Ice Cream in Your Blender

Dairy Free!

You'll never look at ice cream the same way again if you try one of these recipes! Healthy, dairy free, and no ice cream maker required! The flavor possibilities are endless! You'll be an ice cream connoisseur before you know it!

Funny enough, I made the following recipes over winter of all seasons. I made notes and took photos. There isn't a whole lot to do here in the winter! So, we eat. The planes don't come over much (little daylight) so groceries are even more limited and we get creative.  I posted these on Vegweb.com  in January.

My hubs loves dairy ice cream. Except for the occasional sprinkle of feta/greek yogurt, I can't indulge in dairy anymore (bloat/digestive issues). One night I was watching him thoroughly enjoy his pint of Greek Gods and it looked so good that I became determined to recreate something for myself, so I tried to make my own Luna And Larry's Coconut Ice Cream (sold here in town for almost $8.00 a pint)! All you need is a bowl, spoon and your freezer!

Vanilla Coconut

I'm not sure where I got the idea for the banana ice cream. Maybe I Googled homemade ice cream? I can't remember. All I know is I was so impressed and immediately concocted a zillion flavors. Now we don't even buy the $5.00 pints that my hubs was eating (toooo much of I dare say). They are so good, they converted an ice cream fiend. All you need is a freezer, and a blender or food processor.

A couple notes on the coconut ice cream. It is best in my opinion to use fresh, whole coconuts. Which can be a challenge. In a pinch, or just to try it out, you can use a can of good quality coconut milk however, please keep this in mind about canned goods, especially coconut milk. Gosh, I use to use canned coconut milk ALL the time. :( I still do sometimes. But I don't feel as good about it.

How to make your own fresh coconut milk here.

An alternative to BOTH, making milk with dried coconut flakes is here. I find bobs red mill large flakes are best.

Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream
1-2 C Coconut Milk (choose your method above)
1-2 Tbs Yacon, Maple Syrup, Honey, Agave (I was using this at the time.. check here)
1 Vanilla Bean or 1-2 Tsp Vanilla Extract (bean makes the pretty speckles)

Chocolate Sauce:
2 Tbs Cacao
2 Tbs Liquid Sweetener
(1 Tsp Coconut oil-optional)

1. Coconuts: Open 1 to 2 coconuts (depending on size) and pour coconut milk into a blender. Remove the meat and add to blender; blend until super smooth. Strain if needed (I do). If your milk is purplish, throw it away! It's bad! If you are desperate to try this and do not have coconuts, see info above recipe.

2. Transfer 2 cups of blended coconut into the bowl of a food processor. (I use a food processor for the rest because it's easier to scrape etc.)

3. Add agave syrup and vanilla bean (I also throw in the husk after it's been scraped); process until smooth. Taste along the way, this will only take a minute or two to blend.

4. Pour in large glass bowl (anything may do) and place in freezer. Stir well every 30 minutes or so, making certain to scrape the sides and don't leave the spoon in! That is it!

5. Chocolate Sauce: In a bowl, combine cacao and sweetener; mix well (it takes a minute or two to get them to blend). Drizzle away!

Variations:

Blueberry Colada

Blueberry Colada
Add 1/2 extra cup of Coconut milk and 1/2 Cup of frozen blueberries, process until smooth (unless you want chunks) and mix in 1 Tbs or so of Shredded coconut.

I made this next one up especially for my mom who loves coconut/almond/chocolate combos. If you are like minded here is an Almond Joy smoothie recipe also.

Almond Joy
1-2 C Coconut milk
2-4 Tbs Maple Syrup
1/2 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Almonds
1/2 C Chocolate/Carob Chips
1/4 C Shredded Coconut
Pinch of salt

Process Coconut Milk, Maple (the maple is important for this recipe!) and vanilla. Pulse in remaining ingredients. Freeze, stirring every 30 minutes or so. Once fully hardened, let sit out 10 minutes or so for easier serving.

You can take it from here. Obvious delicious add ins would be berries, chocolate, pineapple, pecans, cinnamon etc. etc.

Now, 1 ingredient soft serve ice cream!

Basic Banana Ice Cream
1 chopped, then frozen banana

Place in blender/food processor. Process until smooth. Enjoy!

Choco Banana (sauce recipe above)

Choco-Banana
1 banana, peeled, sliced into rounds, then frozen
2 tablespoons yacon or agave or maple to taste
2 heaping teaspoons cacao or cocoa powder

1. In a blender or food processor, place frozen banana slices, yacon syrup, cacao (or you could skip this and add one half vanilla bean, scraped, then include husk); process until smooth, scraping the sides a few times while blending.

2. You can eat it at this point, but if it started to melt during processing- pour into a large container, place in freezer, and stir every 30 minutes or so until totally frozen and ice cream like. (It will freeze pretty hard, so you'll want to leave it out 5 minutes before eating.
Top with your favorite goodies! Enjoy!

 This wasn't a favorite of mine. But I used an ultra ripe banana. And I'm not an ultra ripe banana kind of girl. I'm like 'em on the green side.

Variations I've tried (per 1 banana):
Strawberry-Add in 3 Frozen strawberries (chopped if you can) per 1 Banana Pulsing in last one for chunks.

Cinnamon-Add in 1/2-1 Tsp Cinnamon and 1/4-1/2 Tsp Vanilla

Masala Chai- My sister in law and I worked to get this one right.. but I can't find the notes.. here is my guess from memory: Add in
1/2 tsp+ Cardamom
1/4-1/2 tsp Ground ginger and Cinnamon
1/8 Tsp Cloves
Pinch of white pepper
1 Tsp of some kind of sweetener, Add vanilla if you want Vanilla-Chai

Ginger Lucuma Add in 1 Tbs Chopped Candied Ginger and 1/2 Tsp powdered Lucuma (I like 1/2 Tsp honey in this)

Almond Butter-Banana

Almond Butter-Banana 
Add in 1 Tbs Almond Butter per 1 Banana

Enjoy your healthy creation!! Share with a friend.. a little.