Healthy Ice Cream

Ok maybe I shouldn’t call this ice cream, but it’s a really good fake.

And this is coming from a girl who has high ice cream standards. Not only is ice cream my fav dessert, but Buenos Aires has some of the best helado (ice cream) I’ve ever had. They have a flavor here called ‘Super Dulce de Leche’, which has big ribbons of dulce de leche running through it. It’s heaven. But, for obvious reasons (high fat, high sugar & high calories), I have to keep my intake of helado to a minimum.

Yesterday morning I noticed that we had 2 very ripe bananas sitting on the counter, and I remembered a recipe from Snack Girl that I wanted to try. So I chopped up the bananas, put them in a bowl and popped them in the freezer.

At 8pm last night, a little bit of magic happened.

I adapted this recipe from Snack Girl, and I had trouble falling asleep last night thinking of all the endless possibilities for this treat.

Healthy Ice Cream
(serves 2) 

Ingredients
2 ripe bananas, chopped & than frozen
6 tbsp of milk (1%, almond or soy)
1 tbsp of natural peanut butter*
1 oatmeal cookie**

Method
Combine the frozen banana pieces, milk and peanut butter in a blender.

Blend until smooth.

Scoop into bowls, crumble oatmeal cookie on top, and enjoy!

(you may want to put bowls in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before serving as I found the banana mixture melted a bit during the blending process)

*You could also add 1 tbsp of nutella, espresso, almond butter or some cocoa powder instead of peanut butter to change up the base flavour

**The options for what you can sprinkle on top of this bad boy are endless: dark chocolate chips, walnuts, almonds, pecans, raisins (or combo of all!), pieces of my healthy brownie or healthy cookie (I would have totally done this, but my options here are limited so I opted for store-bought oatmeal cookies), hemp seeds, unsweetened shredded coconut…whatever you have in the house that you think would be yummy!

Warning: I had low expectations going into it, and was obviously very very happy with the outcome. If you’re expecting ice cream, and you don’t like bananas (I don’t think we can be friends if this is the case) than you may be disappointed. However, in my opinion this is a healthy, easy, SUPER yummy alternative to ice cream.

Nutrition Comparison of regular ice cream vs. my healthy ice cream

1 cup of Ben & Jerry’s Original Vanilla ice cream (no toppings): 460 calories, 28g fat, 40g sugar

1 cup of Lauren’s Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream: 300 calories, 8g fat, 14g sugar (10g of which is natural sugar from the banana). This version also has potassium, B vitamins and some protein from the bananas & peanut butter!

It’s a no brainer.

That being said, if you’re really craving real ice cream, than go for it (in moderation), but this is a great alternative for a during-the-week ice cream craving.