Chocolate Bananas

Frozen bananas! What a concept! They can be the basis for an ice cream substitute that has no equal. No saturated fat, no excessive added sugar and filled with vitamins and minerals. Loaded with potassium, vitamin B6, manganese, magnesium, vitamin C and fiber and complete with their own biodegradable packaging, how can you beat bananas? And when they are combined with an avocado which provides vitamins A,C,D,E,K, thiamine,riboflavin, niacin, B6 and folate as well as protein and fiber, you have an award winning mixture. Ice cream on the other hand provides you with an abundance of saturated fat, sodium, cholestrol, sugar, the difference is evident. I will grant you that ice cream also does provide you with some calcium and protein, but the fact is that the presence of the protein is going to limit how much of that calcium is actually absorbable by the human body. Weighed in the balance, I would say that the banana sorbet is actually a better choice if you are considering the health benefits.

Fortunately, you can also have taste as well and I'm happy to say that I've got my "chocolate ice cream" back! Wahoo. I've found that the important thing to remember is to pop the bananas into the freezer just at that optimum moment of ripeness, barely ripe but not overly, unless of course you are doing a fruit flavoured dessert and so don't mind the banana flavouring. But my heart belongs to chocolate so once I've frozen the bananas, I take them out of the freezer, remove the peels and pop the chunks into the food processor along with some peanut butter, cocoa, a wee bit of vanilla flavoring and a couple tablespoons of maple syrup and half an avocado. Whiz that up until it's all moving smoothly around the fod processor bowl. I did find that a bit of rice milk helps to move things along a bit in the event that the bananas are a bit bigger than usual. And when satisfied with the consistency, dish it up and enjoy. I think the idea of eating a vegan diet exclusively frightens most people. They think only of the tastes that they'll be giving up, not realizing that there are substitions for many of those as well as an amazing array of new tastes that they've never considered. So I've found a wonderful way to get my chocolate, without even a single pang of guilt, in fact to actually feel like I'm doing myself a favour.

Do give it a try and I'll include the ingredients list here for those who've got food processors. You could try making it in small amounts in a blender but I can't say for sure how well that would work because of the different dimensions.

Ingredients:

3 frozen bananas, peeled and cut into smaller chunks
1/2 avocado
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cocoa (or to taste)
1-2 tablespoons rice milk (as needed)

I hope that I haven't given you this recipe before because that would mean that I'm beginning to suffer from "repetitive story" syndrome! Will you tell me, or will you humor me and listen to the chocolate sorbet story one more time? Anyway my dears, enjoy being nice to your body....and I'll talk to you again.