We all love a treat now and then…a little something tasty after a hard workout or at the end of a hard work week. Something that gets those taste buds tingling and happy. Something you can feel good about feeding the kids. Now you can reward yourself with healthy, frozen fruit treats!
It’s winter in middle Tennessee, and I’m sure my buddies here are thinking I’ve lost my mind. But I love ice cream, smoothies, and pops ANY time, but on Whole30 I discovered I have a little trouble with dairy. So those things have to be made special for me to enjoy them while I’m eating them and feel good afterwards.
The “banana only” ice cream we made with Vi from @cavikitchen really surprised me. So creamy, so delicious…and only bananas and a little bit of coconut milk!!! Then I stumbled on this recipe for mango ice cream by blogilates.com. And that really set my mind ablaze with ideas.
I keep a lot of frozen fruit in my freezer at all times (see below for several frozen fruit posts). Which of those would work as ice cream? (Or in the immortal words of my son’s favorite YouTube channel “Good Mythical Morning” – WILL IT ICE CREAM?)
Here are my test results so far.
Will it “ice cream?”
I’ve tried mango, peach, strawberry and blueberry… and truly, to make ice cream that is creamy like the original and can be reasonably scooped out with an ice cream scoop (these are my ice cream criteria), you’ve got to have banana in there. It’s the magic ingredient.
This also means you’re going to taste banana along with your other fruit; so I consider blogilates mango ice cream to be more like banana/mango ice cream.
Well, if it’s not ice cream…
While processing just another fruit without banana doesn’t really fit my ice cream criteria, it’s still fantastic! You just have to make some adjustments. Here are some ideas…
- With extra liquid (1/2 cup or more to 1 to 1-1/2 cups fruit), it’s a smoothie. I highly recommend Chaokoh full fat coconut milk if you need to go dairy free (not an ad…see last week’s post here). It’s especially good with tropical fruits!
- With just enough liquid to make the frozen fruit process well (about ¼ to ½ cup to 1 to 1-1/2 cups fruit), you can enjoy an almost pudding-like cold treat right after processing!
- OR you could take that same “pudding,” load it into popsicle molds, and you’ve got unbelievably good AND nutritious fruit pops!
More on popsicles…I prefer the kind of mold where you can defrost one pop at a time (running the mold under hot water about 5-10 seconds until you feel it give or pulling gently on the handle releases it – don’t pull too hard or you might pull the stick out!).
BUT if you have the other kind of mold, defrost them all at once, then lay them out on a wax paper-covered cookie sheet, pop ‘em back in the freezer for a couple of hours, and simply load what you don’t use into a freezer bag for later.
Have more mix than you have molds? Store in the fridge, let one round of pops freeze, then move those into a freezer bag (using instructions above), wash the molds and dry well, and go again. This time you won’t have the handy dandy sticks and covers, BUT in a pinch, lollipop sticks or other things can work as well. I did double as you see just to make sure they were strong enough to last till the end of the pop.
Add a little protein to your treat!
If you’re looking for something more substantial after your workout but like the idea of a frozen treat to cool off, consider adding some nut butter or protein powder when you’re blending up your fruit for any of these luscious goodies…a little more oomph for your recovery!
What fruit will you use to make your next frozen treat?
Now it’s your turn. Get the kids’ help (they’ll love this one) and get crazy! I wanna try more fruits, but my time ran out. (I’m even considering pumpkin puree with pumpkin spice – is that weird???) Let me know what you tried and what your favorite was in the comments below. I really wanna know as I’m always up for another healthy treat! (And honestly, just a plain frozen banana is a real treat, too!)
