"Pumpkin Pie" ice cream (without the pumpkin)

This was my favorite holiday treat this year.  The two things I miss most from the SAD world are pumpkin pie and peanut butter cups.  But I think I have a good substitute for both (the latter is still in my mind).  I made a half-recipe of StraightUPFood's Pumpkin Pie and made it into muffins with the crust at the bottom.  It was good, and next time I'd make a quarter recipe since I'm the only one to eat it.  Hmm, I wonder if it would be better with the butternut squash too.  Pumpkin is not very tasty on its own.

I like this ice cream even better than the pumpkin pie and it's less calorie-rich.  It was inspired by Carol on the Fuhrman forums.

Ingredients
4 oz frozen cooked butternut squash (I baked mine)
1 frozen banana
1 medjool date
1/2 oz walnuts
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla or scrape in some vanilla bean
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (it was actually good without)

Put it all into a high-powered blender.   Let it sit for about 10 minutes so the frozen stuff isn't super hard.  Then blend up.  you might have to walk away again for a few minutes and let it sit (blender off) and thaw some more.  Blend it up nice and smooth.  It tastes like the decadent pumpkin pie frozen custard that I used to get.

Note:  If you don't have a high-powered blender, you could try making it in a food processor.  Or in a low-powered blender add more soy milk and another date and a little more pumpkin pie spice and call it a milkshake.

Here are the ingredients in the blender:

I used vanilla bean which you can see as the black specks.

Here's 1 yummy serving (makes 2 and I eat them both for a meal).

Treat Day

Today I decided to celebrate as it's been 12 weeks since I ate sugar/refined foods.  I didn't forbid these foods, telling myself I could have this if I wanted it, as long as it was within Dr. Fuhrman's guidelines (less than 5% of total calories, he says 10% but I don't think he's talking about the really bad stuff).  But I was curious to see if I could go completely without it to test out the idea that it takes 12 weeks to break an addiction.   So am I addicted to these foods still?  Not physically, and the desire for them is definitely down.  I think not making them forbidden makes them less desirable too.  And the knowledge that I will feel like crap afterwards seals it pretty well.  All I really miss is being like everyone else, not feeling like a weirdo and enjoying the same food as everyone else.  But that applies to all food our society eats, not anything in particular.  It's not the food I desire, it's the community.   What I miss is mostly fictional, made up in my mind since I can come up with a counter-argument to all of these things (since when do I mind being seen as a weirdo?  I can still be in community while eating my own food)--and this is what led me to wonder if it's mostly an addiction and just rationalizing wanting these foods.  I think there might be something to it because my desire is less after 12 weeks.    well enough rambling about that.

I didn't really want to celebrate by eating the sugar/refined foods.  so I celebrated with some of my favorites.  Here were the ingredients:

That's essene (aka manna) bread, banana, raw pecan/cashew butter, frozen sweet cherries.

First we have my version of peanut butter and jelly; that is, essence bread topped with the nut butter, and frozen sweet cherries (thawed in microwave along):

Then we have ice cream and cake:

i.e., manna bread topped with ice cream (cherries, banana, and a generous serving of nut butter--very good!).

and one of my all time favorites:

plain old banana and nut butter.   Yum!   okay, that was enough treats for a while.  It was good but I'm looking forward to eating some carrots and salads again tomorrow.  oh, I guess that's a good thing!

pineapple sorbet on manna bread

This was good!   The ingredients were

about 1 cups fresh pineapple

1 small banana

2 pieces of dried sliced mango

2 medjool dates

a piece of manna bread

I think that was all.  Afterwards I wondered if dried coconut shavings would have been a good addition. Here's what I did:  Peeled the banana, broke into pieces, put in freezer.  throw the pineapple in the freezer.  soak the dates and mango.  Go mountain biking for a few hours (what else?!).   Throw everything but the manna bread in the blender and blend until smooth.  place over a piece of manna bread (optional).  The manna bread tastes like cake to me.

Easiest and best banana walnut ice cream

This is my all-time favorite ice cream.

Ingredients:

frozen banana pieces (to freeze, peel ripe bananas, break into small pieces, seal in a plastic bag in freezer).

handful of walnuts

Blend in a high-powered blender. Now, with no liquid, it's hard to blend at first. Sometimes it catches and makes a real creamy thick ice cream, like here:

Other times, especially if you make a small portion, it doesn't blend so well and then it's chunky, which is good too! I like it both ways, creamy and chunky. I've tried many ice cream recipes with added nut milks, sweeteners (e.g., dates) and berries, and this is my favorite. But of course, for variety, I like the others too.

My favorite ice cream

Wow, I loved this. It's not super sweet. I'm realizing I don't like the really sweet stuff. But it's easy to sweeten to taste with your favorite sweetener (e.g., dates, date syrup, maple syrup, etc.). I'm also realizing I like the taste of soy milk. If you don't, use hemp or almond milk instead. Oh, I should give credit to the inspiration for this. It is a modification of "Healthy Elijah's Chunky Blueberry Walnut Sorbet". His recipe calls for 2 cups of walnuts which is about 1.75 too many for me!

Ingredients for 2 servings:

2 bowls in the freezer

1 banana, frozen

1/3 cup unsweetened soy, almond, or hemp milk

1/2 oz walnuts (about 8 halves)

2 cups frozen berries or other fruit

1/8 tsp vanilla (optional; I usually do without)

sweetener to taste if you prefer (dates, syrup etc). (optional; I prefer without but guests might prefer with)

Blend the banana & soy milk (and optional sweetener and vanilla) until smooth. Then add half the berries and blend some more, then add the rest and blend until chunky. It will get very thick and that's good.

I made this today with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. I love the chunkiness!

(I updated this after making it the second time).

Total calories: 376. protein 10 g (10%), fat 13g (31%), carbs 62g (59%).

berry-banana ice cream

Ingredients:

1 banana
2 cups frozen berries (today I used strawberries and raspberries)
1/4 cup raw cashews + 1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla

1 date or 1 Tbsp date syrup

blend everything in a high-powered blender. Serves two. Now today I made it a little differently. I made some cashew cream first. I used 1/2 cup cashews, date syrup, water, and vanilla. I used half of it for the ice cream and saved the rest for smoothies tomorrow.

ice cream????

Sometimes I like my "ice cream" chunky. Here's some frozen mango, banana, and cherries topped with 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds. It was yummy. Frozen fruit tastes great. And without blending them, you get to taste the flavors separately.

banana-walnut ice cream

Hard to believe this can be so good.

Stick 2 serving bowls in the freezer before starting to cool them off.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

2 frozen bananas

1/2 oz raw walnuts

1/2 - 1 Tbsp hemp seeds + 1/2 cup water, or 1/2 cup soy or nut milk

1/4 tsp vanilla (optional)

If using hemp seeds, blend them in the 1/2 cup water. Then add everything else and blend until creamy. Add to bowls and serve!

cherry walnut ice cream

This is really simple and really good.

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen cherries

1/4 cup raw walnuts or cashews

1/2 cup pomegranate juice or orange juice (fresh squeezed preferable!)

Blend in a high powered blender. If you think ahead of time, put your bowl in the freezer 15 minutes before preparing. then the ice cream doesn't melt as fast. Super sweet and good with no added sugar!

cherry banana ice cream

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen cherries (10 oz)

1 banana

1 oz walnuts or cashews (raw)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup pomegranate juice or soy milk (I'm guessing, I don't usually measure, add more if you find you need it)

2 tsp Dr. Fuhrman's cocoa powder (optional--I put 1 tsp in housemate's, left it out of mine)

Combine the nuts and liquid in the blender first. Blend until smooth. If you need more volume for the blender to work, add some of the cherries. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend. You'll need to work with the plunger to blend it. A powerful blender is required.

Note: I rarely make it with the cocoa powder because I'm sensitive to the caffeine. It's great without it.

Serves 2 (about 3/4 cup per serving)

Calories per serving: 186; protein 3g, carbs 36g, fat 5 g (24%).

For fun, compare this to Haagen-Daaz cherry vanilla ice cream

serving size 1/2 cup (note: that is smaller than my ice cream!)

Calories: 260, protein 4 g, carbs 23g, fat 15 g (58%)

Since I don't eat dairy, I can't do a taste test, but I like how mine tastes.

cherry ice cream

This is based on a recipe on the Fuhrman site that gets rave reviews. That adds chocolate which I avoid because of the caffeine so I substituted cashews instead, and varied ingredients a bit.

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen cherries

1/2-2/3 cup soy milk

1 oz raw cashews (about 1/4 cup)

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp cocoa or carob (optional)

1 date (optional)

Blend everything but the cherries to get them smooth. Then add the cherries. Blend less if you want chunks of cherries, more for smooth. Add more soy milk as needed. You probably need closer to 2/3 cup.

My soy milk was home-made and sweetened a bit with dates and dried apricots. I include the date in the ice cream and it was plenty sweet so I'm not sure it was needed. Next time I'll try without the date if I use the sweetened soy milk again. This is my favorite dessert now, even more than the banana-walnut ice cream. Really good!

banana-walnut-pomegranate ice cream

Ingredients:

2 frozen bananas (peel before freezing in baggies)

1 oz raw walnuts

some pomegranate juice (I think it was about 1/2 cup)

a squirt of vanilla (1/4 tsp?)

blend in a powerful blender. makes a smooth soft-serve like ice cream. really good!

Note: I always forget the vanilla. not intentionally. and it still tastes good. so that's optional.

Note: it blends easier if you slightly thaw the bananas in the microwave, say 30 sec on low power (I have a cheapo low-powered microwave).