Thick, creamy vanilla chai breakfast shakes…
Have you ever tried chai tea?
My college roommate got me hooked on chai sophomore year, and the spicy beverage helped me through many a winter’s bike ride to class. I invested in a stainless-steel travel mug, which I’d fill with hot tea and stuff into the side pocket of my backpack. Today’s recipe is a milkshake version of that comforting chai.
(P.S. To anyone who currently attends SMU: buy a cheap bike. In the years I was there, two of my bicycles were stolen—locks and all!)
A thick, creamy, and secretly healthy milkshake with sweet chai spices.
Perfect for a post-workout drink or a late-night snack…
Or even for breakfast!
Vanilla Chai Breakfast Shakes
Vanilla Chai Breakfast Shakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk of choice, or less for a thicker shake
- 1 very ripe frozen banana (Banana-Free Version Here)
- 1/2 tsp each cinnamon and powdered ginger
- Tiny dash each: pepper, cardamom, ground cloves, and nutmeg (You can omit any or all if desired. Or omit all the spices and simply brew your milk with a chai tea bag, then chill before blending)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- optional sweetener if desired
Instructions
Crazy-simple directions: Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve cold, or gently heat if a hot drink is desired instead. (Side note: I bet if you make a bigger serving and tweak the recipe a bit, it could make a good ice cream. I might have to work on that!)
Link Of The Day:
Im going too! My brother and I are bringing pumpkin bars and cinnamon rolls. I would suggest the chocolate chip cookies with frosting between two of them and the snickerdoodles!
I think I got one of your cinnamon rolls!!
I.HAVE.GOT.TO.TRY.THIS. Chai is my favorite tea, gonna make this right away.
I think you should bring one of your blondies, either snickerdoodle or pb&j.
I love soy chai tea (from Starbucks!) I surprised they don’t have a “cold” version on their menu. Looks like you beat them to it!! I’ll try YOUR version 😉
You are my HERO!! Just so you know!
LOL!
Can I have a chocolate cape??? 🙂
I have a new favorite shake! Well, maybe not… The choc PB one is pretty amazing. 😉 But this is delicious, and the spices were just right! I love me some chai. The only thing I left out was cardamom (didn’t have any) and sweetener (didn’t need it). My shake was really thick since I only had a little over 1/2 cup almond milk left, but it was awesome. If I had any milk left I would totally try your ice cream suggestion!
For the bake sale, I was going to say cookies (secret PB are insanely good, but that’ll get expensive to make a big batch) since they’re so portable. But I really like someone else’s suggestion to do one of your breads in mini-loaf size, or fudge babies (maybe a few to a baggie?). Whatever you make will be delicious!
thanks for this recipe. I love it!
Can’t wait to make this!! Might be my pre run breaky tomorrow!! You should do the pumpkin cream cheese bars—every person I’ve made these for raves about them and won’t believe me when I say they are healthy and vegan!!! It’s always hard for “regular” eaters to believe that vegan deserts can be delicious. I love to surprise people and your recipes help me out!! Thanks!
I was *so* going to make them… until I saw another commenter was actually planning to bring pumpkin cream cheese bars to the same bake sale lol!
I first got turned on to Chai tea when I was in gymnastics camp! Except they were lattes and full of sugar. Delicious 😉
I asked this question further up as a direct question to another reader, so please excuse me if you are reading this again as you scroll down, but hoping for advice from other readers. I LOVE chai tea, but I have yet to find a good sweetener. I used to use plain old white sugar because this is how I was shown to make authentic chai tea from an Indian friend of mine (no tea bags and i would crush the cardamom pod myself!) but then I needed to find a way to make chai portable, so resorted to tea bags. I like celestian seasonings. Here’s the delema, I used splenda for a long time trying to avoid calories, but clueless about the potential negative effects of splenda. So, what do I use? What do you all use? I tried Truvia, but had to use about 6 packets in 1 normal size 8oz mug to get it sweet enough and still didn’t care for the flavor. Perhaps a liquid stevia? Or another brand. Anyone successful using honey or agave? PLEASE HELP!!! Oh, I always use a splash of milk in my tea too (regular cow’s milk or almond or coconut milk) Any advice appreciated! I want to be able to enjoy my favorite hot drink again!
I love to use Agave as a sweetener. I buy mine at Costco. I have tried Splenda and Stevia but do not like it especially the after taste. I avoid sugar as much as I can. Agave is a low glycemic sweetener and I think the taste is perfect.
I would caution against a liquid stevia ( i hate the aftertaste!) But I’ve only tried the NOW brand of stevia. Agave is a good choice but there are also some downsides to it. Personally, I used agave a lot until I read some of the downsides. If using honey, I would use a raw one, like Really Raw Honey. It tastes really good! But its harder to put into tea and other beverages (unless blended) And I’m Indian so I can tell you that you won’t compromise the flavor too much! Have you looked into xylitol?
Here is a brand of liquid stevia that a lot of people I know like and my grandmother in India uses in her chai!
http://www.amazon.com/Sweetleaf-Flavored-Sweetener-Vanilla-Bottles/dp/B000FBL8NM
It comes in other flavors as well- Hope this helps! And remember, most thing are fine in moderation so don’t worry about downsided TOO much as long as its not regularly consumed 🙂
Sugar cookies in the colours of the charity!