Ultimate Fake Shake - zeroing in!

[Omegaman 3.0]

There are variations you can make from this, depending on you goal. My goal here, is to get near or exceed one of my favorite things, a good old fashioned chocolate malt, but one with some nutrition that you do not need to run a 5K to burn of the calories:

You need:

1/2 cup ice cubes
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
your preferred sweetener which is equivalent to 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar in sweetness
1-1/2 cups of milk or milk substitute (I use low fat milk) or even water will still taste good, or water with some coffee creamer added
2 tablespoons of protein powder or nutritious shake mix (slim fast, milo, ovaltine, etc.) for extra nutrition

If the above is not malty enough for you, add some malted milk powder to taste.

Now of course, this recipe can be modified in all sorts of ways, with substitutes as you please, whether to avoid dairy, or allergies or what have you, the idea is to have a basis for thick, cold, tasty drinks.

Coffee, fruits, and what ever other flavors you might like, can be added, but the one thing I really like to use, is the xantum gum, as a little goes a long way to making the drink thick. Now . . . 

In a blender put the ice cubes in, add the cocoa, the protein powder or equivalent, the sweetener, the vanilla extract, the maple syrup and the xanthan gum. Add anything else you decided to add.
Pour in milk or milk substitute.
Blend on high until very smooth.

Drink and enjoy. Just so you know, I love chocolate malts, but I hate what they do to my weight. I have gone from 330 pounds, to 22o pounds, and have my goal set for the 205 pound range, almost there. This recipe was concocted, to let me enjoy a favorite treat, without the burden of so many calories and some added nutrition at the same time. The other thing is, that this is filling enough, to help you skip a meal. If you want to cut a few more calories  you can omit the maple syrup, and or one of the nutrition mixes, since some of those contain sugar. Here I am using them, because I use it as a meal substitute, so some calories are acceptable, and I am going for the treat aspect. You be your own judge. If you use both cocoa and  chocolate flavored drink mix, know that it will come out very chocolaty.

I do not know what size serving this makes, next time I make this, I will see and add that information here.

Also, it you try this, and like the results you get with your own tweaks, feel free to log you modifications in this thread!
 

[Rubicon]

That's pretty similar to how we make our chocolate smoothies.  The staple ingredients are usually honey, banana, oats, ice, cocoa.  The extra added to the last one was red prickly pear, which was surprisingly good.  It tasted just as nice as cherry with chocolate.

[Omegaman 3.0]

On 5/7/2019 at 6:45 AM, Rubicon said:

That's pretty similar to how we make our chocolate smoothies.  The staple ingredients are usually honey, banana, oats, ice, cocoa.  The extra added to the last one was red prickly pear, which was surprisingly good.  It tasted just as nice as cherry with chocolate.

Thanks Rubicon for your input. I made a fake shake (malt really) last night, it was good, but not good enough. I know I can do better, still keeping a good flavor, but much simpler that what I described in the first post. Going to try again in a few moments. I do have to say, that I am very, very impressed with the xanthum gum, I should have bought that and tried it years ago. Malt I made last night was so thick, so I am going to see if I cannot keep the thickness, and up the Chocolateness (if the is a realy word) and sweetness, but with fewer ingredients, and even less calories, while still being nutritious. Will report back if I have success.

Your recipe sounds good, I might try a variation of that, but I am leery of the honey, and the banana, just because of the calorie count of those things. The oats are intriguing me, I imagagine that adds some thickness too, as well as fiber. Maybe if I try that, I will experiment with quinoa, healthier stuff I think. Bye for now!

[Rubicon]

You can omit the honey as it's high in sugar and use the artificial stuff instead, but I thought you'd want to keep it natural.  Isn't maple syrup just as high in sugar? Also, do use the real stuff?

I've always seen xanthum gum listed in store bought products, but never knew what it was for.  Again, if you wanna keep natural, I'd stick with the banana and oats.  They both help with the thick and smooth part.

I'll fly in to CA and we can experiment with different ingredients to perfect the shake/smoothie.  We'll have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (I'll provide the laxatives, if needed.)

[Omegaman 3.0]

On 6/9/2019 at 2:49 AM, Rubicon said:

You can omit the honey as it's high in sugar and use the artificial stuff instead, but I thought you'd want to keep it natural.  Isn't maple syrup just as high in sugar? Also, do use the real stuff?

I've always seen xanthum gum listed in store bought products, but never knew what it was for.  Again, if you wanna keep natural, I'd stick with the banana and oats.  They both help with the thick and smooth part.

I'll fly in to CA and we can experiment with different ingredients to perfect the shake/smoothie.  We'll have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (I'll provide the laxatives, if needed.)

Actually, I have nearly zero interest in whether it is natural or not. I figure that God created the universe, and made our world for us. He made us to be pretty smart, and to be able to learn about His creation. A large part of that learning, is gained from what we call science. Science tells us, that our world is made of elements, and that these elements combine to form chemical compounds. In reality, I think it is fair to consider that everything is natural, in that everything is made of things from our universe, and especially from the earth that God made for us.

Let's, for a moment, consider pharmacology, our science of learning about the effects and uses of drugs. We could, for example, consider opium. It is a useful drug, and it has side effects and risks. Pharmacology gives us the means to understand these more fully, and to use opiates with greater predictability. Some people choose to use opium, by smoking poppies. That can have the same sort of problems and addictions, that using other forms of opiates can have. However, some might consider this better, because it is more natural, and some of us think of "natural" and having some sort of magical benefits. We do this with other words, like "organic", or "non-GMO".

What we get with these sorts of products, is unpredictability. These less refined, less studied products, have uncertain dosages, variations in natural strength etc. so for me, I find them somewhat more scary than synthesized products. When we make synthetics (non-natural), where we are doing is isolating the specific chemicals we are wanting to use, and not mixing them with various impurities that "natural" products have. Some of those impurities are harmless, or at least that is what we believe so far, and some of them are quite dangerous. I think then, that things like morphine, codeine, etc. are ultimately safer, as long as they are not abused.

For another example, buying a bottle of mountain spring water, might sound very appealing, but there are almost no enforced standards on bottled water, at least in the United States. Because of that, that water could contain arsenic, which is a naturally occurring substance in many natural sources of water. I know of no one, who thinks that drinking arsenic, is a good idea. Now, some of us bottled water snobs, pay good money for bottled water, even as much as we pay for gasoline. Municipal tap water, on the other hand costs way way less, and it has enforced testing on a regular basis here, to insure safety. So, for the most part, when given a choice between cheap, safe water, or expensive risky water, which do you think I choose most often? Ironically, if you look at bottled waters, sometimes the ingredients list let's you know, that their "spring water" is just tap water from a big city, how funny is that?

That sums up the thinking behind my philosophy of "natural" things, I just prefer purity and predictability, over what I consider too often be the superstition of "natural" things. I know that alienates some who are into the anti-science, back to nature crowd, who often fall victim to junk science as well.

So, with regard to a recipe for a fake shake - no, not particularly interested in natural ingredients (though I do not automatically reject them). Here my thinking is simple, all "natural " ingredients are made of the same things. We have a generic name for these things, we call them "chemicals". So I have the choice to choose between impure, unpredictable "natural" chemicals, or, I can choose the pure chemicals, that God gave us the raw materials for, and the intelligence to learn how to refine.

I appreciate your contributions and ideas Rubicon, I just prefer my own prejudices over yours. The bananas and oats though sound like good ideas. In fact, I made one with a banana in it this morning. It did add to the body, and that part was pleasant. Had I been smarter, and thought ahead, I would have frozen the banana first, or better still, sliced it and then froze it, it make it easier on the blender. However, the banana also added a flavor to the shake. If I wanted a banana split shake, it would have been excellent. So far though my pursuit is for my favorite flavors, pumpkin, chocolate malt, eggnog, and coffee. I am still working on these, but they are not perfected enough for prime time release here.

[Amanda Frances]

Very good tried it