~~by Nikki

I don’t know about you all, but as a kid, ice cream was a BIG part of my summer.

Besides begging my parents to buy the stuff, I spent a good portion of my childhood chasing down the Good Humor man. But my favorite…my absolute favorite…was Neopolitan ice cream (which, being a kid, I called “Napoleon” ice cream). For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a layer of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream.

Now my siblings were staunch ice cream purists. One flavor, no mixing! So they’d attempt to dig out their respective sections of ice cream untouched by the other flavors. I, on the other hand, loved to get all three. I’d wait patiently after they got theirs because…when Neopolitan gets all soft and turns into “ice cream soup” it is sooooo yummy.

The other day on OH, my good friend Monica posted that she was going to make a Neopolitan protein shake. I was intrigued. She described it as a “strawberry shake with added chocolate.” So of course I used that as a starting point and fiddled with it.

Here’s what I came up with. Took me straight back to my childhood—summers on my bike, climbing trees, and watching lightning bugs while eating ice cream soup.

The “Monica Effect” Neopolitan Protein Shake

Ingredients
1 cup skim milk
1 scoop vanilla whey (I used this for added authenticity)
1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
½ c. frozen strawberries
Splenda to taste

Make according to the Triple X method. Top with whippage if you like.