How to Make Low Calorie Iced Coffee Drinks

Iced coffees can be so refreshing on a hot summer day, and they often appear deceptively light.

The reality is that many of those iced coffees are 300-400 calories, and some of them contain more than 700 calories! Not to mention the dent that a $6.00 cup of coffee can put in your wallet over time.

Here's a way to make your own at home and save your budget and your waistline.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Start with a good quality coffee. If you buy the cheapest coffee in the store, you'll probably have to add quite a bit of sweetener and flavoring to make it palatable. Using additional flavorings will increase the cost of each cup and probably negate the few cents you saved by buying cheap coffee.
   
   I like to start with a flavored coffee. Flavored coffees generally still have zero calories. The exception to this is instant flavored coffee, they are packed with sugar and calories.

2. Brew a pot of coffee. As soon as it is done, turn off the coffee maker and remove the pot of coffee, placing it on a pot holder or dish towel to cool.
   
   If you're impatient, you can make your iced coffee right away, but you will have better results if you allow it to cool.

3. Choose your milk (if you want it, coffee drinks without any sort of milk are preferable to some). You can use regular milk of any fat content, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, evaporated milk, etc.
   
   I will sometimes mix 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder with 2 cups of water and shake it well. I then use about 1/4 c. of this mixture in place of the milk to give my coffee some added protein.

4. Now, gather your flavorings. The sky is really the limit here. Keep in mind, if you used a flavored coffee, you may not need any additional flavorings.
   Here are some examples of flavors to get you started:
   sugar free syrups (available in the coffee aisle of your local grocery store)
   cinnamon
   flavor extracts (almond, vanilla, peppermint, etc.)
   capella drops (available online, many flavors to choose from)

5. Decide on a sweetener.
   I'm partial to stevia and splenda since they contain no calories. You can use sugar, just be aware of how much you add and how many calories it's adding to your drink.
   
   1 tsp sugar = 16 calories

6. Get out your blender or magic bullet. I love the magic bullet for this because I can make one cup at a time and it's so fast and easy. A regular blender will work fine though, just use whatever you have.
   
   Use four or five ice cubes and then pour your coffee, milk, and flavorings over top. Blend it until the ice cubes are mostly crushed and then pour into a glass.

7. Add a shot of whipped cream to make it even better. You might be surprised to learn that a two tablespoon serving from a can of light whipped cream is only 20 calories. That's a small indulgence that you don't have to feel guilty about, so enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• If you really love fancy iced coffee drinks from a coffee shop, then by all means, enjoy them! I try to limit my calories from beverages because I would rather splurge on ice cream or cheeseburgers, but it's all about what's important to each individual.