Healthy Ice Cream

Okay, seriously - Is it already time to start eating healthy again?? I ate soooo bad over the holidays, and the one thing I ate a lot of was ice cream! So when I started thinking about getting back to eating a healthier diet - I remembered this recipe. I originally got this from Bill Phillips' Eating For Life. (An amazing book for healthy recipes!)

Anyway, I used to make this "fake" ice cream all the time, but I had forgotten about it until recently. It really does taste just like ice cream!

The secret ingredient is: frozen bananas! That's it! It's great because whenever you're bananas start to get a little over-ripe and you don't think you'll eat them - peel them and stick them in the freezer to use as ice cream later.

Ingredients:
1/2 c skim milk
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional, but hello? added protein!)
2 c frozen banana slices (about 2 medium bananas)

Toppings:
4 tsp sugar-free chocolate syrup
4 TBS fat-free whipped topping
2 tsp chopped nuts

Directions:
Pour skim milk into blender. Add protein powder and blend on high speed for about 15 seconds.
Add frozen bananas and blend until smooth.

Serves 2

Note: Immediately after blending, this resembles more of a soft-serve ice cream. However, if you want to make it ahead of time and put it back in the freezer, it will firm up a bit more like regular ice cream.


Chunky Monkey Variation:

You can add all kinds of fruit and different things to this 'Healthy Ice Cream' recipe (see below) - but one of my favorites is the Chunky Monkey version.

Ingredients:
1/4 c skim milk
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (gotta add that protein in) haha :)
1 peeled and frozen bananas
1 TBS peanut butter
2 TBS chopped walnuts
1 TBS mini chocolate chips

I mix this all together and then separate it into 2 servings - those calories add up!!  Then, I put them in the freezer and pull it out when I'm really craving something sweet.

Other Variations:
Strawberry Banana - Add frozen strawberries (I tried replacing the bananas with strawberries and it didn't turn out very well for me, so I just add them in with the bananas)

Tropical Blizzard - Add coconut and pecans

Chocolate Banana - Add sugar-free chocolate syrup - or - chocolate protein powder! (am I selling you the protein powder idea, yet?)

Well, I'm sure you get the idea.... :D
Get out there and experiment! (and let me know what you come up with)

PS - I posted a copy of this recipe over on my food blog girls and their meals - there are some great recipes over there - go check it out!

Enjoy!