Monday, November 4, 2013

Not Icecream Desserts {recipe}

As you may, or may not know, the MR and I are trying desperately to live healthier lives.  We are making better decisions about our health by the foods that we choose to eat and getting some physical activity into our days. 

For the first year or so of our marriage we were fairly good about eating healthy.  When we started looking for houses and then the whole moving process, and getting settled process, our whole routine got out of whack and we formed some really bad habits.  I completely quit being gluten free, we would make stops by the store after work and get frozen pizzas & icecream, eat Mexican food rather than cook dinner, and instead of packing lunches, the local gas station (that has the best chicken fingers EVER), subway & Wendy's became the norm for lunch.  Let's not even get into breakfast...  Not only was it bad for our budget, but we both felt like crap.  We had gotten into a rut and couldn't dig ourselves out.

I don't know what clicked, but finally one day I had had enough.  I was tired of being tired all the time, I was tired of feeling like crap, I was just tired of being unhealthy.  We decided together that enough was enough and I started preparing healthy meals for us.  Now instead of crappy breakfasts there are Egg omelet muffins that are frozen and easily thawed and reheated, refrigerator oatmeal (if I can remember to make it up!), yogurt, fruit, or a quick meal of scrambled eggs.  For lunches it's either leftovers, chicken-salad salad (chicken salad served over a salad!), made with greek yogurt instead of mayo, egg-salad salad, also made with greek yogurt , or grilled chicken salad.  I also started meal prepping and planning again which prevents the after work dilemma of "I have no idea what's for dinner, and I don't feel like cooking!"  Snacks mainly consist of either nuts, fruit, or yogurt!  

Our household is also mainly gluten free mostly for my sake!  This means that there is a whole lot of experimenting going on in my house!  We've tried spaghetti squash, cauliflower pizza crust, spaghetti squash pizza crust, dinners served over vegetables instead of rice!  There are several more things that we will be trying out in the future, but for the most part everything has turned out well.  I am still avoiding dairy, legumes, and corn, but the MR. still eats those!  And we avoid most sugar!

We also got a new gym that opened up 5 minutes from where we work.  Initially, it was just me that was going to go.  We get up around 5:15, and are headed out the door by 6:00, if not earlier.  This requires more work on my part at night.  I get lunches packed, and my gym bag packed so all I have to do is get dressed and zip out the door, and this is after dinner is cooked and cleaned up!  The MR. kindly drives to work in the morning so that I have 30 extra minutes to try and wake up, I am NOT a morning person by any stretch of the imagination.  He drops himself off at work, and I hop over to the driver's seat and head back out to the gym for a 30-45 minutes work out.  The MR. decided last week that He wanted to go ahead and join the gym as well.  So we signed him on up, and went and got him some good tennis shoes {the $20.00 walmart ones just weren't going to cut it!}.  Now 3 days a week, after work we are going to head back to the gym.  We'll warm up with a little cardio and then get some weight training in.  Today is the first day of our new routine!  I could just go at night with him, but I'm a morning workout girl.  If I don't get my cardio session in first thing in the morning, it's not going to happen at all.  We also got this beauty out of the scrap pile about a month or so ago....

     
Pretty nice, huh?  What's really nice is that it's big enough to fit my 6'3" MR. on it.  The one we had before was made for a 5'6" or shorter person!  We had to replace the console on it, but it was SO worth it.  This machine runs right around $1000.00 new.  So on the days that we don't do weight training after work the MR can still get some cardio in after work! 

Back to the "no sugar" thing.  It's REALLY, REALLY hard, especially for My MR.!  Sometimes you just need something sweet after dinner, ya know?  I usually get bananas and let the ripen to the point that they wouldn't be any good for eating, and then freeze them for Banana "Icecream", which we love!  I also have a gallon size bag of frozen grapes in the freezer!  It's the perfect fix for a sugar craving!

Which brings me to the Not Icecream Desserts.  We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE icecream.  It's the perfect ending to a long day!  So I started making Banana Icecream, and it's So Easy!

Basic Banana "Ice cream":
2-3 frozen bananas
1-2 tsp vanilla
Milk of your choice

But the bananas and vanilla in the blender.  I usually defrost my bananas just a touch in the microwave before I put them in my blender so they aren't rock hard.  Turn on the blender and let it break up the bananas a little bit.  With a spatula, push the bananas down off the sides of the blender.  You'll only want to add as much milk as you must to get an "ice cream" consistency, too much and it gets too runny!  You'll also have to scrap the sides a few times to get all the banana chunks whipped up into a smooth goodness!

This recipe is pretty much just a "base".  It's really tasty simple as is, or you can get creative with it and add other fruits!

I've made "jamoca almond fudge icecream" by adding some ground up bitter sweet chocolate chips, almonds, and using cold coffee instead of milk.  It was a huge hit!  If you make this, you'll want a little stronger cup of coffee, and I store it the "extras" in the fridge, but you can also make some coffee ice cubes and it will work great too!"



But....my newest favorite dessert is Whipped Chocolate & Peanut Butter "ice cream"

I came across this recipe on pinterest.  At first it sounds really, really gross.  But, even my MR. approves so....here it goes!

Whipped Chocolate & Peanut butter "ice cream"

 


1 avocado, peeled, and mashed
1 to 1 1/2 frozen bananas
3-4 Tbls cocoa
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
Peanut butter, to taste (optional) {all natural peanut butter is preferable!}

You are definitely going to want to mash of the avocado before putting in in the blender.  This will help alleviate having chunks of avocado in your "ice cream".  Then add everything into your blender and mix together!  It was amazingly good.  I only had a small bite of it because I'm trying to avoid peanuts, but the MR ate the whole bowl without a complaint!  

This recipe originally didn't call of peanut butter, so you can easily make it without!  It also made a probably 1 1/2 cups, so it's either a perfect "small" dessert for 2 people to share, or a greedy sized dessert for one!  The original pinterest pin had the ingredients doubled, and in my opinion it would easily feed 3-4 people!

If you like a chocolate raspberry combo, I but you could stir in some frozen raspberries to this for a lighter option, or just make it without the peanut butter!  The avocado & peanut butter option has quite a bit of fat in it, (good fats though!) but it sure it yummy!  

Bon Appétit!

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3 comments:

  1. Hmmm I REALLY don't know if I could do the avocado one, but the banana "ice cream" sounds good!!!

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    1. If you mash the avocado up before you throw it in the blender you would NEVER know it was in there! My husband is kind of finicky about “strange” food, so you know if He likes it then it’s good! You should just try it out! I swear, if you didn’t make it you would NEVER know it was in there! But yes, I LOVE the banana icecream

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  2. I would have never expected a homemade ice cream alternative containing avocado! :P Actually my weakness is not sweets, it's salty food so I I'm always using up my avocados with chips! haha!

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