Vanilla Iced Coffee

So I love coffee drinks. I don't drink black coffee but, if it's sweetened up, and iced, then I cannot resist. So, a couple Thursdays ago, I had my little kiddies in the car and we were driving to Community Bible Studay(CBS). I had about 8 extra minutes and a 5 dollar bill in the diaper bag. The kids seemed very cheerful and Henry was sawing logs in his carseat so, why not treat myself to a delicious iced coffee. 10 minutes later, I'm still waiting in the drive thru for my drink, Norah's whining and Henry's awake and showing off his powerhouse lungs. I loved coffee shops and the friendliness of the baristas and fellow coffee drinkers before I had two kids but, now I value peace in the car and being on time(give or take 5 minutes) to CBS. Not only that but, I've become pretty frugal so handing over that $5 was pretty hard when I thought about how many diapers I could've bought with that on amazon.com(but, that's another post). So, to save money, time and sanity I sought out recipes for vanilla iced coffee. By splicing a couple recipes together, we've arrived at a creation both Joel and I love.

Vanilla Iced Coffee
1 c. brewed coffee
1 tsp. instant decaf coffee granules
4 pumps Starbucks vanilla syrup
2 tsp. sugar
whole lotta ice
1/2- 1c. whole milk

I usually put the sugar, vanilla syrup, and instant coffee granules in the bottom of a large cup(the cups we use hold about 32oz). Add coffee and stir, (we've discovered that the drink really tastes best with room temp or slightly warm coffee- its a bit stronger since the coffee hasn't melted all the ice making it taste watered down). Next add the ice-- and we've also noticed that the colder we get the drink, the more we like it. Fill the rest of the cup with milk, stir, and enjoy! Adjust the amounts to suit your liking; you don't have to use decaf instant coffee if you like yours stronger, you can just use regular.

Maybe you noticed that I use Starbucks vanilla syrup in my recipe and you're curious where I found it...... Starbucks actually sells the 1 liter pumps of syrup! For around 10 bucks! And, they had an extra pump so they gave me that too! So, now I feel like an actual coffee barista because I also bought a Starbuck apron and drive-thru headset! No, just kidding! You can order the syrup online but, after shipping it's over 17 bucks.

Anyway, I love this drink and Joel requests one as soon as he gets home from work and, Norah being that little charmer that she is always walks up with a cute little smile and says "peas." Since there's only one cup of caffinated coffee in the entire drink, I don't have to worry about her jumping off the walls for 36 hours after giving her a little sip. So...I think Starbucks would be quite pleased.... unless they saw our pitiful coffee pot.... or the fact that I only buy folgers coffee.... and that's only if I have a coupon.... and don't even get me started on the big obnoxious green plastic cups we use.