Magic Banana Dairy-Free Ice Cream

Apparently I live under a rock, because I just heard about this today. Magic banana ice cream - wow. I was skeptical, because how does one get ice cream from a frozen overripe banana? But it works. And it's delicious. Since we eat healthy at Chez Jessica, I tend to buy low fat frozen yogurt now and then (usually to put on top of a fruit crisp or crumble), and it's good, it definitely satisfies the ice cream craving. But even the fancy organic all-natural brands have added sugar - and magic ice cream is sugar free (except for the naturally occurring fructose in the banana). If you're following a specific diet - low carb, low sodium, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, etc., this magic banana ice cream is the perfect treat. So those brown, overripe bananas in your fruit bowl? Don't throw them away - they can still fulfill their full banana potential!

photo courtesy of Flickr: edwardkimuk

I'm sure there are endless variations on this recipe, and feel free to go bananas (sorry, couldn't help it) and try any number of healthy add-ins. I've seen so many variations of this recipe (now that I know it exists) - Food Network has their Peanut Butter and Nanner Ice Cream, The Kitchn has their One Ingredient Ice Cream, and Our Best Bites adds Nutella to their One-Ingredient Ice Cream. I decided to try the Food Network recipe tonight - a friend posted about it on her blog and raved about the results, so I figured that was the one to try. So here it is - if you try it, let me know what you think!

Peanut Butter and Nanner Ice Cream

adapted from Food Network

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

• 2-3 ripe to overripe bananas
• 1 tsp (or more) creamy unsalted peanut butter (optional)
• 1 tsp (or more) honey (optional)

Instructions:

1. Cut the bananas into 1-inch pieces and freeze (I laid the banana slices on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet in the freezer). Put the frozen bananas in a food processor and puree, scraping down sides periodically, until smooth. WARNING: The first few seconds of pureeing will be really loud. Shockingly loud. So hold onto the lid and hunker down and puree that banana.
2. Add the peanut butter and honey and puree. Serve immediately or refreeze until ready to enjoy.

The peanut butter and honey are totally optional - I used about a teaspoon of peanut butter to keep things on the low-fat side, and about a teaspoon of honey to sweeten things up. But the bananas will stand on their own - they really are delicious without anything else added (I tasted). Peanut butter, bananas, and honey is one of my favorite combinations, so this was quite exciting for me. If you couldn't already tell. Since I refuse to eat a banana unless it's a pale greenish yellow color (i.e. underripe), I do end up with quite a few overripe, brown bananas because I just can't eat them that quickly. And now I have something (besides banana bread, of which I'm not really a huge fan) to do with those overripe bananas. Quite exciting. I calculated the nutrition info for the ice cream that I made - which was 2 bananas, 1 tsp of creamy unsalted natural peanut butter, and one tsp of honey - this is for half of the recipe.

Nutritional info: 133 calories, 2g fat, 0mg cholesterol, 2mg sodium, 31g carbohydrates, 17g sugar, 3g fiber, 2g protein