Any coffee lovers out there? Sad to say, coffee has never been “my thing” – mostly because the caffeine high is so intense it makes my heart jump outside of my body and onto the floor. Ice coffee though – less concentrated, sweet, creamy, slushy, with a wonderful under-base of dark chocolate? Hell yeah! You know, like the Frappucinos from Starbucks, but with way cleaner ingredients.
HOLD UP…WAIT A MINUTE
One of the most challenging and annoying aspects of this healthy journey thing, is living in a world where decadence is at our fingertips ALL THE TIME. But it’s not just decadence. It’s decadence with FILLERS and an overwhelming amount of sugar, which has scientifically been proven to change our biomechanics (aka – how we function). The real disappointer, is that these sugar and filler ingredients are strategically added to keep us addicted and emptying our pockets to make larger companies richer. Who suffers? Will the 10-minutes of sweet satisfaction do you (or them) more justice in the long run? Makes ya think twice about that $4.50 treat.
It’s not all bad news
While many of these processed, store-bought, pre-made foods are bad for us, we’re not going to hate. Some of the flavors are really good. Like the classic Starbucks Frappucino for example.
As your healthy journey evolves, your tastebuds will evolve, but the nostalgic memories of eating certain foods may linger. Harness that inner “feel good memory,” and try breaking down the ingredients. What flavors can you remember? What were the textures like? And if you could take a wild guess, would you be able to put together a list of what you think makes up your favorite treat?
We can get inspired by our favorite junk food, and “healthify” them using real, whole ingredients. Watch out, you just may prefer your version over the store-bought kinds and NEVER turn back.
COFFEE TIME
Inspired to share an afternoon, pick-me-up drink, check out this Damn Good Ice Coffee drink. It’s similar to the Starbucks version, but with WAY BETTER ingredients.
- we used coffee
- swapped regular milk for a dairy-free alternative (homemade)
- kicked refined sugar to the curb and replaced it with dates (still sugar, but less processed plus it has fiber)
Here’s the basic formula for the famous frap:
- coffee (of course)
- milk
- chocolate (usually in the form of sweet syrup)
- ice
- whipped cream (and lots of it)
- and the optional flavor enhancers (toasted coconut, caramel, matcha green tea)
Healthy Makeover
Before you make this yummy drink, here are some tips:
- Cold coffee works best. So if you can pre-meditate your desire to make this, do try brewing extra coffee and cooling it down in the fridge. It’s not totally necessary, but it does keep the end result much colder.
- Homemade almond milk is a wonderful swap for regular milk.
- Plain cocoa powder (not the hot cocoa kind, but the baking kind) is perfect for the extra chocolate kick. No need to make a syrup or add the sweet because the next ingredient will cover that.
- Use medjool dates instead of syrup. Dates are a fruit with a narrow seed in the middle. They grow from date palm trees and are traditionally found in Africa and the Middle East. They are extremely sweet and are still a form of sugar, so use sparingly (like we’ll show you). (NOTE: We didn’t always cook with dates. It wasn’t in our repertoire until a few years ago. So our continued advice is: don’t fear new foods, embrace them.)
Enjoy this damn good ice coffee!
Ingredients
2 cups coffee, cooled
5-6 medjool dates, pitted
¾ cup milk of your choice (we like homemade almond milk)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional and it’s not hot cocoa mix)
4 cups ice
Steps
Blend everything together.
Serve right away.
Serves 4
NOTE: Experiment with flavors and ingredients. We’re sure you could make a matcha green tea version or even a toasted coconut version like they have at Starbucks, but just 10x cleaner!
Enjoy tea?
For all you tea lovers, here’s an Easy Lemon Ice Tea.
Kale. All Day. Err Day.
