Faux Fast Food

I had my first sleepover since my college sorority days last night! My husband is in Vancouver for a TV shoot and I'm on my own with the little one (first time since he was born). My best friend is just the most amazing person and agreed to come hang with me and the little man for the evening and spend the night.

We didn't braid each others hair or have a pillow fight, but we did decide to make some sleepover type treats to eat. I remember back in the day when I was hitting the sleepover circuit (circa the 90's) we would eat some amazingly delicious and incredibly bad foods. Pizza. Candy. Popcorn. Fast Food. I remember those late night jaunts to McDonald's to grab a burger, fries and milkshake.

The difference between then and now is that that milkshake would go straight to my butt, the fries would give me heartburn, I'm married, I have a baby and I'm almost 30. And, I don't prank call people anymore. Thanks caller ID. Ok so a lot has changed, but my taste for something indulgent hasn't.

We decided to make what I call "Faux Fast Food." The all-American girl meal of burger, fries and milkshake was transformed into a healthier version that still allowed us to feel like we were carefree and 17 again. Here's the menu:

1. Black Bean burgers with avocado slices, red onion and reduced fat cheese on top of double fiber wheat bread
2. Baked sweet potato fries
3. Frozen yogurt milkshake

The first two menu items are pretty self explanatory, but the truly remarkable part of this meal was the shake. You gotta try this one. We grabbed a tub of Dreyer's frozen yogurt, organic skim milk, low-sugar hershey's syrup and a package of 100-calorie oreo cookies. The secret ingredient to make it very mocha flavored was to add a packet of diet hot chocolate (only 25 calories). It made the whole concoction taste very indulgent.

You can easily go to hell with joke with these ingredients, so be careful. I added 3 scoops of frozen yogurt, 1 tablespoon of the chocolate syrup and 4 cups of milk to the blender. Got it nice and smooth, then added the cocoa and 100-calorie pack at the last minute and pulsed the blender. This serves two.

With milkshakes in hand, we had a fun night just like back in the day. We watched chick shows (the Rachel Zoe Project), gossiped about friends (and co-workers), played with the baby (ok there weren't babies at the old school sleepovers, but whatever), talked about boys (our husbands) and stayed up late (11:00pm is later than normal).

You can make your favorite meals healthy and still satisfying. You just have to be creative.

How do you make your fast food favorites "faux?"