes
The recommendations below may include affiliate links.
Betsy says
This would be a winner with my 3 year old who loves chocolate, but my crazy 6 year old wants nothing to do with it! We make smoothies all of the time – we call them “George Juice” from a Curious George episode where he experimented with all kinds of fruits and veggies because that is what we do – from the usual suspects of banana and strawberries, to more the adventurous spinach, avocado and butternut squash. My kids are picky eaters, but not when it comes to smoothies! Our fav is a simple banana, strawberry, blueberry, spinach with coconut milk, hemp and chia seeds. Thanks for what you do, Laura!
Chris Sapyta says
Nesquik was my childhood treat too. I will give this a try. I like banana mango smoothies best.
Eva Klein says
My son’s favorite smoothie is frozen bananas, peanut butter powder, a spoon of regular PB along with a little almond milk. My favorite smoothie is spinach, frozen pinapple, frozen mango with a little water added in.
joanne says
My kids love smoothies! Their fav right now is, banana, orange, frozen pineapple & greek vanilla yogurt. I will definitely try your chocolate shake recipe, it looks delicious!
Christie says
I try to keep my smoothie ingredients fitting with the season so I always have something fresh and flavorful.
Currently my favorite is Apple Cinnamon Chia – yogurt & kefir as a base with hemp protein powder, chopped fresh picked apples, cinnamon (and sometimes a little ginger for a kick), honey or maple syrup, and chia seeds. The apples are a little chunky since they don’t blend down all the way but the little bit of texture gives you something to chew as if you were eating it 🙂