Blueberry Coconut Ice Cream

Posted in Sweets

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If you’ve never made “ice cream” with a ripe frozen banana, you really need to try it. It has a perfect ice-cream consistency, and is so fun to make, especially with kids. Aside from the calories in ice cream (to me food is SO much more than calories), many people have noticed that when they gave up milk, their joints stopped swelling and inflammation went down. If you struggle with feeling bloated and swollen, try giving up milk for 3 weeks. Switching to recipes like this help to substitute old habits with new healthy ones! We made this at a healthy cooking class and everyone LOVED it!

Ingredients

1 large ripe banana, frozen solid
1/2 cup ripe blueberries, frozen 
2 teaspoons unsweetened coconut flakes 

Preparation

1. Cut your banana in half and into fourths if it isn’t already (some people freeze banana into chunks, I like to freeze bananas whole, and then break them up afterwards). 
2. Put both the banana and the frozen blueberries in a food processor and PULSE (this is very important! Don’t blend, just pulse. It will look choppy at first – like little beads, then it will slowly take on the texture of soft-serve). Just keep pulsing and telling yourself it will work out – ha! 
3. When mixture has the texture and consistency of ice cream, scoop out into little dishes and top with coconut flakes. Eat immediately! You can also put the whole mixture into a glass bread pan and freeze it to be scooped later. It’s beautiful, healthy, sweet & delicious! 

Notes: 
– your banana should be the exact ripeness that you like to eat it at. Not overly ripe for banana bread; more like at the newly-ripe freckled stage. I felt the need to say that because I normally eat bananas a little under-ripe, and making this recipe produced a banana-discussion over what stage they should be eaten or cooked at! 
– if you don’t like coconut, feel free to leave it off. This ice cream is great as-is, or would be excellent with toasted almond or a sprinkle of homemade granola.