Monday, June 28, 2010

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.

12 comments:

  1. Oh YUM. I am so making that with the cherries I got today!!!

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  2. sgcorrie,

    I bought 4 pounds of cherries and pitted them for the freezer just for soft serve. I was thinking peach and cherry might be good. Maybe I will get a few peaches in the freezer tonight to make that for myself tomorrow. ;-) Thanks for the nudge!

    Ali

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  3. Just one word, YUM!
    I like sgcorrie's idea of using cherries, but they always disappear here too fast to do that;-)So we usually just do bananas and berries.

    I hope Dan knows how lucky he is to have a wife who will map out restaurants and fix him snacks to take on his trip. You take such good care of him Ali!!

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  4. Janet,

    I like the cherry idea too. Sounds like that may be my dessert tonight since the cherries are in the freezer waiting to be adding to softserve.

    Dan is very appreciative for all that I do. He always tells me how lucky he is to have me. We really are best friends. ;-)

    talk to you later,
    Ali

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  5. That looks so good. I've not tried goji berries yet. I like to have restaurants mapped out too! Literally - I print off a google map even ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Heather,

    Goji berries are a lot like raisins only less sweet and more mild in flavor. They are frequently sold sweetened, but I buy them plain. Check your local Asian market they have the best prices on them. They are also called wolf berries or lycieum berries.

    I like to add them to our green tea while it is steeping so the plump up. They are also good on salad if you plump them first. We started eating them because the ORAC value is so high. They are antioxidant packed.

    I am not surprised you map out restaurants too. We are too much alike, LOL. ;-)

    Ali

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  7. I think I just figured out what my dessert will be later on!

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  8. Jessie,

    Dan loves all the variations of this. You can make it without the nuts and oats and it works just fine. I add those to his for omega 3 fatty acids and calories.

    Ali

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  9. This recipe sounds great. There are some things in there I never would have thought of, like the oats and walnuts.

    I also really like your idea about plumping up the goji berries. I don't like them very much when they are dry, but maybe they'd be better after absorbing a bit of water.

    Thanks for sharing!!

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  10. Jill,

    The concept also works without the walnuts and oats. I add those for omega 3's and calories.

    We find the goji berries are much better plumped versus dry. In Asia they add them to green tea while it is steeping. There are good that way too.

    Alicia

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  11. Wow! that's a good combination of food. It would be a complete dish.

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  12. Cathy,

    My husband does eat this an extra meal after dinner. Sometimes he has this for breakfast as well. We are always trying to keep weight on him and this works great. ;-)

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete

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