Name: Vanilla Bean Frappuccino
Prep time: 2 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 2 cups milk; 2 cups ice; 1 1/2 cup frozen fat free cool whip; 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise and inside scooped out; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons honey

A couple weekends ago I was at Starbucks with a friend. I ordered my usual caffeine filled macchiato and she ordered a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. I can honestly say it had never crossed my mind to order something at Starbucks that didn’t have any coffee! But I was intrigued, it looked delicious! I tasted it and was totally in love. It is a super fantastic vanilla loaded ice cold drink. I immediately knew I had to recreate it.

I did some quick googling and figured out most homemade versions of the Vanilla Bean Frappuccino include loads of ice cream. I really wanted to keep this drink on the lighter side of things so I tried a couple different mixtures of milk/yogurt/honey/vanilla and none of it was quite right. Ultimately, I decided the key to this drink is frozen fat free cool whip! Weird, I know. But it totally works. It mimics ice cream in that it adds a great creamy texture but without the calories.

This version is super simple and can be whipped up in a matter of minutes! The only thing even slightly tricky is the vanilla bean. If you haven’t ever used them before, just slice it lengthwise and you will see all of these little black “seeds” (I know they aren’t really seeds, but I don’t know what else to call them) just grab a small spoon and scoop them right into your blender.

And just in case you end up as addicted to this drink as I am and don’t want to spend all your money on vanilla beans look in the ethnic food section at your grocery instead of the baking aisle. They are likely much cheaper! And If you happen to have a World Market near you, they are even cheaper!