Think you have done a great job of figuring out how to make it taste great. A family member found he like the taste of the Walmart brand better and less costly.

The dark chocolate Ensure is better than any milkshake to me. It is the only one that I like. I All of your variations sound good and I'm glad your hubby is gaining weight.

That was a good idea, I hadn't thought about 'enhancing' them and it was great you would take the time to do that for him. Now that my mother is in independent living with delicious food in the dining room, I haven't felt as pressed to keep a supply at her house (now apartment). I'd been buying the Costco generic brand by the case and was limited to vanilla with that. And then, discovered Boost Plus not offered at Costco had more calories - but it sounds like you have things well under control ;0)

My 20 yo daughter, battling a rare disease since birth has a time gaining or keeping weight on, currently she's finially holding at 86 pounds which I contribute to the Ensure shakes. She hates Ensure so I mix it in a blender usually chocolate with a heaping T of powdered milk, heaping T of Carnation instant breakfast drink mix, and a large scoop of chocolate ice cream and blend a minute. She tolorates it much better this way, and drinks 2 a day...well lets say she drinks most of it twice a day LOL.

Wantoretire_did....I will test some of you recipes out as they sound great Thank You.

My husband drinks four a day and some of those are the extra calorie ones. He gets choked up on pineapple crushed. I do put a mashed banana and an egg in his oatmeal before I cook it and brown sugar plus whole milk. Because of his stroke, he can not eat regular food and now is very picky, won't eat mashed potatoes and things. Your milkshakes sound good.

Sue

Thanks. My ancient mother is losing weight all the time. She has no appetite, but she does manage to get Ensure down. She adds banana and egg, but I will suggest these ideas. It's hard to imagine not having an appetite or being turned off by food, but watching her, I now understand it. She keeps telling me to enjoy my food while I can, which unfortunately I do too much! I need some Ensure Zero. ;)

Ensure is the foulest tasting stuff on earth. A 93 yr old friend liked the taste of Glucerna, which is formulated without a lot of sugar, far far better. I didn't taste her Glucerna since the very memory of the awful Ensure was enough to make me gag.

wantoretire_did.
Such a great idea. I've copied your suggestions and filed them away, in
case any one in the family ever needs Ensure. I have to agree with sushipup1;
hope I never have to have them prescribed again! I have a Carnation
Instant almost every day, because of the "good stuff": vitamins,
calcium, iron, etc. in it, and I don't need to take any meds for those
things.

My mother did not like any of the commercial brands (Ensure, Sustacal etc) but loved a product that I found at the grocery called "Rockin Refuel" which is protein fortified milk. She could tolerate milk (I know that not everyone can), in fact greatly missed having her milk and ice cream whenever she wanted it while at the nursing home. Unfortunately the local store stopped carrying it and I never found anything else that she liked as well.

Edited to add: this product did not have the balanced nutrition of the commercial supplements either, but it did give a protein/calorie boost so better than plain milk

My mother would have no pat of the supplemental drinks. She said they tasted vile. Her appetite was so poor I knew enough not to push it. So I began making her chocolate malts like she had at the malt shop when she was young. I used "Instant Breakfast" mix, ice cream, whole milk and some chocolate syrup in the blender. The secret is to not over blend it or it gets too thin. She loved them. She was also fond of cartons of egg nog.

A family member recently was ill. She could drink Ensure over crushed ice, through a straw. The straw helped get the drink to the back of her throat, apparently bypassing most of her tastebuds.

I'm not a big eater and like to have a protein shake in the morning. I tried everything out there and found that most have an after taste. I found these, Kate Farms Komplete, and I really like the taste and texture, and bonus, no weird after taste. I don't like coffee, so I buy the vanilla and chocolate. I do keep them in the fridge as I prefer them chilled, but they can be kept at room temperature and drank that way too.

http://katefarms.com/collections/all?page=1