Homemade blended coffee

I'm really excited about today's post! You see, y'all, I love Starbucks. I mean, I really love Starbucks. I've probably spent thousands of dollars. On coffee. I get a soy, coffee frappuccino light every time. It's my jam. Low in calories and really refreshing in this hot South Carolina weather. But here's the deal, I spend a lot of money there. Because, you see, Starbucks also has food that I like. Namely my order is a veggie breakfast sandwich. A delectable combination of some kind of roll or biscuit, eggs, cheese, and veggies. Tasty! My total comes in around $8. And I work 5 days a week. That's $40 a week for coffee and breakfast! Yikes. 

So I haven't been going a lot since I bought my computer. 

It's sad. And altogether not pretty. I need coffee.

Well last night on Pinterest, I stumbled across this recipe. I am all about taking recipes and modifying them to fit what I have at home, which is usually only about half of what the recipes ask for. So I opened the fridge and assessed the situation. Almond milk? Nope, I don't really like it. Coconut milk, however, I love. Check. Vanilla bean...haha, you must be kidding. Vanilla extract is more like it. Sugar, yup! This has got to be close enough. 

And guess what y'all! It was!!

The ingredients

Coffee (yup! That's a pickle jar! Yay recycling!)

Finished product. I should have used a different ice tray. Had to use a knife to get them out.

I started with iced coffee. It was...meh. I've never really liked iced coffee, but someone who does would probably really love it!

And then...inspiration!!!!! This would make a great blended coffee! I dumped it all into a blender.

Please excuse my dirty blender. It gets a lot of use

Voila! Blended coffee!

Happy girl!! Morning and my favorite t-shirt and blended coffee

You guys, I cannot stress how easy this was. And so cheap!!

Ingredients:

Half a pot of double strength brewed coffee, chilled overnight or until cold {I have a 5 cup coffee pot}

For ice cubes:

2 cups of your favorite milk. I used coconut but it really could be anything!

1/3 cup sugar. I think next time I'll lower this to 1/4 because I don't really like my coffee sweet

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the milk and sugar just long enough for the sugar to entirely dissolve then add vanilla. I heated for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour mixture into ice tray. I recommend one made of hard plastic and not super flexible for ease of ice cube discharge.

When the cubes are frozen and the coffee is chilled, put a little more than half of the ice cubes in the blender with the coffee. Blend until chunks are smoothed out, but not much longer after that. It gets frothy quick. This will make about 2 blended coffees. I put the remainder in the freezer for later! Pour into your favorite cup and enjoy! The best part is that as the "ice" melts your drink won't water down...it will just get sweeter!

The beauty of this recipe is that it could be made so many different ways. Different extracts and syrups, different milk, different coffees. I used a light breakfast coffee but you could change it to anything. And it's so cheap! I figure that for the 2 coffees I spent somewhere between 25 and 50 cents. And get this...about 80-100 calories. Score!

I hope you love it!! Happy saving!

Peace and love,

Coleo