Healthy Ice Cream? Is it true? After a healthy dinner, of course.

Okay, so the isn’t exactly true.  I mean, the ice cream isn’t made of broccoli and lean protein.  However, its ingredients will knock your socks off, and the end result is far healthier than anything you’ll find in a Ben & Jerry’s tub. 

But first, before we get there, I have to give you back story of how this ice cream came to be in our house.  My husband returned home from his day at work talking about flying in the heat and eating an ice cream sandwich.  The Boy’s eyes lit up!  The following day, he requested that I get ice cream sandwiches at the store.  While I am a healthy mama, I’m also not a crazy one who refuses my child all of the food that children inherently love.  The Boy must know the goodness of a Cheeto!  However, he must also know that Cheetos are not a food you will find in our house minus the twice a year snack size, because they are nutritional crap.  I’m just a firm believer that if you deny things outright, your kid becomes the closet eater of junk, going crazy as soon as he goes to the friend’s house with it.  Thus, the request for ice cream sandwiches was granted.   

Later that night, my husband’s eyes lit up when he learned our freezer was now home to ice cream sandwiches.  I did not hear squeals of joy, however.  Instead, my husband returned to the living room and demanded, “Do you know what brand you bought?”  “No,” I said.  “ I just bought whatever mini/snack size they had since we don’t need to eat the full sized sandwiches.” 

Well, as I soon learned, I purchased Blue Bunny sandwiches, a company, which just announced a recall due to listeria.  Even though this particular product wasn’t on the recall list, my husband, the man who responds with “yah, yah, yah” when I tell him to be careful while flying his very fast jet, demanded they be thrown away in their entirety.  What’s a girl to do? 

Well, this girl made them from scratch, and I tried out that whole ice cream from bananas thing.  Let me tell you, I am smitten with ice cream made from blending frozen bananas!  I don’t like sweet banana items… So, I can promise you that the only banana flavor that remains in this ice cream is so subtle that my banana-loving husband couldn’t even pinpoint the ingredient used. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Ice Cream 

(chocolate chips added to the Simple Chocolate Banana Ice Cream 

recipe from The Nourishing Gourmet)

- 3 frozen, peeled ripe bananas
- 2 tablespoons of high quality cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- milk to thin to desired consistency
- chocolate chips

Blend in powerful blender or food processor.  Serve right away for soft serve texture.

I won’t get into the cookie part of the sandwich.  That was time intensive.  But here is the recipe I used.  Quite honestly, in the future, I’ll stick to just the ice cream. 

As for the healthy dinner, a fall back recipe I have used ever since our first year of marriage is this one from Rachael Ray: Turkey Curry on Flatbread.  While my cooking skills have far advanced past the easy meals from Rachael Ray, there are a few that have stuck with us, because they are so darn easy, delicious and healthy.  Homemade flatbread (recipe here) just seals the deal. 

And, if you’re wondering if The Boy eats these healthy meals, the answer is yes.  Is he a picky eater?  Well, he’s 3.  I just don’t buy into allowing my toddler to dictate what he will and will not eat.  I make one meal a night, and if you don’t like it, I guess you get to be hungry.   Hint: no child will actually starve himself to death despite first-world parenting ideology.  Now, that being said, I don’t have a litter of kittens because he doesn’t top his with tomato and lettuce.  If he tries it, he tries it.  Probably he won’t.  But one day, he will, and that’s the day that my husband stops getting seconds. 

Time to fly,

Liz