Banana Ice Cream and Cookies

So, I know a girl who needs to start a blog. 

 

The fact I don't get to read stuff like this every day is just not right. 

 

My friend Jennifer a) offered to write a guest post and b) freakin brought it. This post is hilarious, legit informative, and appeals to moms and banana lovers alike. Let's meet the woman behind the post:

Jennifer is my friend from OU. We were proud members of Phi Gamma Nu business fraternity, and were meathead corporate mavens in the making. Check her out now...holy hot family alert!

Without further adieu, I give you Jennifer's blogging debut, brilliantly entitled "The Top Two Most Fun Things I’ve Done With A Banana—And That’s Saying Something."

Is it just me, or does it seem like bananas are having a moment?  I feel like a ton of Facebook posts and those crap chain emails and whatnot are all over them place with totally bogus stats on how bananas…you know…cure cancer and morph into Jesus and make your hair shiny.  I get it: bananas are good for you.  I’ve shoved so many bananas in my mouth over the last few days, it’s really incredible. 

 ...and we have innuendo.   

I’m not going to make any huge claims about bananas being the NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WILL EVER EAT, but I will divulge the reason we now go through legitimately 2-3 bunches of bananas a week.  As a family of four.  With two members under the age of 4.  Don’t judge.  

So.

Dear Diary, today I discovered some really interesting things to do with a banana…

Banana Discovery #1: Ice Cream  

So, we watch [probably way too much] Disney Junior in this house and have favorites and not-so favorites when it comes to the tiny little mini-shows in between the big, 24-minute shows.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you either don’t have kids or you’re a better mother than I am and don’t let your kids watch [probably way too much] TV.  In which case, bite me.  A girl’s gotta shower.  And check Facebook.

Anyway, one of these mini shows features this woman with the personality of a cardboard box “cooking” healthy snacks, or in most cases, cutting up fruit in different ways.  But whatever.  She’s obviously doing something right, because she’s getting paid real live money by Disney to record 5 minute cooking shows (I’m not bitter).  So last week, she talks about banana helado (Spanish for ice cream), and does it in kind of an annoying voice and makes the “d” very nasal-y and it sounds like this: [insert overdone Latin accent] “ay-LAAAAAAH-do.”  But use a lot of tongue/teeth with the “d.”    

Now you can say Banana Helado (and I encourage you to do so any time you make this…my 3 year old does a really funny version of it, which annoys the sanity out of my husband and really adds to the whole experience). BUT, this banana helado is, like, surprisingly good.  Like, totes creamy-dreamy, banana-y goodness, for real.  Legit.  Now, get a pen and paper and take down the ingredients for this recipe.  Ready?  Ok, ingredient #1: bananas.

That’s it.  No seriously, this is bananas, and nothing but bananas (ok, there are some add-ins that make it ridic good, but we’ll get to those in a second).  So essentially what you do is cut up 4 ripe bananas into chunks, pop chunks into a Ziploc, freeze for a few hours until they’re totally frozen, then put them in a food processor and blend until they’re the consistency of frozen yogurt.   

Again, that’s it.  For real.

When you first start grinding, it may get a little funky and look like bad dip n’ dots…just keep going.  A few minutes and it pretty much breaks the laws of physics or whatever and all of a sudden you have ice cream.

Now, the fat kid in me adapted this (naturally).  So if you want another flavor of Banana Helaaaaado, add about 1 Tbs of natural peanut butter and a tsp or two of honey.  Raw, organic, Wal-Mart brand, whatever—you do you.  But add it to the frozen bananas in the food processer and blend everything together.  So, so good.  Fat kid/mom approved, toddler approved, husband approved.  Shared with adult family and they approved.  Hooray!

Banana discovery #2: Cookies

I’ve been post-baby dieting these last few months and every once in a while will have those days where all I want to do is snack.  Like, if I could cover my kitchen table in tiny bowls of, like, goldfish crackers and cheeses and dips and grapes and little dark chocolate nuggs and nuts and any other thing you can take small handfuls of, that’s what I’d prefer to do with my day.  Graze.  So, coincidentally, that’s what’s I'm feeling today.

Enter bananas.

“Cookies,” I thought to myself.  “Cookies would be a really good snack right now." Until I remembered the last 22 lbs and what a colossal bitch they were to get rid of. I decided to figure something out that might not actually break the fat/cal bank.  So I Pinterested, and found solid gold. 

So.  Two ripe bananas, smash until goopy.   

 

Mix in 1 cup oats. I’m 100% certain someone will ask, yes, I have tried them with steel-cut oats.  They’re whack.  Stick to old fashioned or quick.  Back to baking:  you want to kind of cream these in like you normally would cream [they-who-must-not-be-named] butter and sugar.  Get the oats wet and get the whole thing kind of feeling like dough by way of oatmeal.  Then mix in 1 tbs cinnamon, ¼ C raisins, and 1-2 tsp vanilla extract.  Bake at 350 for 15 mins.

 

Are they the world’s best cookie?  No.  But are they a cookie that you can eat for like 70 calories and kind of satisfy a sweet tooth?  Will a toddler eat them and thing he’s eating some kind of glorious treat?  Yes and yes. And come on, they take like 2 seconds to put together.  Even my lazy *ahem* derriere can do that.

So there you go: cookies and ice cream, folks!  Made of bananas!  Feed to children with no guilt!  Can you feel the excitement?!  If you ever needed a reason to ingest more bananas, I suggest blending some frozen ones into a sick gelato-y treat.  Next time you see one of those “bananas reverse osteoarthritis and make childbirth painless!” posts, chuckle and give the world a smug little smile, because you totally just nailed it.

(by way of Jennifer)