Milkshakes - the forgotten dessert of the truly lazy

In the world where smoothies are King of healthy fast food, I felt that a return to a classic was necessary. In the last few months I've been exploring the world of milkshakes, Kooky Cakes style. Not smoothies, but the real McCoy...well, as close as I can get to real milk. Please don't ask "where's the fruit?". I understand that strawberry milkshakes exist, but not on this blog!

These are great for a little snack or dessert that requires little effort. I don't have a fancy Vita-Mix or anything. Nope. Just your garden-variety Magic Bullet blender does the job quite well. Just watching the ingredients spin together into a creamy dream brings back childhood memories of making milkshakes in the summer with my sister, Lisa.

My favorite ingredients are things that I usually have lying around my kitchen:

• Unsweetened shredded coconut
• Coconut milk
• Almond butter
• Unsweetened Original Almond Breeze
• Matcha green tea powder
• Peppermint extract
• Cocoa powder
• Ice
• Green tea ice cream
• So Delicious chocolate ice cream (made with coconut milk)
• Ciao Bella coconut sorbet

The last two are the only store-bought non-dairy ice creams that meet my dietary requirements. However, as I develop more ice cream recipes, I will be replacing the store-bought versions with my own. This will certainly be more economical - I don't know if you've seen the prices for Ciao Bella or So Delicious lately, but I can certainly make it cheaper at home!

There really isn't a recipe in this post. It's more like "what am I in the mood for?". If the answer is "something decadent", then I'll use coconut milk for my liquid ingredient as it adds a silky quality to the milkshake. Matcha has a soothing taste, but it's important to remember that a little goes a long way when just preparing one serving. About the only ingredients I haven't mixed from the list above are the almond butter, green tea and peppermint. Hmmm....I do enjoy a good cup of peppermint green tea though, so I may have to give that one a whirl. (The almond butter is still a bit of a stretch for that one...)

I challenge you to dust off your blender and come up with something interesting and tasty. I hope you have been just a little inspired to depart from the usual vanilla.

Enjoy!