Skinny Cookies and Cream Milkshake

Hypothetical scenario: you are told that you can choose one dessert to make completely calorie-free forevermore. The flavor stays the same, the ingredients stay the same, but suddenly it's healthy for you to eat this dessert. In fact, you can have it to your heart's content knowing that a moment on the lips is no longer forever on the hips. (Yes, these are the sorts of things I think of in my spare time.)

I'd choose milkshakes. I love milkshakes. Love. them. If I ever have a restaurant, it will have amazing hand-spun milkshakes. The kind where you get your regular milkshake and then you get the metal cup with the extra milkshake in it. No one ever really needs the extra, but it's there so you might as well take advantage of it.

Everyone has a different favorite milkshake. Some are the purists, vanilla all the way. Some like the black and white, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, or just regular chocolate. Then you have the others: strawberry, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, etc. I'm a chocolate person. I've had so many chocolate milkshakes in my life that it makes it easy to judge whether a place has good milkshakes. If you get something less standard it's harder to judge whether it's the flavor or the milkshake itself that makes it good or bad. My second favorite is cookies and cream...which brings me to this recipe. In the real world, eating milkshakes on a regular basis isn't such a good thing. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, because apparently a delicious, healthy milkshake is not an oxymoron.

I've seen quite a bit of buzz around "banana whip" online. It's just frozen sliced bananas blended up. Somehow it turns into something along the lines of ice cream that shockingly doesn't taste like bananas. Who knew?! One banana doesn't whip into much, so if you wanted a milkshake size of banana whip you'd be eating around four or five bananas. That's a bit excessive. Thank goodness for Sally, who created a way to turn banana whip into a healthy milkshake. You just add skim milk, fat free Cool Whip and reduced fat Oreos. Now I'm not saying this tastes like a hand-spun milkshake, but it's pretty great considering it has maybe 1/10 of the calories. My only suggestion would be to slice the bananas before they are overly ripe. Though very ripe bananas are better for baking because they have more flavor, you don't want the banana flavor to come through in the milkshakes. Cut them in that prime time between when they are green and when they are speckled. You'll barely be able to taste it in the milkshake. Enjoy!

Skinny Cookies and Cream Milkshake

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 ripe large bananas, peeled, cut into chunks, & frozen
1/4 cup skim milk (or almond or soy)
1/2 cup fat-free frozen whipped topping, such as Cool Whip* (frozen, not thawed, Cool Whip will produce a creamier milkshake)
3 reduced-fat Oreos

Instructions

1. Blend the frozen banana chunks and milk together until thick, creamy, and smooth - about 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.
2. Add the Cool Whip and Oreos and blend for 1 minute. Pour into glasses and enjoy!

Notes from Sally:

*Greek yogurt is a wonderful protein-packed replacement for Cool Whip.