Homemade "Ice Cream"

Introduction

With all of the hazards to your health associated with many traditional desserts it is sometimes challenging to satisfy your family's (and perhaps your own) sweet tooth. While all foods must be eaten in moderation, we have found a concoction that provides a more favorable nutrient-to-calorie ratio than most desserts while at the same time being sweet and satisfying.The two main ingredients in our "ice cream" are bananas and raw nuts. The rest is flavor variations using spices, fruits and extracts.

The basic "full fat" recipe uses 1/2 cup nuts and about 8 bananas. It makes over one quart of dessert. The nuts contribute about 300 calories and the bananas 800 calories to the recipe. The entire quart or more of the recipe would have about 1100 calories. Your portion size determines the rest. A one cup portion of many Ben and Jerry's flavors runs 600 calories, and eating an entire pint container (1200 calories) has been known to happen on more than one occasion.

A "fat free" version of this recipe is also a possibility. Leaving out the nuts and pulverizing the frozen bananas along with your chosen flavorings works well.

With any mainstream ice cream the nutrient density is very poor, and even reduced-calorie selections represent a poor option for your health. You can steer clear of the dairy products, refined sugars, refined oils, sodium and additives present in your usual "grocery store" options by utilizing the recipe below. Even those products at the store which have reduced fat content and are therefore less harmful to your health than the usual varieties do not offer the health-promoting nutrients of the dessert presented here.

Nutrient details

Bananas are strictly only partly fruit (with important micro-nutrients). The rest is "unrefined starch" which is the preferred type of energy source in a healthy diet. The banana is famous for its potassium content, about 400 mg in one small banana. A diet which has a preponderance of potassium instead of sodium has beneficial effects on blood pressure, an important risk factor for heart disease.

Nuts are high in fats, but the fat profile of nuts can be regarded as beneficial to health. Nuts offer a good source of the essential fatty acid know as Omega 6, and walnuts have both Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 is the fatty acid present in fish that is believed to be effective in reducing risk for heart disease. Current recommendations from many health authorities recommend eating one ounce of nuts each day as a way to decrease your risk of heart attacks. The famous Nurses Health Study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found a 30% reduction in risk of heart disease for women who ate 5 or more servings of nuts each week.

Different nuts contribute various micro-nutrients to the diet. Some, like almonds and sesame seeds offer a valuable source of calcium. Many are rich in magnesium, selenium and other minerals. Sunflower seeds and almonds offer a lot of vitamin E, which has been regarded for its anti-oxidant properties and evidence of reducing risk of dementia.

100 grams of most nuts is a little less than one cup. A serving is commonly regarded as one ounce which is 33 grams. The food table link here displays the nutrient content of 100g portions.

http://www.midstatesd.net/~mschacht/nutrition/NutrientsinTreeNuts.html

Preparation

The preparation of our type of ice cream uses first a blender (aka "osterizer") and then a food processor with a metal blade. The nuts used should always be raw and unsalted. Select varieties which contribute a flavor and combination of nutrients you prefer at a cost you can afford. Sunflower seeds are the least expensive and in many respects the most nutrient dense. Pistachios have a unique flavor, but are much more expensive and therefore usually not for "everyday" use.

Preparation begins at the grocery store where you hunt for the over-ripe bananas. Their cost is low, and occasionally if you ask there will be some in the back even if they are not out on display. Ar Breadroot you can special order organic bananas and split a case with the store if necessary.

When you get home peel the bananas and place them on a baking sheet or cutting board, and freeze for a few hours or overnight. When they are solid you can bag them. If you put the fresh bananas into a bag and freeze them they will stick together and you will have a banana brick which is not too easy to work with.

The basic mixture

First step is making the liquid portion. We like it best with nut creams, but other possibilities include fruit juices, blenderized fresh fruits, or a small amount of water. Basic nut creams use 1 scant cup of nuts with enough water to allow it to spin easily in the blender (perhaps 2 cups, but it varies by nut so use just what you really need). Run the blender on the highest speed for several minutes to get the best results. You may have to add additional small amounts of water as the mixture thickens during the blending process.

Coarsely chop the frozen bananas and place about two bananas worth of pieces in the food processor along with 1 cup of liquid. (Less if your food processor is small capacity) Process the mixture until the chunks are gone, then begin adding more chunks of frozen banana, allowing them to get mixed in before adding more. You may need to stop and scrape the bowl a few times to get it all processed smooth. Keep adding bananas until you have a consistency of soft-serve ice-cream. The basic mixture is now ready to eat.

Variations

When adding flavorings like vanilla it is easiest to put them in at the beginning so they are distributed evenly throughout the final product. Chopped nuts, dried fruits, chopped fresh fruits, or carob chips are stirred in at the end.

"Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream" is a family favorite. Canned pumpkin, baked yams, or baked winter squash can be used in place of 2-3 bananas in the basic recipe. Using these well chilled "pumpkin equivalents" allows for a thicker finished product. The use of these yellow-orange unrefined starches makes the carotene (vitamin A) content very high. Including pumpkin pie spices makes for a really delicious treat.

Fruit ice creams (like peach or strawberry) are also delicious. You can add frozen or fresh fruits to the banana and cream mix, but will need to decrease the liquid portion of cream if using fresh fruits or the amount of bananas if using frozen fruits.

If you like hard ice cream, you can either place the soft-serve consistency into an ice cream freezer and churn until done, or place a container in the freezer and stir every 30 minutes
until it reaches the desired consistency.

A few flavor possibilities:

• vanilla
• mint (best with strongly brewed mint tea instead of water to make the nut cream, but extract works too)
• cinnamon
• ginger snap (cookie spices plus a splash of molasses)
• cardamon
• lemon (use lemon zest and lemon juice)
• carob
• pumpkin pie (using fresh pumpkin or pumpkin equivalents like canned pumpkin, baked yam, or baked winter squash, plus pumpkin pie spices)
• apple pie (apples and apple pie spices)
• coconut (try coconut milk for the liquid portion)
• strawberry
• peach
• mango
• rosewater (extra good Middle Eastern flavor when made with pistachios)
• maple (a splash of real maple syrup or a dash of extract)

The drinkable variation

A quick, filling breakfast the kids like is an almond milkshake. Almonds are soaked in water overnight and blended for several minutes on high speed. Place one cup of soaked almonds in theblender jar and water to the 2 1/2 c level. After blending this for a long time add about 5 bananas. Use some combinationof fresh, chilled and frozen bananas, depending on how thickand cold of a result you are after. Two tablespoons of carob powder can be added to make a chocolate look-alike but with the unique flavor of carob.

We hope you enjoy these ideas and find them useful for displacing less healthful items from your diet.