Banana "Nice" Cream

BANANA "NICE" CREAM

I've been making something similar to this since long before I was married. But I just discovered that this stuff has an actual name—"nice" cream. It's nothing but frozen bananas and something to make it blend. Somewhere deep in an old recipe box is the recipe to make this frozen dessert using frozen bananas and apple juice.

Right now as we've focused on making even healthier food choices, I saw a version that used fat-free Greek yogurt, your choice of fat-free milk, and frozen bananas. Yesterday for a Father's Day treat I whipped up another batch. What a terrific way to use up those last three overripe bananas! (Why is it always three?) I also baked banana bread again this week from the ripe bananas on the kitchen counter. But I had a small container of banana slices in the freezer, too. Making this healthy dessert instead of more banana bread (which we love) was a winning choice.

One change I've noticed in my "still in quarantine" cooking is that I am using fewer true recipes. I'm just cooking. Understand that I have many, many years of experience in the kitchen, but with some basic understanding of cooking all of you can do this, too. I've been watching Jamie Oliver and Al Roker (among others) on Instagram as they show what they are doing in the kitchen. No recipes. They have cooked foods simple enough that you can watch them and then repeat in your kitchen. And it frees you to substitute and make changes to suit your family. This year I've looked more for food ideas than recipes.

When I'm doing this kind of cooking I sometimes ask myself, "What's the worst thing that can happen?" When I was giving Little Sister a FaceTime omelet lesson, I told her that the worst thing that could happen was that she would end up with scrambled eggs instead of an omelet. With this faux banana ice cream, the worst is that you might have a banana milk shake instead of a soft-serve frozen dessert. Sounds pretty yummy either way.

This is not really a recipe, but here's roughly what I did... 

BANANA "NICE" CREAM

       ...makes 2-3 servings

3 overripe bananas, sliced

juice of 1 lime

1 spoonful of fat-free Greek Yogurt

unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Slice the bananas and toss in the lime juice. Freeze. To make these easier to blend, freeze in a single layer then place in a freezer container or freezer bag. This keeps them in separate slices. Not a frozen clump.

To make the frozen dessert, put a big spoonful of yogurt in the blender (I use a Vitamix,) toss in the frozen banana slices and pour in some almond milk. You will need enough milk to let the bananas blend. As more as you need it. Start blender on a slow speed and increase slowly. Stop and push bananas down in the blender as needed to continue blending. Process until it reaches a soft serve consistency.