Chocolate and Walnut Covered Banana Pops ........

This is a tease for chocolate and walnut covered banana pops that I made tonight. ;-) They are incredibly easy and you may have all the ingredients on hand.

Where did Friday go? Sorry I didn’t have a chance to get a post up yesterday. I was busy running from place to place and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was kick back and relax. October should be a little more laid back for me which I hope means I will be back to blogging daily.

Dinner Thursday:

As expected Dan worked late so by the time he came home I wasn’t in the mood for a heavy meal. I ended up defrosting some veggie soup from my freezer inventory and topping that with walnut parmesan. We both had a big bowl of soup and called it a night. It is nice to have things like this in the freezer for nights when I am not in the mood to cook. I am also enjoying reducing my freezer inventory to make room for new things.

Friday:

Thankfully the rain finally stopped during the morning. I was ready to see a little blue sky, which was all we got. However a little blue sky was better than the torrential downpour we had been experiencing so it was fine with me.

Breakfast:

Dan had a big bowl of oatmeal with frozen wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, and walnuts for his breakfast today.

Since I was going to be running errands I made a smoothie to go. This smoothie contained 1 frozen banana, 3 kale leaves/stems chopped, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, cold processed green tea sufficient to process. I poured this into a mason jar and stored it in the freezer while I got ready to leave.

I drank my smoothie at traffic lights while I was driving from place to place. I wish I had photographed some of the priceless looks I got from people who saw me drinking something bright green out of a jar. The first person caught me off guard so I didn’t have time to react. However I was ready for the second person and winked at them when they stared. I did this every time someone was looking at me strangely. It turned out to be quite a giggle for me. I am sure they thought I was nuts but it amused the heck out of me. LOL

Since Jackie, Nadia and I didn’t make it to Marshall’s in Towson on Thursday due to the rain I decided to start my errands there this morning which was a bad plan. When I got there they were pumping water out of the store and had a sign up that said temporarily closed. Talk about a bummer. That is the closest Marshall’s to me so I was not happy. I hope they reopen soon.

Next I had to stop at the pharmacy and pick up a couple of scripts. Then I needed to drop papers off at two doctors. When you have more than one doctor it is easier to deliver reports and lab results yourself than relay on front office staff to do it for you. Since the offices are on the way to Costco it wasn’t a problem just a diversion.

Since there was also another Marshall’s on the way I stopped there to see what I could find. I ended up with a few nice long sleeved T’s in various solid colors (Talbot’s, Jones of NY, and Liz Claiborne). I also found a pair of black slacks (Dockers) and a funky jacket by Carole Little that is an off-white black ground with black designs. It is wilder than I usually buy but I thought why not. Worn with black pants and a black turtleneck it should be a cute outfit.

Then it was on to Costco. I went in for 6 things on my list and somehow spent $200. Clearly I bought a cart full, far more than I had actually planned to buy. How does that always happen? I also completely forgot that I had the annual rebate check in my purse. *shakes head* Sometimes I think I would forget my head if it weren’t attached. Costco is again carrying organic canned tomatoes if anyone is interested. I also noticed they had pocket hand warmers which I may need to buy on my next trip. There is nothing worse than cold hands in the winter in my opinion.

Lunch:

Since I got home so late from shopping I wasn’t exactly in the mood for anything time consuming for lunch. I ended up having a giant bowl of grapes instead because it was very easy and that was my top criteria once I got home and had everything put away. I am not sure why but 5+ hours of running errands is exhausting. All I really wanted to do when I got home was put my feet up and relax.

After the grapes I had few walnuts, a banana and some leftover soup from last night. I was so tired I didn’t even think about taking any pictures. That was went I knew I was exhausted from all the running around. I think driving is the problem. Why people feel the need to drive so recklessly is a complete mystery to me.

More thoughts on weight:

First I want to say you guys send very insightful comments by email. One of you mentioned gaining weight even though you were eating better and exercising more. This comment made the light bulb go off in my head. Muscle weighs more than fat and if you have stepped up your exercise any weight increase you see is most likely due to adding more muscle than fat lost. Muscle is denser than fat so even though the scale goes up you will lose inches which you will see if you keep track of your measurements. Alternately you could buy a scale that calculates body fat. The body fat scales are much cheaper now than they were 10 years ago when they first hit the market.

Speaking of measurements have you heard that your waist measurement should be no more than ½ your height? In other words, if you are 5’4” (or 64) inches your waist should be 32 inches or less. When I heard this I thought it made a lot of sense since it equates your circumference with your height. This article gets a little more complicated but the math is the same in the end.

I find it interesting that weight is a subject that all women seem to have thoughts on. I suppose this is because we have been ingrained to think we have to be model thin to be beautiful. It is so easy to forget that most pictures we see have been airbrushed and stretched and that the women in those pictures don’t look like that way either.

Dinner:

Since you know who didn’t get home from work until 10pm a heavy dinner was not going to happen. It was so late I wasn’t actually hungry. I made Dan a batch of strawberry banana soft serve since he needs the calories. I had a couple of spoons but that was enough. Going to bed with a full stomach seems to disrupt my sleep so I try not to do it anymore. Do any of you find that eating before bed disrupts your sleep? I seem to need 3 hours to digest before bed in order to sleep well.

Saturday:

Since it is Saturday you all know by now that means no alarm clock today. Woo hoo! This is our one day to sleep in and we take full advantage of it. I woke up around 7:30 to a brisk fall morning. The sky was a beautiful cloudless blue and the temperature was 55 degrees. It was the perfect morning for a nice long walk if you were dressed warmly. Not knowing when Dan was getting up I stayed home so I didn’t miss anytime with him since I knew he needed to work this weekend.

When he got up he told me he really needed to go to the office today since he is more productive there. I wish he could get more done at home but I understand that it is easier to work at the office with all his documents readily at hand. As soon as I know he was going downtown I preheated the oven and cut up a large acorn squash into bite sized cubes and started that roasting in a 350 degree. In the past I would have coated the squash in olive oil but it isn’t necessary. My squash roasted without anything on it and the flavor still concentrated and the squash got tender.

Breakfast:

While the squash was roasting I made us both a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Dan gets 3/4 cup oats, 1 ½ cups water, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, 1 ½ cup wild blueberries, a pinch of stevia and ¼ cup of walnuts. This is Dan’s favorite oatmeal combination. I like that it contains a blue food (blueberries) and omega 3 fatty acids (walnuts). It also seems to have enough calories to keep him satisfied until lunch.

My oatmeal serving is smaller. For myself I prepare: ½ cup oats, 1 cup water, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, 1 cup wild blueberries, and 6 walnut halves. This is more than enough to get me going in the morning. I prefer to have smoothies in the morning (for nutritional reasons) but on some cold mornings oatmeal is just more appealing.

Lunch:

Since I had not planned on Dan going downtown today I also defrosted another batch of soup from my freezer inventory. This one was corn, mushroom and potato soup. If you haven’t tried making large batches of soup and freezing them for later I would suggest you give it a try. They are very handy when you don’t feel like cooking and have much less sodium than most canned soup. The soup in the picture above is my lunch serving.

To go with the soup I made a quick salad of edamame (from the freezer), thinly sliced radish, thinly sliced carrot, shredded romaine and chopped walnuts. I tossed the veggies (not the lettuce) this with a quick dressing of Dijon, mirin and red miso and packed the lettuce and nuts separately. I made myself the same thing for lunch which is what is pictured above.

Before Dan left for work we talked about what we were going to do tomorrow. Specifically whether he was going to the office or would be working from his home office. The plan is for him to work from home tomorrow which is always nice. With the cool weather we are having I thought a huge pot of chili was in order. Chili makes great leftovers because you can eat it as chili or use it to make taco salad. I am hoping to have enough chili to be able to freeze some, but we will see if that actually happens since we both like chili so much. ;-) This batch is particularly good. I will post the recipe tomorrow since I think this may be my best chili recipe yet.

Today I have been busy reorganizing my closet and cleaning. Not exactly fun stuff but it needs to be done so it makes sense to do it when Dan is busy working.

Dinner tonight is completely up in the air. I have no idea what we will have since Dan will undoubtedly be late since he didn’t leave for the office until after noon. I suspect salad may be what is for dinner tonight.

Dessert:

I wanted to make Dan a treat for this evening. This is more of method than a recipe. I cut bananas in half and slid the halves onto sticks. I froze them until they were solid. Then I melted dark chocolate (which I flavored with coffee extract) and coated the bananas in chocolate and sprinkled them with chopped nuts when the chocolate was still wet and slid the banana pops back into the freezer so the chocolate would harden.

This is not an original idea. I first saw the basic idea in “Eat Clean Recharged” and knew Dan would love it so I needed to make them sometime when he needed a little something special. I think they will be best when slightly defrosted. I was chatting with Courtney and she gave me a suggestion on how to make them a little differently. Once I have a chance to try her technique I will post that method as well. I suspect this first batch will disappear rapidly so I will be making more soon. ;-)

Signing out:

Sorry I got so far behind again. My week has been a bit hectic with too many errands and time in the car (not my favorite). But it has been a very productive week which is a good thing.

I finished reading two more books from the library that were both very good. I will try to get those reviews posting in the next few days while the books are fresh in my mind.

I hope everyone had a great Saturday. Tomorrow we will be back to the farmers market to load up on my produce. I am hoping we find more fall veggies, like Brussels sprouts on the stalk. Talk to you again soon.

Mixed Mushroom Dahl and 2 Movies Today

I love sleeping in on Saturday morning. It is the only day we get up when are bodies naturally want to wake up and it makes for a much nicer start to the day.

Guess who had another double shot of espresso this morning? Yep, it was me. I need to get a handle on this immediately. Having a machine at home that you press a button and espresso arrives magically is not good when you love the stuff like I do. I am a bit disappointed that I had a double shot of espresso two days in a row. My goal is to go back to avoiding the stuff. We will see if I can do it. I will report in if I fall off the wagon again. *rolls eyes*

Breakfast:

This morning Dan had a smoothie made with: 2 tablespoons oats (grind into a powder first if not using a high speed blender), 2 frozen bananas, 1 cup frozen wild blueberries, 2 kale leaves and stems, 2 collard leaves and stems, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger and water to process. I would have used cold processed green tea but I didn’t wake up early enough to make it before breakfast.

My breakfast, other than the double shot of espresso, consisted of nothing more than 4 large glasses of iced water with lemon slices and cucumber. After my espresso this morning I decided I needed to encourage my body to eliminate the caffeine. Clearly this vicious cycle needs to stop before it gets out of hand like prior times in my life.

Lunch:

As usual we had my parents over for a late mid day meal. I had no idea what I was going to make for since cooking for my unhealthy omni parents is always a bit of a challenge. I ended up making my variation of mixed mushroom dahl over brown basmati rice. Here is what I did:

Mixed Mushroom Dahl
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups moong dahl (split mung beans)
8 cups water or no salt veggie stock
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 ¾ teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (crush in your hands before adding)
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 red onion, minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced or grated
3 carrots, finely diced
14 ounces reduced fat organic coconut milk
1 poblano pepper, finely minced (use a jalapeno or serrano if everyone at the table likes heat)
½ pound fresh criminis, thinly sliced
¼ pound fresh shitake stems, thinly sliced
4 diced Roma tomatoes, for garnish
cooked brown rice to serve under the dahl (I cooked 1 ½ cups brown basmati)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients except the tomatoes and rice and simmer until the beans are tender. If desired you can use a little cornstarch to thicken the soup. Just before serving add the diced tomatoes so that they can heat through. Serve on top of the cooked rice.

Nutritional Information (includes the brown rice):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 394.51
Calories From Fat (12%)-  48.39

Total Fat - 5.21g
Saturated Fat - 2.94g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 48.29mg
Potassium - 1199.5mg
Total Carbohydrates - 70.65g
Fiber - 12.65g
Sugar - 8.11g
Protein - 17.77g

Comments:

Three of the four of us loved this. Oddly my parents didn’t even add salt which was quite the shock. No surprise my mother thought this was entirely too hot even though we thought the heat level was mild. If you like heat add more red pepper flakes or use a hotter fresh pepper. If my mother is any indication this is too hot for children or the elderly. *rolls eyes*

To go with the dahl I made a quick salad. The best part of the salad was the dressing which I put together quickly and without measuring. Sorry about that I was running behind schedule.  It was a very simple dressing of Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and stevia. This took my under a minute to make and it reminded me of honey mustard only without the honey and its resulting increase in serum blood glucose. This dressing will be happening at my house often from now on.

Dinner:

We opted for a quick salad tonight for dinner after we finished watching our second movie of the day. Since we weren’t exactly active today we thought something on the light side was in order. This salad, which we shared contained: 1 head of romaine, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 4 Roma tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of cashew crème fraiche and ½ avocado.

For dessert I made an extra big batch of strawberry banana soft serve in the Vitamix. These measurements are approximate but should be close: 1 handful walnuts, 3 frozen bananas, 2’ish cups frozen strawberries, ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon powdered ginger and about a cup of water to process. If you still use sweeteners you may want to add a little stevia to the mixture. The Vitamix turns that into a delicious thick frozen dessert that my husband is addicted to. Tonight I had a little of the soft serve with him (about 1/4th of the total) since I had not had much to eat today.

Movies today:

Dan picked the movies today and I didn’t pay a lot of attention. The first one was “From Paris with Love” with John Travolta. It was definitely an action movie which means it was not my thing. The second movie was “Knowing” with Nicholas Cage. I would describe it as a mystery, sci fi sort of thing. It was okay, better than the first movie but not something I would have chosen to watch. As you can tell Dan and I have very different tastes in movies.

Signing out:

Tomorrow is the farmers’ market which means an early morning for us. I hope everyone had a great Saturday and stayed cool in the unseasonably hot weather we had on the east coast today. Things are supposed to cool off tonight and tomorrow at least. Rumor has it we go back to fall tomorrow. I hope the weathermen are right this time. Talk to you tomorrow. :-)

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve with Goji Berries

I have mentioned before that Dan has strawberry banana soft serve most evenings so I thought it was time I posted the recipe. This is something that I only roughly measure because I make it most evenings. Since Dan is having fresh juice with kale every day I have stopped adding kale to his soft serve so that he doesn’t get too many raw cruciferous veggies.  Eating two bunches of raw kale per week and another bunch of collards is more than enough raw cruciferous veggies.  No sense overdoing it, LOL. To make up for the loss of kale I started adding goji berries for additional antioxidants. Here is Dan’s most recent favorite dessert:

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve with Goji Berries
Serves one hungry husband

Ingredients:

¼ cup walnuts
¼ cup oatmeal, dry
2 frozen bananas
2 cups frozen strawberries
2 tablespoons goji berries, dried
1 pinch cinnamon
1 pinch ginger, powder
stevia, if you need sweetener
water necessary to process (I use about ½ cup)

Directions:

Place the walnuts and oatmeal in the blender and process until it is mostly powder. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Serve immediately, preferably in a chilled bowl. I have little ice cream bowls that are metal in the center and melamine (I think) on the exterior so the interior is cold but the exterior isn’t. Them bowls came from Crate and Barrel. I keep the bowls in the freezer since Dan has soft serve most nights. He tells me he needs the calories. ;-)

Note:  I did make this in a Vitamix. If you are using a less powerful blender you will probably need more water to get the fruit to process completely.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 631.22
Calories From Fat (27%) - 173.22

Total Fat - 20.71g
Saturated Fat - 2.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 13.16mg
Potassium - 1502.54mg
Total Carbohydrates - 115.53g
Fiber - 19.49g
Sugar - 51.02g
Protein - 13.16g

Comments:

Dan has always loves dessert, particularly frozen dessert, and this is no exception. He happily eats this at night, no complaints. Bananas add a creamy texture, strawberries and goji berries add antioxidants. Walnuts provide healthy fat. Oats add calories. Cinnamon helps reduce the blood glucose spike. Powdered ginger helps protect his heart. Not too shabby for a rich creamy dessert that he enjoys.

If I were making this for myself it would be 3 or 4 servings, but Dan loves sweets so he eats the entire recipe. This recipe contains approximately 140mg of vitamin C, 100mg of calcium, 130mcg of folate, 260mg of phosphorus, 165mg of magnesium, and 14mcg of selenium. Nice stats for dessert if you ask me. ;-)

Unrelated note:

Today has been a bit busy for me. I spent the day rewatching the 2010 Dr. Greger DVD so that I could write up the review and make notes of the articles to obtain. The DVD this year is the best one yet. I learned quite a few things, which always makes me happy. My goal is to get the review and highlights up this week as soon as I find a few studies the doc mentioned and read and analyze them.

I also spent today getting organized for Dan’s trip to Indianapolis. I like to have restaurant options mapped out and healthy snacks that he can take in his carry-on bag.

I hope everyone had a great Monday. I will talk to you all again tomorrow.

Mixed Berry Soft Serve with Kale?

I know some of you saw this title and thought I have finally lost my mind. But you should know this is now my husband’s favorite evening snack and he had it this morning for breakfast. The kale adds a lot of nutrition and you can adjust how much you add to the soft serve to suit your taste. You will need a high powered blender for this recipe but it is not only good but good for you. I cannot take credit for this idea it came from my nutritionist friend Courtney. Thanks Courtney for sharing this brilliant idea! Here is how I make the soft serve:

Mixed Berry Soft Serve with Kale
Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/3 cup dry oatmeal (for protein)
2 tablespoon walnuts (for healthy fat)
2 ½ cups frozen berries (I used a combination of 2 cups strawberries and ½ cup blueberries)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (to help the body process the natural sugar)
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger (for the anti-inflammatory benefits)
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
2 kale leaves (finely julienned) – start with one and work up as many as you like
½ cup water
stevia, to taste

Directions:

Place the dry oats and walnuts in your high speed blender and process until you have a powder. Now add the kale and water and process until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and use the plunger to get the mixture completely smooth. Taste for sweetness and add stevia as necessary for you taste. I suggest you start with one kale leaf and work your way up. Dan finds two kale leaves to be the most he likes. I have made this for me with more kale but that does add a little bitterness at higher levels that not everyone finds appealing. ;-)

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 532.87
Calories From Fat (23%) - 122.07

Total Fat - 14.6g
Saturated Fat - 1.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 39.92mg
Potassium - 1307.33mg
Total Carbohydrates - 94.89g
Fiber - 19.27g
Sugar - 27.8g
Protein - 15.77g

Comments:

Courtney shared this recipe with we me late last week and I have made it every day since. Dan adores this recipe. As written this recipe contains approximately 10,500IU of vitamin A, 270mg of vitamin C, 215mg of calcium (go Kale), 7.5mg of iron, 140mcg of folate, 570mcg of vitamin K, 430mg of phosphorus, and 190mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing nutrition for something that comes together this quickly that my hubby considers dessert.

Unrelated note:

The weather here is glorious again. The morning air is cool (mid 60’s) and a little crisp. I love it when the day starts out like this. :-)

Today I have a few things I need to get done in the morning. But I should have time for a post this afternoon before dinner. We have finished all our panelle and polenta toast. I am going to make another batch this time all panelle so I can compare it to the hybrid recipe I developed. Dan also wants me to make him some sun-dried tomato pesto for the “toast” so that is also on my agenda today.

Talk to you all again soon. I hope you are having a great Tuesday and that your weather is as nice as ours.

Strawberry and Banana Sorbet

I hope you all had a great evening and your Wednesday is starting out fairly well. I wanted to post a quick recipe before I started my day since it is going to be a busy one.

Last night after dinner we were still a little hungry. After realizing how few calories we had eaten I decided to make a quick frozen dessert. Both Dan and I like strawberries and bananas so I decided to combine the two to make a quick healthy dessert. Here is what I did:

Strawberry and Banana Sorbet
Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen banana pieces (this is approximate)
1 cup water, or what is necessary to process the frozen fruit
Cinnamon, to taste
Stevia, to taste, if extra sweetness is desired

Directions:

Place everything in your high powered blender and process until smooth. It does help to place the bananas in the base of the blender. Taste and adjust the sweetness and flavorings as you like. In the past we would have added a sweetener to this but we don’t find that necessary now. Serve immediately, preferably in chilled bowls.

If you don’ t have a high powered blender try allowing the fruit to defrost a little before blending so you don’t burn up your blender. I burned up the motor of at least 5 blenders with frozen fruit smoothies before I bought my Vitamix so I do know these types of recipes are hard on blenders. You may also want to consider starting this in the food processor and finishing it in the blender to be kinder to your blender.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 164.03
Calories From Fat (6%) - 9.62

Total Fat - 1.16g
Saturated Fat - 0.13g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 7.35mg
Potassium - 734.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 40.48g
Fiber - 8.03g
Sugar - 24.04g
Protein - 2.85g

Comments:

If you like fruit you will enjoy this dessert. It is fresh and light and tastes great to us. It reminds me of strawberry banana yogurt which used to be a favorite of mine.

Each serving of this dessert contains approximately 185mg of vitamin C and 55 mg of calcium.

Unrelated Notes:

Today I had planned on trying to get things accomplished around the house. However my hubby has had a horrible headache since last night and will be staying home at least part of the day. The world at our house stops when my husband doesn’t feel well. He isn’t accustomed to feeling sick and he likes attention when he is ill. Something tells me some of you can relate to this. Since he is generally very low maintenance I don’t mind that he likes the attention. It is actually sort of cute, but don’t tell him that, I don’t want to encourage bad behavior. ;-) 

I will be back later with a dinner update.  As the weather gets warmer I seem to gravitate more toward raw food. It is a safe bet that dinner may be something raw again tonight. I don’t have any particular recipe in mind, just a general desire for raw food.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve

Oh Vitamix how do I love you? Let me count the ways. Okay so that was a tad dramatic, but that machine is amazing. Who wouldn’t love a two minute fruit soft serve?

Today I wasn’t much in the mood for food. Salad wasn’t appealing to me, I didn’t want soup so ……. I decided to break out the Vitamix. This is something I make a lot in the summer since it cools me down instantly. It works with any frozen fruit. I like to use berries for their ellagic acid since they are linked to cancer cell death (apoptosis), and they taste good. I add cinnamon to assist the body in processing the natural sugar more efficiently. Orange extract was added for flavor and aroma. Here is what I did.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve
Serves 1 as a meal

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup soymilk, unsweetened
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon orange extract

Directions:

Put everything in your high powered blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 241.76
Calories From Fat (17%) - 41.17

Total Fat - 4.6g
Saturated Fat - 0.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 130.11mg
Potassium - 734.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.65g
Fiber - 8.41g
Sugar - 23.45g
Protein - 9.28g

Comments:

If you still use sweeteners you may need to add a little agave or stevia to this. In the past I had to add additional sweetener. Now that we have been off sweeteners for many months (sorry I lost track of how many) this tastes sweet enough to me. It tastes mostly of strawberries with a subtle hint of orange. You can leave out the orange extract but I think it adds a lot. Sometimes I make this with fresh mint in place of the orange extract.

Unrelated Note:

The weather is beautiful here today. The sky is blue and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It is so nice to have temperatures in the upper 60’s. It is one of those days where you want to be outside as much as possible. On that note I am going to hit post and head back outside. I hope the weather where you are is lovely too. Talk to you all later.

Banana Soft Serve with Walnut Butter Swirl

This is another post about a method rather than a recipe. It is something I saw on Dr. Kim’s blog. He used frozen bananas to make a pie filling. As soon as I saw it I thought why not just skip the crust and make ice cream. Since we bought a masticating juicer as one of our healthy Christmas presents I knew I wanted to try this. I have been suggesting it to Dan every few days and he was completely uninterested. Today I decided I was making the “banana ice cream” whether he wanted it or not.

Tonight I put the blank plate into the juicer and grabbed the bananas from the freezer. I had frozen very ripe bananas (peeled) in a Ziploc bag weeks ago so that I could make this. I took bananas from the freezer and stuffed them into the chute on the juicer and an unnatural looking extruding mass came out the front of the machine. It wasn’t too appealing looking but I persisted with the entire bag (about 6 bananas). I tried the bananas and to my amazement it was the taste and texture of banana ice cream. The texture was so perfect I could not believe it. I then added a swirl of my homemade cinnamon walnut butter. To say this was good doesn’t do it justice. OMG this was amazing. Even my husband, who is not a banana lover, offered to go to the store for more bananas after a few bites. We didn’t need any bananas, but it was that good that he was willing to trek through the 30 plus inches of snow for bananas.

If you have a masticating juicer you really need to try this. We are both completely besotted by this concoction, as my new friend Laloofah would say. We will be making more of this very soon (as soon as we run out actually). This is absolutely mind blowingly delicious. Laloofah tells me you can make this with frozen bananas and a food processor with a little non-dairy milk if you don't have a masticating juicer.

Coconut and Banana Ice "Cream"

(pictured: coconut banana ice cream still soft serve going into a container for the freezer)

My husband is an ice cream fiend. He has always loved ice cream and has eaten many hundreds of pounds of the stuff in his lifetime. I like to make things he enjoys but don’t want to make anything that is too bad for him. This frozen dessert is my compromise between yummy ice cream and something that is reasonably healthy. We will see how long it takes him to eat it all.

Coconut and Banana Ice "Cream"
Makes 4 generous husband sized servings, or 8 wife sized servings

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, peeled
1 ½ cups reduced fat coconut milk
½ cup almond milk, unsweetened
2 tablespoons agave
2 tablespoons arrowroot
½ teaspoon ginger, powdered
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 banana, peeled and cut into small chunks and added at the end of the process

Directions:

Combine everything except the vanilla and the final banana in the blender and puree until the mixture is completely smooth. Add enough coconut milk or almond milk until you have three cups of liquid.

Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed pot and cook, while whisking, until the mixture begins to thicken. This should take about 5 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat.

If you are in a hurry you can fill your sink with cold water and whisk the mixture until it falls below 100 degrees. Again this should happen in 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the mixture into a container with a lid and store in the refrigerator or freezer until cold but not frozen.

Pour into your ice cream maker, add the vanilla, and churn until the texture reaches a soft serve consistency. Before removing from the ice cream maker add the final banana so it can get distributed through the ice cream. Store the frozen dessert in closed containers in your freezer until ready to eat.

If you like your ice cream a little soft remove the container from the freezer 10 to 15 minutes before you are ready to serve so that it will soften enough to be easily “scoopable”.

Nutritional Information (assumes 4 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 120.66
Calories From Fat (16%) - 19.68

Total Fat - 2.03g
Saturated Fat - 1.23g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 21.26mg
Potassium - 357.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.85g
Fiber - 3.28g
Sugar - 11.1g
Protein - 1.18g

Comments:

This ice “cream” is very rich and creamy from the coconut milk. It also has a very tropical feel from the coconut, banana and vanilla. I love coconut so this dessert speaks my language. I find 1/8th of this with some fresh fruit and a tablespoon of nuts on top is more than enough. My husband, AKA the ice cream fiend, thinks this definitely only makes 4 servings. However, he would make it one serving if I would let him. That man has a vicious sweet tooth.

Peach, Banana and Ginger Sorbet

(pictured: soft serve sorbet ready for the freezer)

I had a few extra peaches left over from canning earlier this week and decided a peach sorbet would be nice. Banana was a last minute addition because I decided I wanted a sorbet with a more complex flavor than just peach. However, the banana does add a nice amount of potassium in addition to flavor. Ginger was included to lift the flavor as well as for its anti-inflammatory properties. Almond milk was added to help the blender process the fruit.

The first flavor note is peach, but then the ginger hits your palate. Banana isn’t a dominant flavor but adds complexity to the overall taste. This sorbet is not cloyingly sweet like the commercial versions. However, if you like to taste the fruit in your sorbet you will enjoy this.

Peach, Banana and Ginger Sorbet
Makes 4 servings approximately 6 ounces each

Ingredients:

3 peaches, pitted and cut into chunks (not peeled)
1 banana, very ripe
2 tablespoons amber agave
½ teaspoon ginger, powder
¼ cup almond milk

Directions:

Put everything in the blender and puree until smooth. You should be able to see little flecks of the pink peach skin. Place the mixture into the refrigerator to get cold.

When the mixture is cold move it to your ice cream maker and follow your manufacturers instructions for freezing. Move the soft serve mixture to a closed container and freezer to thoroughly chill.

Serve in chilled bowls.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 82.6
Calories From Fat (6%) - 5.24

Total Fat - 0.61g
Saturated Fat - 0.06g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 11.21mg
Potassium - 357.57mg
Total Carbohydrates - 19.96g
Fiber - 3.32g
Sugar - 13.77g
Protein - 1.53g

Comments:

Like many of my recipes this one came out of what was on hand. If you like peach and ginger I think you will enjoy this sorbet. It would be great with a little ginger syrup on top, or even candied ginger. You could serve this over tofu pound cake, with wild blueberry compote or by itself.

Peach and Cardamom Almond Ice Milk

I hadn’t made ice milk in a while so I thought the peaches I had left over from canning would make a nice ice cream flavor. I considered pureeing the peaches and adding them to the almond milk mixture but changed my mind and went with chunks. I used almond extract in this ice milk since almond flavor works well with peaches. Cardamom was included because I love cardamom and will add it to almost anything according to my husband. It goes great with peaches so I thought cardamom would be perfect here. The resulting ice milk was a hit with my husband he had half of it last night after a big dinner.

Peach and Cardamom Almond Ice Milk
Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 cups of almond milk
2 tablespoons arrowroot
4 tablespoons agave
¼ teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 pinch of kosher salt
2 peaches, peeled, pitted and diced

Directions:

Combine the almond milk and arrowroot in a saucepan and whisk to thoroughly combine. When the arrowroot has been completely absorbed add the agave, cardamom, almond extract and kosher salt and whisk to combine.

Turn the heat on medium and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to bubble around the outside edges, which happens at about 185 degrees. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately submerge the pan into a larger container filled with ice water and continue to whisk. You want to cool the mixture as quickly as possible and get it into a container with a lid and refrigerate until you completely cool.

Use your ice cream maker and follow the instructions given for your model. Add the peach pieces during the last couple of minutes of processing the ice cream.

Place the soft serve consistency mixture into containers with lids and freeze for at least an hour before serving.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 91.13
Calories From Fat (26%) - 23.26

Total Fat - 2.5g
Saturated Fat - 0.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 186.05mg
Potassium - 320.16mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.01g
Fiber - 3.48g
Sugar - 7.13g
Protein - 1.6g

Comments:

If you haven’t made almond ice milk before I should warn you that it freezes more completely than dairy or soymilk, although I don’t know why. I take this out of the freezer and sit it on the counter 20 minutes before I want to serve it to make it easier to dish. Make certain you cut your peach pieces small enough that they are easy to scoop and eat.

This ice milk tastes first of almond extract followed closely by cardamom. Peach is the tertiary flavor that you get from this dessert. My husband ate half of this so quickly last night I thought I better get a quick photo this afternoon before he gets home and eats the remainder of the container.

Vanilla Almond “Ice Milk”

Since I started making my own almond milk at home I have been looking for different ways to incorporate it into my recipes. This recipe is very quick and easy. Vanilla is my standard flavor for desserts so that I can dress them up with different toppings.

Vanilla Almond “Ice Milk”
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

3 cups of unsweetened almond milk
2 tablespoons of arrowroot
6 tablespoons of amber agave
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 pinch of kosher salt

Directions:

Thoroughly whisk together ¼ cup of the almond milk with the arrowroot and set aside.

Heat the remaining 2 ¾ cups of almond milk and agave until the mixture starts to bubble (this will happen at approximately 185 degrees). Turn off the heat and add the arrowroot slurry and stir to combine. Add the kosher salt and vanilla extract. The milk mixture will be visibly thicker almost immediately. It will continue to thicken as it cools. I move the entire pan to an ice bath to cool it quickly. Store the cooled milk in a covered container in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the dessert.

Follow the directions of your ice cream maker and use the milk as you would any dairy ice cream base.

Store the frozen dessert in a covered container in the freezer until you are ready for dessert.

Nutritional Information (per half cup serving):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 91.43
Calories From Fat (21%)- 19.46

Total Fat - 2.16g
Saturated Fat - 0.25g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 112.02mg
Potassium - 171.37mg
Total Carbohydrates - 13.48g
Fiber - 2.21g
Sugar - 5.48g
Protein - 4.09g

Comments:

This is my first attempt at almond ice milk, and I think it turned out well. I particularly like the nutritional numbers. Any dessert that is less than 100 calories is destined to be a favorite of mine.

This frozen dessert has a nice texture and a subtle vanilla flavor. The texture of this frozen dessert is very similar to ice milk. Tonight we had this with fresh strawberries, chopped walnuts and a little agave drizzled over the top.

Rhubarb and Ginger Sorbet or Granita

I made the base for this dessert yesterday and stored it in the refrigerator overnight. Today it took about 30 minutes, including clean up time, to make this dessert since the base was finished.

I used rhubarb because I bought it and didn’t know what I was going to make with it. I thought rhubarb and ginger sounded like a good combination. I like that rhubarb and ginger are both healthy foods.

Rhubarb is another food that is thought to be beneficial in the fight against cancer. Ginger contains very powerful anti-inflammatory compounds. I believe that it is a good idea to add anti-inflammatory foods whenever you can.

This granita or sorbet would be perfect to serve between courses, if you are having a multi-course dinner party. The flavor is bright and refreshing and not overly sweet. If you like things to be sweeter, add more agave.

Rhubarb and Ginger Granita or Sorbet
makes 4 large servings (approximately 1 cup servings)

Ingredients:

4 stalks of rhubarb, sliced into ¼ inch thick half moons (approx 1 pound)
1 inch of ginger, thinly sliced
4 cups of water
5 tablespoons of agave (enough to sweeten to your desired level)
¼ cup of citrus flavored or plain vodka

Directions:

Cook rhubarb and ginger in the water and agave syrup for about 15 minutes, until the rhubarb is completely soft.

Strain the liquid of all its solids into another container with a lid and move into the refrigerator to cool completely.

Directions For Granita only:

When ready to freeze add vodka and pour into a shallow pan with a lid and freeze. Each hour remove the granita from the freezer and scrap with a fork. At the beginning it will be mostly slushy and only freezing around the edges. In about two hours the granita will be mostly frozen, but you will still need to continue to scrape and refreeze. The granita will be finished in 6 hours or less.

Directions for Sorbet only:

When ready to freeze add vodka. Pour cold liquid into an ice cream freezer and churn for 25 minutes and then remove to a container with a lid and store in the freezer until ready to serve.

Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 78.17
Calories From Fat (3%) 2.59

Total Fat - 0.31g
Saturated Fat - 0.07g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 16.18mg
Potassium - 385.26mg
Total Carbohydrates - 10.39g
Fiber - 3.88g
Sugar - 2.02g
Protein - 1.26g

Comments:

This is a light and refreshing dessert that is only lightly sweet with the 5 tablespoons of agave. You can make it sweeter if you wish. The rhubarb flavor is not very prominent in this recipe. However, I do like the light pink color and the sourness that the rhubarb brought to the dish. I found the ginger to be a more prominent flavor in this dessert. You could garnish this with a little finely diced crystallized ginger if you wish.

Soy Ice Cream

The weather on the east coast is ridiculously hot this week. We have reached 90 degrees for the last few days. This type of weather brings thoughts of ice cream to mind for many of us that are young at heart. The soy ice cream below is a staple at our house in hot weather. The orange and vanilla flavor is a particular favorite. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Soy Milk Ice Cream
makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

3 cups soymilk
½ cup of agave or ¾ cup of granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of arrowroot
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix ¼ cup of the soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside. It is important to thoroughly mix the arrowroot with the soy milk to avoid clumps in your ice cream.

Whisk the soymilk and agave (or sugar) together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to bubble (reached approximately 185 degrees), take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will continue to thicken as it cools). Note: according to Harold McGee arrowroot gels best between 140 and 170 degrees. To expedite the cooling drop the pot into an ice bath and continue to whisk as the mixture cools. Stir in vanilla extract once the mixture has thoroughly cooled.

Set the ice cream mixture into the refrigerator to thoroughly chill before being placed in the ice cream maker. Freeze ice cream mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last five minutes of freezing, drop in the individually frozen pieces of cookie dough or other additives into the ice cream maker.

Variations:

Chocolate: mix 2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder into the soymilk to make chocolate ice cream.

Orange and Vanilla (pictured above): add 1 vanilla pod (scraped) and 1 teaspoon of orange extract to the soymilk for orange vanilla ice cream.

Cookie Dough: While the ice cream mixture is cooling, drop small bite size lumps of cookie dough (totaling approximately ¾ cup, onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment or silpat. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze the cookie dough. Freeze ice cream mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last few minutes of freezing, drop in the individually frozen pieces of cookie dough.

Peanut Butter: mix ¾ cup of natural peanut butter with a couple tablespoons of confectioners sugar until it is thicken enough to hold its shape. Drop lumps of sweetened peanut butter onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment or silpat. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze the cookie dough. Freeze ice cream mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last few minutes of freezing, drop in the individually frozen pieces of cookie dough.

Nutritional Information (for vanilla):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 96.19
Calories From Fat (20%) -19.56

Total Fat - 2.17g
Saturated Fat - 0.25g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 66mg
Potassium - 180.27mg
Total Carbohydrates - 14.62g
Fiber - 2.67g
Sugar - 5.66g
Protein - 4.13g