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

Cherry Chocolate Energy Balls

Mmm I love cherries! They are for sure my favourite fruit and if I could, I woud eat them every single day! Well I guess I almost do, because I found frozen cherries at Super Store and now I have cherries in a lot of my morning smoothies!

I got the idea to make these from Alternate Roots Organic, they make about 5 different energy balls and their chocolate cherry ones are by far my favourite, and in close second is the mint chocolate chip. After buying them from the store a couple times I thought “I could probably make these!” So I got looking on the internet and came across a link to “Make your own Lara Bars”, that got my attention because the energy balls were basically just that – round Lara Bars. So I clicked on the link and wow, they were super simple to make too! Just almonds, dates and raisins, really basic ingredients that I already had in my cupboard.

I of course made some changes to the recipe wanting it to be a chocolate cherry flavour, but that was easy enough! I decided to add some cashews in there along with the almonds to make it a little more nutty flavored. For me I think just almonds would have been too bitter tasting. Also I added some cocoa powder for the chocolatiness and I substituted the raisins for cherries! Presto chango! Yummy cherry chocolate balls!

I would highly recommend using a food processor for this recipe and not using a standard blender or magic bullet. The mixture becomes very thick and could burn out your motor, even in my Vita Mix it stalled out and I had to give her time to cool off.

Ingredients - 12 balls 

½  cup almonds

½ cup cashews

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp vanilla powder

10 dates, de pitted

¼ cup dried cherries

In a high speed blender or food processor, pulse almonds, cashews, cocoa powder and vanilla into a flour. Add the dates and pulse until well blended. Stir in dried cherries and form into balls. Refrigerate for 20 mins. Enjoy!