It’s getting hot out! Where I live in Indiana, we have been in the upper 80’s and low 90’s this week, so I know that means that other areas of the country are even hotter! I came across this idea, or “recipe” on Eat From Your Pantry, and thought that it sounded too good to be true – using frozen fruit to make ice cream. How great is that? And such a delicious and healthy treat for these hot summer afternoons!
The basic idea is to take a frozen banana and puree it in your food processor until it becomes creamy, kind of like ice cream. I wasn’t really sure it would work, but the first time I tried it, low and behold, I had a smooth, creamy, ice cream like treat that my kids couldn’t get enough of. And the only ingredient – One frozen banana!
I decided to branch out a bit, I tried adding some mixed frozen fruit, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, with the banana. The result was not quite as creamy, more sorbet-like, but still really, really good. I served it to my family when they were in town visiting and everyone couldn’t believe that all it had in it was frozen fruit!
So, last week, I decided to try it the way Anjanette from Eat From Your Pantry did, with bananas and strawberries. It was so great I think it’s going to be my main way of making this awesome summertime treat from now on.
Homemade Strawberry Banana Ice Cream in the food processor
The ingredients:
1-2 Frozen Bananas (cut into chunks)
Handful of frozen strawberries (cut into smaller chunks if they are whole)
splash of whole milk
(Obviously use more or less depending on how many people you are trying to serve – this was a great amount for me and my two small kids.)
Put banana(s) and strawberries in your food processor and blend together. You have to let it process for a while. It will seem at first like it’s not going to get creamy, but when you get to that point, add a splash of milk, and keep going.
This is the end result that you are looking for, nice and creamy, just like ice cream! But without any added sweetener!
This stuff is seriously so good, you will want to make it every single day. And you will feel great feeding it to your kids because only you know that it’s made with just whole fruit, and is so good for them! It’s a great way to use frozen bananas – put your bananas into the freezer whole, when they are a little on the over-ripe side, they are great to use in banana bread, smoothies, or like this!
Also, check out this post and some of the comments, there are tons more ideas for how to make “ice cream” this way. I may have to try some of the other combinations soon, like peanut butter, chocolate and banana – Yum!
Okay, my kids are waking up from their naps and now I really want to make this for them!
Looking for more healthy snacks? Check these out:
Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter “Ice Cream”
We make slushies all the time – very very similar! So delicious and nutritious. I never add sweetener, the fruit is enough.
I love this.I add a bit of coconut cream to the bananas. oooh delicious.
So glad you liked it too!! We've been doing just frozen bananas a lot lately – fabulous and frugal!!
loved the idea, family liked it to
all the best
newman
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