Much like the great kale chip phenomenon of winter ought nine, banana soft serve is sweeping the internet and I am a little behind the times. I first came across it on Oh She Glows, Angela eats this stuff pretty much every day. Once I knew about it, it seemed to pop up everywhere. After looking at luscious picture after luscious picture, I had to give this treat a whirl, so to speak. It truly has perfect ice cream texture but instead of eating a bunch of fat, you’re just eating fruit. Best trick ever!

This recipe can be made with only one ingredient but I like to spice it up a little with my newest obsession, Justin’s Nut Butter. (Psssst! You can order this stuff from my Amazon store over there in the sidebar and save a bundle! It’s cheaper than the grocery store and free shipping!)

It’s vegan (if you use a nut butter without honey), it’s easy, it’s cheap and it’s deeeeelicious. One of the things I love most about it is that you can control the sweetness by using riper or less ripe bananas. I don’t have a super sweet tooth so I like to use just yellow bananas once all the hints of green have gone. If you want your soft serve sweeter, use bananas that are starting to brown and soften.

Ingredients:

- 2 Bananas, cut into large chunks and frozen overnight
- 2 Tbsp Justin’s Honey Roasted Almond Butter (or any nut butter)
- Splash of almond milk
- Cacao nibs as sprinkles

Place bananas and nut butter into food processor and whiz for about five minutes.

Test the consistency, if it’s still a bit chunky, add a splash of almond milk and whiz until totally smooth.

Scoop into a bowl and top with cacao nibs. It’s JUST THAT EASY! Dig in!

 

Ingredients:
- Two slices of gluten free bread (I used Gluten Free Pantry mix in my handy dandy breadmaker)
- 1/2 banana, sliced
- Nice glob of Jif peanut butter (I don’t eff around with my PB. Jif is the only one for me. I eat a jar a week. It’s a sickness.)
- A thin coating of Nutella (it’s got a stronger flavor and will make a huge mess if you use too much)
- A small handful of toasted coconut shavings (take sweetened coconut flakes or shavings and toast them in a skillet until golden brown and fragrant)
- Butter

Instructions: Toast both bread slices until they are just golden brown. This seems crazy but gluten free bread doesn’t seem to cook through on the griddle the same way wheat bread does. If you want your sandwich to be evenly cooked and crunchy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside, heed my advice and take this step.

 Smear on side of a bread slice with Jif peanut butter then place banana slices on top of the peanut butter.

 Smear the other slice of bread with Nutella then sprinkle on toasted coconut. Smush the two pices of bread together and butter the top of the sandwich. Heat a nonstick skillet to medium heat then place the sandwich butter side down in the skillet.

This, my friends, is why I had to detox. I spent much of December gorging on goodies like this awesome bread pudding, steaks in rich sauces, chips and dips and all manner of unholy buttery treats. January is my time to get back on track but I still have to share this amazing dessert with those of you who are NOT subsisting on beet juice and smoothies. I made this gluten free but it’s even easier for you gluten eaters out there. You start with a loaf of white bread. I made mine from a mix using my new baby, the breadmaker (If you can’t eat wheat, I highly suggest investing in a breadmaker. It has truly changed my life.)

If you’ve never had bread pudding before, this is a great recipe to try for your first time. Traditionally bread pudding has raisins (nasty!) and nutmeg (blech!) This recipe has chocolate and bananas and is sooooo comforting and yummy. It’s great hot out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sugar
- big pinch of salt
- 14 ounces gluten free bread, preferably slightly stale, cut into 3/4″-1″ cubes (about one loaf, cut it up and leave it out overnight to “stale” it up)
- 6.5 oz high quality, dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 large or 2 small bananas, peeled and cut into small pieces (I cut the bananas into 1/4 inch round slices then halved each slice.)

Preheat oven to 350 F
Cut bread into chunks and fill a buttered large shallow baking dish, around 9″ x 13″

Beat the eggs. Whisk in the milk, starting with just a little at a time until the eggs are well distributed. Whisk in the cream, vanilla extract, sugar, and salt. Chop chocolate into chunks.

Mix the chocolate and bananas into the custard mix.

Spread out the bread pieces evenly in the pan.

Pour the custard evenly over the bread and swish it around lightly, trying to get it to absorb without squashing the bread too much. Fill any spaces and make sure the bread chunks are in a single layer.

Adapted from: http://herbivoracious.com