Beach Ice Cream

I made beach ice cream.. yeah, BEACH ice cream. I am a Florida girl to the core, I haven't been there in years but I'm pretty sure my very soul is made up of salt water and sand. Summertime in Kentucky just isn't quite doing it for me. Sure there's sunshine(the love of my life) and its hot out(really REALLY hot out- we just went through a heat wave), but it isn't enough. I have a friend who has a lot of food allergies, when I heard she couldn't eat ice cream I was utterly horrified. Soon after I stumbled across a website detailing how to make ice cream with one ingredient.. one ingredient? Yes, one ingredient. This magical item: bananas. So I got my friend on instant messenger as soon as I found this to ask if she was also allergic to bananas.. she isn't. I then directed her to the webpage I had found and demanded that she try it and let me know how it goes (she lives very very far away, otherwise I would've demanded that she be my guinea pig). More recently I made the decision to eat in a more health conscious manner(those of you who are familiar with my blog know what a big deal this is) and I now find myself having fierce urges to binge eat on anything with more than 13g of sugar per serving(this is how desperate I am). I actually caught myself at my parents' house one day with a tub of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other and decided right then and there that I needed to find a better alternative to deprivation, and I remembered the banana ice cream. So here is my take on banana ice cream, my beach ice cream:

Start with bananas.. you will want the more ripe ones, I made it once with less ripe ones because that's how I like to eat bananas but trust me after they're frozen they will have a distinctly green taste to them if they're under-ripe. 

This is what I added to mine to make the beach flavor =) I wish I would've had some pineapple on hand but I didn't.

You could also (and I have and it is good) add peanut butter.

Start by peeling and slicing your banana(s)

Freeze them... 

Blender time, if you don't have a blender, a food processor might work, otherwise you're pretty much out of luck. 

The blending process takes time.. like lots more than you are probably prepared to contribute.. I got somewhat frustrated the first time I made it because you have to keep smushing the banana mush around and it seems like it isn't doing anything

Until suddenly it does =) this is a victorious moment.

Once your banana gunk looks like a milkshake you can add whatever flavors you want.

Again, I am using these for my beach ice cream but you could just do peanut butter or make up your own, experimental ice cream is fun too 

You can eat it now or re-freeze it depending on the texture you want, this gooey stuff is kind of like soft-serve, once it is re-frozen it takes on a more ice cream type texture. To re-freeze I'm using my tiny jars (I love these things). 

These are different colors because the one on the right has peanut butter in it (I made this a couple days ago too) and the one on the left is the new stuff (and isn't yet re-frozen)

**Note** if I'm going to eat the re-frozen ice cream I like to let it sit out some before I eat it, it gets pretty hard and I like it a little softer.