Summertime treats.....

The weather has really warmed up around here. Plus, all those commercials from McD's about their new iced coffees. Oh, it makes me crave them something FIERCE.

My solution? Make my own iced coffee at home! I have a pitcher that I refrigerate all my "leftover" coffee, or I will make extra and put it in the fridge. So, get a large drinking glass, coat the bottom with a few tablespoons of chocolate syrup (like for ice cream or chocolate milk--1.50 a container on sale!). I then add about half of the glass full of cold coffee, and stir the chocolate into the coffee. Top that with skim milk, and add a final tablespoon or so of sugar-free flavored syrup (like Torani's). Give it a quick stir, and it's good to go. Add some ice to it if you are heading outside.

It's yummy, economical, and fairly guilt-free with the skim milk and sugar-free syrup. So much better for you than the mystery mix from McD's.

For a frappichinno, freeze some coffee into ice cubes. When ready to make your treat, toss some coffee cubes into the blender along with a scoop of ice cream, and some skim milk. Add your sweetener (like chocolate syrup, coffee creamer, or sugar-free syrup). Blend together and taste. Add more or less of any of the ingredients to get the consistency and flavor that you like. Some days, I like a strong coffee flavor, and will have 2/3 of the drink be coffee, other days, I want a fru-fru drink and will have more ice cream or sweetener to it.

For the kids, you can make guilt-free "icee's" by making fruit juice concentrate (only dilute half of what the directions say) and then make into ice cubes. When ready to make into icee's, toss 'em into the blender, add some fresh fruit to compliment it if you like, or try some 7-up. Blend and taste. For a smoothie, do the same fruit juice cubes with some milk or yogurt and add fresh fruit.

Enjoy on a hot day!