Day 154 : Raspberry Sauce & Raspberry Lemon Shake

I wanted to make a lemon shake and got the idea to add raspberries, but I didn’t just want to throw whole berries into the mix.  A few years ago I created this raspberry sauce I knew would be perfect for this so went ahead and whipped some of that up and then used a bit of it for the shakes.  You will end up with extra sauce, but it is great over ice cream, on pancakes, or drizzled over cake, etc.  Tonight I used sugar free/fat free pudding because it’s what I had on hand, but honestly I HATE them.  I hate that fake sugar flavor and the feeling it leaves on my teeth, so unless you are dieting (and in that case you are likely aware of the issue and it doesn’t matter) I would suggest using the regular version.

 

Raspberry Sauce

Serves : makes about 1 cup              Time to make : 5 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1 1/4 T. sugar
• 1 T. raspberry preserves
• 4-5 T. prepared pink lemonade (I just make a glass from the powder and measure from that)

Directions :

1. Combine ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 
2. Push contents through a sieve to remove seeds.
3. Cover and store in the fridge.

Raspberry Lemon Shake

Serves : 1                 Time to make : 5 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 cup vanilla ice cream
• 1 T. raspberry sauce
• 1 1/2 T. lemon pudding mix (instant)
• 1/2 cup milk
• whip cream

Directions :

1. Combine all but the whip cream in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Top with whip cream.

 

Day 147 : Islander Smoothie

I often make a parfait using similar ingredients, and in fact I believe I have shared it here, but today I just felt like having a drink for breakfast.  Normally I have fresh ingredients on hand, but today I was down to some I had frozen from before and I didn’t want to deal with thawing and then cutting them so into the blender they all went.  Add a bit of milk and you are left with a nice thick, creamy, and island inspired smoothie!  Even better yet… it’s healthy!

Sorry for the boring shot… as I said I didn’t have any fresh ingredients for garnish and the frozen one broke in half when I tried to slice one side.  It may look boring but it tastes great I promise!

Islander Smoothie

Serves : 1                      Time to make : 3 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1/2 large banana sliced and frozen
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 container (I think about 6 oz) vanilla greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 2 T. shredded coconut (sweetened)

Directions :

1. Combine banana, pineapple, yogurt and milk in a blender and blend on high until smooth.
2. Add the coconut and blend until combined.

Day 142 : Creamy Lime Cooler

Since the weather never got better yesterday we rescheduled for tonight which meant a quick recipe for me.  I have lots to do yet tonight so I will just make this brief.

The drink is awesome!  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I really like the creamy, but not thick texture and the lime with the pineapple is perfect.  I added the zest of the entire lime, and I really like the little pieces in there for some added texture and of course color.  I also went ahead and put the juice of the full lime in.  I will list the recipe as I made it below rather than the original.

Creamy Lime Cooler

Serves : 1              Time to make : 5 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• juice of 1 lime
• zest of 1 lime
• 2 tsp. powder sugar
• 3 large scoops vanilla ice cream

Directions :

1. Combine ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Day 108 : Fresh Strawberry Cloud Milkshake

This one is a little something for my son.  I already had a mocha today so I needed to NOT make some high calorie recipe for myself lol.  Yesterday Perrin requested a strawberry shake and I told him I would make one today so that is what I did.  I was getting ready to make the shake when I saw the jar of marshmallow creme sitting on the counter and a lightbulb went off in my head…. why not put that in the shake?!

I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out, or if I had the right amount, but it was AWESOME!  I did try it…. just didn’t have a full glass.  I can’t very well rate a recipe afterall without trying it.  Anyway the strawberry flavor was just how I like it, present but not overpoweringly sweet (since it was fresh strawberries) and I really enjoyed the marshmallow flavor and especially the times when a little of it didn’t mix in all the way and you got a small pocket of the marshmallow creme.  Sort of like a swirl effect in spots.  It was the perfect thick consistency too.

I have lots of plans to incorporating marshmallow creme into other drinks now lol.  Oh and Perrin helped me name the drink.

Fresh Strawberry Cloud Milkshake

Serves : 2                    Time to make : 5 minutes

Ingredients :

• 3/4 cup frozen strawberries
• 2 heaping T. marshmallow creme
• 3 scoops french vanilla ice cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• whip cream
• strawberry syrup

Directions :

1. Combine strawberries, marshmallow creme, ice cream, and milk in a blender and blend on high until thick and creamy and smooth.
2. Top with whip cream and a drizzle of strawberry syrup.

Day 105 : Berry Frosty

Just wanted to have a bit of fun and make a family friendly treat tonight.  Ironically my son did NOT enjoy it…. so he says.  My youngest however, devoured half of Jeff’s.

These are great, because you can make any flavor you want, depending on what type of preserves you have.  You can also go sugar free and low fat if you want to feel a little less guilty.  I think I am definitely going to experiment with other flavors.  I really liked the little zing from the soda, though I might have liked it to overall be a bit thicker…. which could be easily solved by putting more ice cream or less milk.  I eyeballed the ice cream in mine so that might be part of it too.

Oh, tonight I made ours with seedless raspberry preserves.

Berry Frosty

Serves : 3              Time to make :  5 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 cup vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup preserves of your choice
• 1 cup 7 up
• whip cream (optional)

Directions :

1. Combine all ingredients, except the whip cream in blender and blend until smooth and well mixed.
2. Serve in a tall glass, or even a frosty one if you prefer. 
3. Top with whip cream.

Day 98 : Potato Cheddar Soup

Although the forecast claimed it would be nice today with sun and 55 degree weather they failed to mention that it wouldn’t matter because the wind chill factor and clouds meant it was too cold still to do much outside.  So instead we spent the day cleaning and getting things done that had been on a back burner of late.  Since it felt like a cold day I decided to make soup.  As you may recall I am NOT a soup person, and rarely eat it.  I have only found a couple in my life that I truly enjoy.  This is now one of those.

As my husband said, who is also not a big fan of soup, this is the best potato soup I’ve ever had.  I really like the creaminess and depth of flavor with the curry powder and cayenne, and peppers.  Best of all this is another one of those dishes that are so simple to prepare because you take a little help from the store and use frozen potatoes.  So there’s no washing, and peeling, and dicing which saves  you SO much time.  It smelled so amazing while it was cooking that I could barely wait to try it, so it’s great that it was a quick soup to prepare.  The only thing we felt could make this better was the addition of some sort of meat… perhaps bacon, ham, or shrimp.

 

Potato Cheddar Soup

Serves : 4               Time to make : 30 minutes

Ingredients :

• 1 (28 oz) bag of frozen potatoes with peppers (potatoes o’brien)
• 1 cup mini sweet peppers, chopped
• 3 cups fat free half and half
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. curry powder
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I went with the full amount)
• 1 cup water (divided)
• 6 oz cheddar cheese
• Fresh chopped parsley and sliced mini sweet peppers for garnish/toppers

Directions :

1. In a 4 qt. dutch oven combine the frozen potatoes, peppers, half and half, salt, curry powder, cayenne and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
2. Carefully move half of the soup to a blender with remaining 1/2 cup water and cream until smooth.  Add back to the main pot, and stir to combine.
3. Add the cheese and heat until cheese is melted.
4. Serve with sliced peppers and chopped parsley on top.