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Homemade Chocolate Milk (No Added Sugar!)

22 Comments

Kids love this creamy, fruit-sweetened remake of chocolate milk that tastes–magically!–just like the store-bought kind.

3 milk bottles of chocolate milk with blue and white striped straws homemade chocolate milk in milk bottles with blue and white striped straws

Is Chocolate Milk Good for Kids?

At some point or another, you’ve probably heard your family pediatrician recommend serving your kids two cups of milk a day. Plenty of kids don’t love plain milk, though, and if that sounds like yours, it’s fine to serve yogurt, cheese, and other calcium-rich replacements instead.

Still, for parents who want to encourage milk-drinking, chocolate milk can seem like a good solution. It provides the same amounts of protein and calcium as white milk in a flavor that kids find irresistible. So what’s the catch?

Most of us know it: chocolate milk is loaded with sugar… three whole teaspoons of added sugar per cup! (That doesn’t count lactose, but our bodies break down lactose differently than table sugar.)

If kids drink just one cup of chocolate milk a day, they’re consuming a whopping 23 cups of extra sugar in a year. That makes my head spin!

Thankfully, there’s a delicious solution. We’ve discovered a way to treat kids to a creamy glass of chocolate milk made with whole food ingredients and NO added sugars. We call it Magic Chocolate Milk.

overhead view of chocolate milk in a milk bottle with a blue and white striped straw

Why Our Chocolate Milk Recipe is the Best

I was really excited to stumble onto this amazing combination of ingredients, almost by accident. I didn’t set out to make chocolate milk. Actually, I tried to make a smoothie! What I ended up with was something so delicious that my kids and I have been sharing a blender-ful every other day for the last month. It’s that yummy!

This drink delivers all the sweet, creamy flavor and texture of chocolate milk, with none of the added sugars or artificial flavors. Better yet, it includes a serving a fresh fruit (bananas) and a boost of plant protein from creamy peanut butter.

homemade chocolate milk in a milk glass with a blue and white striped straw

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: bananas? Peanut butter? These foods have pretty distinct flavors, and they are not the flavors of chocolate milk. All I have to say is: I don’t understand the sorcery either. For some reason, this drink doesn’t taste strongly of bananas or peanut butter… it just tastes like chocolate milk!

Cold, sweet, slurpable chocolate milk… want some?

view of 3 bottles of homemade chocolate milk in a row with blue and white striped straws

Chocolate Milk Made Better

Take a look at some of the nutrition your kids get when they drink a cup of Magic Chocolate Milk:

Protein: 7 grams

Fiber: 3 grams

Calcium: 413 mg

Added sugars: 0 grams

Our homemade version of this sweet treat is also (of course) free from the additives that can appear in commercially-made chocolate milk, like artificial flavors, food coloring (really!) and high fructose corn syrup.

close up view of a milk bottle with chocolate milk and blue and white striped straw

How to Make Chocolate Milk

This is a quick and simple recipe, but if you really want to cast the spell of “chocolate milk,” it matters to stick to the ingredients and ratios closely.

Use ripe–but not overripe–bananas, so they bring the right about of sweetness to the drink. And don’t leave out the ice, because it prevents the texture from being thick like a smoothie.

The rest is easy: blend well, serve right away, and watch the smiles! Enjoy.

3 milk bottles of chocolate milk with blue and white striped straws
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3.8 from 142 votes

Homemade Chocolate Milk

Kids love this creamy, fruit-sweetened remake of chocolate milk that tastes–magically!–just like the store-bought kind.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: American
Calories: 126kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 126kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 57mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 11g
Keyword : Magic Chocolate Milk

www.superhealthykids.com

Natalie Monson

I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.

Learn More about Natalie

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22 Comments

Really excited to try this! My son hates almost all dairy, but of course loves chocolate milk. I needed a recipe like this! Do you know how long it would keep in the fridge? Either in an open glass or a sealed glass jar.

Hi Anna! I hope your son loves it. I’ve never tried storing it in the fridge, and I’m not sure it would work… I find that blended banana can get funky in storage. But if it works for you, please come back and let us know! 🙂

Thank you for a great recipe idea? Have you ever tried it with a different fruit? I’m allergic to bananas and can’t even be around bananas to make it for my children, although I would love for them to have chocolate milk not loaded with sugar.

Hi Geneva! I haven’t tried this recipe with another fruit, and I’m not sure you’d get exactly the same effect. You might be able to try adding soaked dates to sweeten is up. If you try a substitution, be sure to let us know how it turned out!

You are a lifesaver! I couldn’t get my 18 month old to drink milk and when i saw this recipe I wanted to give it a try. She loves drinking this magic milk!

Delicious for sure! But not chocolate milk for a true chocolate milk loving person. Tastes like a banana chocolate pb shake. So good still?

5 stars
My 3 year old loves all of the ingredients individually – super easy and yummy. Thanks for a great recipe 🙂

5 stars
We can taste the peanut butter and banana in this, so it doesn’t really taste exactly like chocolate milk. But it is amazing! It is a delicious lie.

This recipe saved our lives! We were needing to switch to formula for the last 2 months of our son’s first year and he WOULD NOT drink any kind we tried. My older son jokingly said we should try chocolate formula, and I was so desperate I went looking. I found your recipe and substituted formula for the milk and left out the vanilla…and he drank all of it! All the ingredients are healthy and with no added sugar it was an easy decision. Thank you!

I ended up using
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8c vanilla extract
1 tbsp PB
1 tbsp raw honey ?
Blend well, then add 1 cup ice and blend. It was very similar to
Choc milk but I called it a choc shake and my kids downed it. Thanks for the recipe!

Hi Bob, you can store it for a short while, yes! You might get a little separation where you need to stir the milk up after it’s been in the fridge for a day. I also wouldn’t store it beyond the next day. But I’ve definitely drunk it the day after blending it up and it’s sill very good.

5 stars
This is very good! If you want something that’s more of a smoothie consistency you can freeze the banana and add more ice. As chocolate milk, this is delicious.

5 stars
Very good recipe! very healthy, but we used 1/2 cup 40% heavy cream, 1/2 cup water. This is a very good recipe since it goes along with other things and tastes really good still. I fed it to my son because he really doesn’t like chocolate milk or regular milk, but he liked this recipe!

Tried this as my first ever attempt at a homemade nut milk. Used honey as my sweetener as I didn’t have any dates left and didn’t have any vanilla either but still tasted very good. Have bought a big bag of cashew nuts from the local Asian supermarket to make more. It was so quick there shouldn’t be a panic at running out of milk again!
Thanks