By Sarah Condley

If you are like me you notice recipes on the products you buy. I’ve kept recipes from packages of sugar, flour, butter and lots of others. I always think that recipe is bound to be good since the company is putting their name on it.

Today’s recipe comes from the back of the lid on the Cool Whip container. I’d made my one of my all-time favorite dessert recipes, a Pampered Chef one called Berries and Stars, and had Cool Whip left over. Now, I don’t like Cool Whip, Reddi Whip or any other type of whipped cream type topping by itself, but I do like it mixed in with other stuff.

Since there was Cool Whip left over from the dessert, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it and I didn’t want it to go to waste. On a whim, I removed the paper label from the lid and saw two recipes underneath. One recipe was for a cool and creamy mixed berry smoothie.

When I think of smoothies, I think they are either on the line of a healthier milkshake or something really good for you but green and not something I would like. I typically don’t like too many green foods. Just the thought of a vegetable smoothie makes me think its gross.

I always have berries in the freezer so I decided I’d try this recipe the next day for breakfast. I figured it would be a nice substitute for the cereal I usually eat each morning

In the morning before going to work, I added the milk, Cool Whip and a mixture of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries to one of the individual cups that go to our blender.

I blended the ingredients until smooth and then took a drink. It tasted pretty good, but it wasn’t very sweet, and I like my sweets. I decided to add honey and see if it helped. I added two teaspoons of honey to the smoothie, then blended it again. It was just about perfect. The only problem was all those little seeds. I guess they were from the wild blackberries we’d picked on our farm. Of course I drank the whole thing. I was surprised that it filled me up and I didn’t get hungry before lunch.

The next morning, since I still had Cool Whip, I decided to have another smoothie. This time I didn’t add any blackberries, just strawberries and raspberries. I added one teaspoon of honey this time and then turned on the blender. Again, it was yummy and not so seedy this time.

I asked Brad if he wanted to try the smoothie, but he passed. He said he’d stick with his normal weekday breakfast of peanut butter toast and juice.

There was just enough Cool Whip to make one more smoothie, so on the third morning I had another one. I was out of strawberries so this time I used blueberries and raspberries. Again, it was yummy and I was not disappointed.

I guess you figured out by now that I think this recipe is pretty good. However, I’m not going to buy Cool Whip just to have these smoothies, but I will keep this recipe so when I have left over Cool Whip I can treat myself to one or two or three.

This recipe definitely falls into the Nailed It category and I’ll be adding it to my self-made cookbook. If you don’t like berries, I think this smoothie would be good with bananas, peaches and who knows what other fruits.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.