This post was sponsored by Skinnygirl as part of an Influencer Activation. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review.
Banana Blender Ice Cream is one of the easiest desserts you can make on a hot summer’s day. All you need is frozen bananas and a blender to make this work!
A few months ago, I turned 40.
Say, whaaaaaat?
Yeah, it’s true.
So needless to say, I’ve been pretty focused on making sure I’m in tip-top shape for the next phase of my life. This means that I hired a personal trainer for my fortieth birthday and have been strength training two days a week. It also means that I’m trying to be active every single day that I’m not in the gym. Whether it’s going for a bike ride with my kids, or body surfing in the ocean, or even just running laundry up and down our three flights of stairs – I’m trying to make every movement count.
Along with an increase in physical activity, I’ve also been paying attention to what I eat. This way, when I do want to snack on something, I know it’s not going to blow my daily calorie intake right out of the water. So when we had the opportunity to try some Skinnygirl products from Bethenny Frankel, we were pretty excited about it. We’re fellow New Yorkers and love supporting local brands and we were interested to see how her product line tasted.
In case you’re not familiar with Skinnygirl products, they offer healthy snacking and drinking solutions that allow people to indulge without the guilt. The Skinnygirl Brand focuses more on portion control instead of dieting so all of these items are appropriately sized for snacking. Our goodie box included a box of tea, two sparklers, a case of mints, a liquid water enhancer, and two bags of Belgian milk chocolates – pistachio caramel bars and sea salt toffee truffles!
Hands down, our favorites were the White Cherry water enhancer with no artificial colors or sweeteners, the sparklers, and the chocolates. My sister and I couldn’t get over how tasty the water enhancer was and kept dreaming of making a cocktail with it. It’s quite delicious on its own and you only need a little bit to enhance your drink, but I think it would be divine with some seltzer and vodka too!
Since the kiddos were home, we held off on the cocktails (I mean, it was only 2 o’clock in the afternoon.) and decided to make one of our favorite summer desserts instead. Our Banana Blender Ice Cream is a delicious way to encourage our kids to eat fun, healthy snacks. When topped off with some crumbled Skinnygirl chocolates, it became the perfect sweet treat for a hot summer’s day spent swimming at the pool!
BANANA BLENDER ICE CREAM
Ingredients:
- 3 large, ripe bananas, frozen overnight
Optional Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1 tablespoon unsalted peanut butter
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- SkinnyGirl chocolates, crumbled up into little pieces
Directions:
Step 1: Break up 3 large bananas and place them into a resealable freezer bag. Don’t use completely overripe bananas that are covered in brown spots or the taste will be off. A few brown spots are okay. Freeze bananas pieces overnight.
Step 2: Place frozen banana pieces into a strong blender. Turn the blender on high and start to break up the bananas. This will take some time, so don’t get cranky. The mixture will be crumbly at first and you will think this recipe is a bust – it’s not. Keep going.
Step 3: Once the mixture gets a bit crumbly, open your blender and using a spatula, scrape the banana mixture back down towards the blade. At this point, you can add any additional ingredients that you want. Use common sense when mixing and matching. I’m currently all about a splash of Vanilla Almond Milk (think 1/8-1/4 cup ), some peanut butter and a dash of cinnamon.
Step 4: Blend until soft and creamy. You can eat it right away, soft serve style, or you can freeze it for a bit until it hardens. Top with SkinnyGirl chocolates and chow down!
Interested in learning more about Skinnygirl? You can check them out here to find a store near you, or follow the Skinnygirl on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!
Happy snacking,
Denine
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