Guilt-free “Ice Cream”

So, I seriously love ice cream. So much so that I cannot keep it in the house or I will literally stand in front of the freezer with a spoon and eat it straight from the carton. Hey, it’s not all that bad to do. Such “sneak eating” prevents the kids from thinking they get ice cream too, right? Win! Anyway, as we enter October, I am committing myself to a 4 week sugar detox—no grains, no dairy, no processed food, zero sugar. What’s an ice cream lover like myself to do when, like, ALL of the ingredients in ice cream are banned from her diet? Bananas! Wait, bananas? Yes, bananas. You can make an all-natural “ice cream” simply by slicing ripe bananas about 1/4 inch thick, freezing them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, and then blending them to a soft-serve consistency (if you have a food processor, you can skip the slicing part since your blade will do all the work for you). It tastes so good, and is completely guilt-free. Now, being that it is fall and I love pumpkins just about as much as I love ice cream, the following recipe from FoodEmbrace.com looked just too good to pass up. OH.WOW. All I can say is, “You’re welcome.” This tastes as good as, if not better than, fancy pumpkin gelato. Happy eating, everyone!

4 frozen bananas
1/2C pumpkin puree
1/2C-1C vanilla soy milk (or nondairy milk of choice, or milk)
1/4tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp ground clove
Pinch brown sugar (really small pinch) *I omitted this and it was fine.

Break frozen bananas up into chunks or at least cut them in half. In a food processor or heavy duty blender, add all ingredients. Start with 1/2 cup of the soy milk. Blend until smooth and creamy. You might want to start the process with a few pulses first and then let it go for a bit. If it starts getting too thick on you and won’t blend, add in some more of the soy milk. Dish up into ice cream bowls and serve immediately!

Do you have any creative recipes to share? We’d love to know about them!