Vegan Peanut Buster Parfait

Chocolate. Peanuts. Banana. Ice Cream. That is all...

Okay maybe not all, but that's all that's really important here. Who doesn’t love the amazing combination of peanuts, chocolate and ice cream? I bet most of you aren’t even reading this, you just want to skip to the bottom so you can eat one right now!! Let’s play a game! Let’s see if anyone is really paying attention. I love dogs, dogs are awesome, awesome awesome, awesome! Cats are great too! I love cats, catty cat, cats!..Anyone read that?  Haha!

 This dish really brings back childhood memories of my dad taking my sisters and I to Dairy Queen where I would order the peanut buster parfait. I would never finish it and I am sure my dad knew this but being the awesome dad he was he never once said “no honey you should just get the hot fudge Sunday its smaller” He knew that there was something special about ordering the PBP that a Sunday just couldn’t live up to!

So one hot summer night I was trying to figure out what to make for supper and I was coming up with a blank. I wasn’t going to turn on the stove or the oven because that would be just silly. So I opened the freezer and there was my answer! Frozen Bananas! The perfect summer time supper! I mean I don't live with my parents guys, I can have ice cream for supper. I’m kind of a bad ass.

So I whip up the banana ice cream and throw it in the freezer while I make the chocolate sauce. It probably only took me 8 mins to throw this all together which is a good and bad thing. Good because this doesn’t take long to prepare, bad because this doesn’t take long to prepare. If I had a constant supply of frozen bananas in my freezer I would probably make this every night! But when you think about it it’s not that bad, its really just bananas, peanuts, cocoa powder and dates! A pretty guilty free snack/supper if you ask me!

Vegan Peanut Buster Parfait 

2 frozen bananas – pureed into ice cream using a high speed blender

Chocolate sauce

5 majool dates

3 tbsp cocoa powder

Water

Blended at high speed, gradually adding water until you get the desired consistency.

Peanuts – you can find the Dairy Queen peanuts at Superstore in the bulk section!

I hope you enjoy this awesome Summer time treat!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Quick Vegan Chocolate Pancakes with Banana Ice Cream

I came up with this recipe out at my dad's cabin this past weekend. Jen, Sean and the boys were out for the weekend with us and I wanted to make something special for breakfast on Sunday. I was talking to Jen and thought about making chocolate pancakes and wished I could make them for the boys that weekend. So I took a look in the cupboards and came across cocoa powder. It was like the chocolate gods were speaking to me saying PLEASE MAKE CHOCOLATE PANCAKES! I mean come on, why would there be just straight up cocoa powder at the lake? Then I looked in the freezer and saw that there was vanilla ice cream. Not the greatest thing to eat in the morning and its not vegan but why not, the kids were going to live a little. 

"Cue Bolt of Lighting" 
I have bananas.... I have a freezer.... I have my Vitamix.... I CAN MAKE BANANA ICE CREAM!!! Its vegan, healthy and the perfect topping for my chocolate pancakes! Needless to say I was super excited to make these bad boys!

The picture doesn't do them justice, I had like 1 minute before we started eating and Brody came out with me and asked about 50 questions while I was trying to capture a decent photo. But take my word for it, they were delicious, the boys had two each and I had four! Haha ya I really lived it up this weekend. What I loved most is that Brody asked for 4 servings of banana ice cream! Something I didn't have to worry about because its just bananas!

I used the Bisquick pancake mix, but if you make your from scratch that would work too!

Thanks for reading!!
xoxo -N 

Banana Strawberry Ice Cream with Vegan Chocolate Chips

 I would like to dedicate this post to all of you who are reading this now, to those of you who read my blog yesterday, and to those who will read my blog in the future. I am so proud and happy to say that I have reached over 5000 hits, and I couldn’t be more excited!! It has only been 5 months and the response has been overwhelming, so I guess I am doing something right?  It is so crazy to think that people are actually reading the things I write and making the meals I create.  So in honor of this awesome milestone of mine, I decided to celebrate with some dessert!

With my sister Ashley on banana island this past week bananas have been popping up everywhere, from Facebook, Youtube and our conversations. So I am not surprised that I was craving this sweet treat tonight after supper, banana ice cream. But not just any banana ice cream, strawberry flavored ice cream! I had just bought fresh strawberries at the grocery store this week and while banana ice cream is delicious, strawberry ice cream is better....with chocolate chips!

If you are a banana lover like me and my sister, you will love her blog post and You Tube channel. Naturally Ashley is a natural heath coach and a banana enthusiast and can take a regular banana and transform it into meals you wouldn’t have even imagined! She just posted 8 Banana Recipe Meals using only bananas and she saved the best one for last, the ice cream. She is an inspiration of health and beauty and you can check out her blog here, her You Tube Channel here, and her on Facebook here.

I have stolen her recipe and added the strawberries!

Ingredients – 1 serving

2 ripe bananas, sliced

3-4 ripe strawberries, sliced

Slice bananas and strawberries, 1/4-inch thick. Make sure the bananas are ripe with lots of brown spots!!

Freeze in a single layer on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper — or in one layer in a resealable freezer bag, laid flat — until solid, at least 6 hours. (I usually freeze them overnight)

Transfer to food processor OR Vitamix/high powered blender.

When you process the bananas, they’ll first go sort of granular, then you’ll start to notice it going a bit creamy near the edges. Once this happens, scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to blend, scrape, blend, scrape, etc. until the whole thing is a smooth, silky, creamy, moussey dream. This whole process should take 3 to 4 minutes in the food processor and 1- 2 minutes in the Vitamix. 

Serve right away with any toppings you like! I chose vegan chocolate chips :)

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Again look what my adorable Rottweiler, Stella accidentally did! She thought she was being sneaky by gently licking the glass behind my back but sadly no. It fell of the side table and smashed everywhere! Thanks sweetheart, I was done anyways!