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A Cheat’s Guide To Making Healthy Ice Cream

A Cheat’s Guide To Making Healthy Ice Cream

We occasionally find ourselves cursing the name of whoever invented ice cream (which may have been the Chinese, in case you’re interested). It’s the ultimate temptation to break any diet or nutrition plan we’ve committed ourselves to. We eat low-fat meals during the day, we make sure we take our 10,000 daily steps, and we go to the gym. We complain about all that, but through determination we make it happen. Then, either a hot day arrives, or we get distracted walking down the aisle of a store, and ice cream calls out to us. It’s the perfect dessert, and almost everybody’s go-to treat when the opportunity presents itself.

The problem with ice cream is that we know it’s not good for us. It’s packed full of sugar and calories, with our favorite brands usually the worst offenders. We feel great when we eat it (it actually lights up pleasure sensors in our brains), but afterward, we have a tendency to feel guilty. We tell ourselves that we’ve ruined our diets, and our ice cream habit is the reason we can’t lose weight or stay healthy.

Fellow citizens, it doesn’t have to be this way!

There’s a perfectly healthy way of eating ice cream, so long as you’re prepared to stretch the definition of ‘ice cream’ a little, and it all has to do with unlocking the secret properties of bananas. Best of all, you can have ice cream that contains less than 200 calories per serving. You’ll almost spend more calories eating it than you’ll take on. As an added bonus, you can even use chocolate in the recipe without feeling bad about it. All of us who have a sweet tooth have a fondness for chocolate ice cream above any other, so this is a real case of having your cake and eating it too.

Our healthy ice cream isn’t something you can buy from a shop, so we’re going to tell you how to make it at home. All you need are the right ingredients and a good quality blender. It’s going to work just like the ‘build an ice cream’ bonus feature in the ‘99 Time’ slot at UK Slot Games, only in this case the end product is real rather than virtual, and the winnings are paid out as a healthy ‘cheat snack’ instead of a jackpot! You might be gambling when you’re playing the online slot, but you’re certainly not gambling with your health by following this recipe.

A Cheat’s Guide To Making Healthy Ice Cream

Ingredients For Healthy Banana Chocolate Ice Cream

The most incredible thing about this recipe is that there are only four ingredients, or three if you’re using a powerful blender. It really is that simple. This might sound like a classic case of ‘too good to be true,’ but all we can say to that is ‘try it and see for yourselves.’ This recipe will serve four people.

You’re going to need:

  • Four peeled, frozen bananas. Any bananas will work, but if possible use bananas that are just at the point of going soft; the type that has black spots on the peel. They’re much kinder to your food processor or blender and will turn into ‘ice cream’ faster than fresh ones.
  • A quarter-cup of cocoa powder
  • Two tablespoons of peanut butter. If you’re not keen on peanut butter, you can use almond butter instead. If you have a nut allergy, you can remove this ingredient without doing too much damage to the taste.
  • A quarter-cup of milk. This is only necessary if you’re using a food processor as opposed to a blender because it makes it easier for the mixture to blend. You could still choose to use it in a blender if you wish; it depends how soft you like your ice cream to be.

A Note About Blenders

Bananas do not break down into an ice cream-like substance easily. A basic blender will not be capable of doing the job; you’ll likely break your blender if you try. A high-powered blender will be capable of doing the job, but if you’re in doubt, you should use a food processor instead. A good food processor will have no issue whipping the bananas into a cream.

How To Make The Ice Cream

There are slight differences between using a food processor and using a blender, so we’ll talk you through the food processor method first.

For food processors:-

  • Put all of the ingredients into your food processor at once, and switch it on. Keep it running until you can see that the bananas have been mostly broken down into a pulp-like state.
  • Stop, scrape the sides of the food processor and push everything back down, and then switch on again. Eventually, you’ll be able to see that the contents of the processor have become creamy and smooth.
  • That’s it. Eat it right now if you like! Failing that, put the mixture into your freezer for a couple of hours to make it harder. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to serve it into cones or bowls.

For blenders:-

  • Put all your ingredients into the blender at once. Remember that you don’t need to use the milk if you have a powerful blender, although you can if you really want to.
  • Set your blender to its highest speed setting, and switch it on. As the mixture begins to blend, push down on the plunger to make sure that sufficient pressure is being applied. You should find that your mixture develops the consistency of ice cream somewhere between the two and three-minute mark.
  • You’re done! Get a spoon and eat it instantly, or freeze the mixture for a couple of hours if you’d rather serve it in cones or bowls.

Nutritional Information

As we mentioned earlier, this recipe serves four people. Each serving contains approximately 170 calories, four grams of protein (8% of your guideline daily amount), 32 grams of carbohydrates (11%), and six grams of fat (9%).

As you can see, it’s easy, it’s light, and because it contains four bananas, you can count it as four of your five per day. Enjoy!

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