The crazy NYC milkshakes from Black Tap will bring all the boys to the yard. Inspired by these milkshakes – not trying to bring any boys to my yard, but to please my cousin that came to visit to taste test new recipes – I tried to make the guilty pleasures of a milkshake into something health-ier that still satisfies the sweet-tooth.

As base I blended frozen bananas which is also called “nice-cream” and is mostly used as base for fruity breakfast bowls. This creamy base gives you a soft thick texture that I used as substitute to ice-cream which you normally use in a milkshake. To add protein and thin it a little I added Greek yogurt and a splash of full milk.

The sweeteners I used are honey, vanilla essence and cinnamon of which the latter is likely to be beneficial in controlling blood glucose just like old fashioned oats that belongs to low GI foods. To me this is absolutely important and do I consider this as a healthy-choice to control my blood sugar level.

A regular milkshake has a beautiful big dollop of whipped cream, but I used Fage Greek yogurt instead as it has a thick consistency and you can sweeten it up with a bit of powdered sugar if you’d like. For the rest of the toppings I used sliced (normally used as decoration for baking), chopped almonds and dark chocolate. In moderation both are really healthy foods to eat.

Since I was also making pizza wraps for lunch that day I didn’t want to spend too much time on baking healthy chocolate chip cookies and thus I browsed through some recipes from one of my favourite food blogs: Skinnytaste. The Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Lace Cookies (source: Skinnytaste) are delicious and so easy to make! I may cut back on the amount of sugar a next time because they were a little too sweet for my taste, but definitely a keeper and great as a quick baking option.

After eating the dark chocolate, almonds, and dipping the cookies in the milkshake I imagined making the milkshake for breakfast too! It has all breakfast ingredients you need to start the day healthy and filling.

BANANA OAT MILKSHAKES. – serves 2
1 1/2 frozen ripe bananas
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Splash of full milk (or: almond milk)
1/4 cups old fashioned oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tbsp honey
optional: almonds
optional: 1 tbsp peanut butter

RIM DECORATION
2 frozen glasses
a few spoons of Greek yogurt
decorations: almonds, dark chocolate, cookie crumbles, or anything to your liking

MILKSHAKE TOPPINGS
2 Dark Chocolate Oatmeal lace cookies (or: store-bought cookies)
extra Greek yogurt
decorations: almonds, dark chocolate (sauce), cinnamon, cacao or anything to your liking

Keep 2 glasses in the freezer for at least 15 min and make sure your ripe bananas are frozen the night before or at least a few hours before making the milkshake.

Get your rim decorations ready in separate bowls or on a cutting board and set aside. I scooped some Greek yogurt on a plate and rimmed my glass by dipping the glass in the yogurt and then add the decorations by hand. You can use as much as you like and fully fill the rim, but I chose to not to go too wild on the decorations.

Put the ingredients for the Banana Oat Milkshake in a blender and blend until smooth. If it’s too thick add some more milk, or if it’s too thin add some ice cubes.

Fill the glasses (the glasses on the picture I was able to fill for 3/4) and top with some extra Greek yogurt. Then add cookies and any extra decoration you like and serve immediately.

Enjoy! xoSam