If you have ever had the luxury of watching the sands in an hour glass, you see that near the end the sands appear to fall through faster. Well, upon moving into my 8th decade, my sands of time have begun to do just that. I’ve reached the no salt no sugar phase of life and ask, “What’s a birthday without ice cream? Go bananas and don’t worry!”
RAW BANANA ICE CREAM
Yields: about 1 quart (I use 7 yogurt cups to freeze single servings)
20 pitted dates, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp raw honey
2 Tbsp extra-virgin coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 cups sliced, very ripe bananas
1/2 cup raw nuts (optional)
2 Tbsp carob powder
1 container of yogurt
Splash of almond coconut milk
Directions:
Put dates into a medium bowl, cover with lukewarm water and set aside to soak for 10 min. Drain dates. In a food processor, puree dates with 3-4 Tbsp almond-coconut milk, honey, coconut oil, vanilla extract and cinnamon until smooth. Add bananas and yogurt and puree until smooth. Transfer to yogurt containers, top with nuts and mini chocolate chips, cover and freeze for about 4 hours. Let it soften a bit at room temperature before serving.
For September 23, my 72nd birthday, I have plans to make Pina Colada Ice Cream and use coconut yogurt, coconut extract, a small can of crushed pineapple, drained and add a packet of frozen coconut. I will leave out the cinnamon, carob and nuts and serve with whipped cream with chocolate syrup and English walnuts with a maraschino cherry on top.
