Years ago, when I was raising my kids vegetarian, my parents had come for a visit. I gave my soul food loving father this vanilla smoothie to drink. He tried it. He looked at me and said, “I see my grandchildren are not suffering.” I found that comment hilarious. He drank the entire milkshake and asked for more.

Both of these shakes are long-standing recipes in my house. You know how you sometimes make the same thing over and over again? Not for a lack of imagination, but because it’s just that good. And this is super simple too.

Vanilla Milkshake

• Three frozen peeled bananas
• Two cups or more unsweetened vanilla or plain non-dairy milk – I use plain almond milk
• Two packets stevia or two tablespoons agave
• Cinnamon powder to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, less if you use vanilla non-dairy milk

For the chocolate milkshake, just add three tablespoons of chocolate powder to the vanilla recipe. I use Hershey’s Cocoa.

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender.

Tip:

Keep frozen bananas in your freezer so you’re always ready to make a milkshake. I wait for them to get ripe, full of brown spots. Then I put them in my freezer whole and unpeeled. When I make a milkshake, I run the bananas under hot water to easily remove the skin.

You can also peel and chop them. Store peeled bananas in a freezer bag.

Using frozen bananas is the difference between a banana smoothie and a vanilla milkshake.

Let me know how you like them!