Layered Chocolate, Banana, & Date Shake

September is a month of new goals and fresh starts, and for many of us, that holds just as true in the food and drink departments. Did anyone else feel like the last half of summer held a few too many opportunities for overindulgences? I definitely hit my limit over the Labor Day weekend with 3 days full of barbecue, ice cream, cheese plates, and rosé. It’s felt really good to return to a routine and get back on the clean eating wagon over the last couple weeks, with big leafy salads for lunch, and soups for dinner packed full of veggies and healthy grains. I’ve been sleeping really good at night and feeling like working out in the morning.

Of course, only clean eating gets boring pretty quickly, and I’m a big proponent of always leaving a little room in my diet for cocktails and dessert. Luckily, today’s installment of Bottoms Up kills two birds with one stone by combining them both into one delicious and gorgeous spiked shake. We got our first taste of Baileys Almande a few months ago, and I’ve been using it in tropical fruity smoothie cocktails all summer. Now that the season’s turning, I thought it would be fun to incorporate its luscious vanilla flavors in a cozier, spicier dessert drink — and since it’s made with real almondmilk, I was able to keep the entire thing dairy-free and made with real, natural ingredients.

I had so much fun making this a “layered” shake — which sounds kind of complicated, but since each of the layers only has a handful of simple ingredients, it was really just a matter of whizzing up 3 easy mixtures in the blender and sticking each of them in the freezer while I made the others. I will say that, in order to keep the separation between each layer, you should freeze them in between… and the added bonus to this route is that you can make these completely before guests arrive (up to an hour — much longer than that and they might get too hard) and have them all ready to go in advance. Want to keep things really easy? Each of these shakes is delicious enough to be a complete dessert on its own, so pick your favorite, blend, and drink up.

*photos: Laura Alexandra