I’m supposed to be on the strictest of diets. I say “supposed to be” because I’m there about 80% of the time. But then we get invited to someone’s house for dinner, or we’re out all day and discover we’re starving and there’s nothing good in sight, or I’m teaching Tera how to make brownies and, well, you don’t want me to send her brownies to church un-taste-tested, do you?
In an effort to discover why my body is in a constant state of inflammation, I’m attempting an elimination diet. To that end, I’m trying to cut out gluten, dairy, sugar, corn, nightshade plants (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, chili peppers), and all processed foods. My sweet husband is doing it along with me, because research shows that much of that list above contributes to heart disease, and that’s his area of concern.
For the most part, I don’t miss gluten (except when Tera makes toast in the morning. What is it about that smell?). Sugar is easy if I stay away from it. I found it easy to cut out until my birthday month came along and my dear friends and family kept giving me sugar gifts. I can’t be rude, you know. 😀 But once you take one bite of sugar, the fight is back on. It’s pretty much the same with the rest of that list. Once you get started on something forbidden, it’s hard to stop again.
Of all the things I’ve cut out, I probably miss ice cream the most. So I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for this very simple recipe. When I whip up a batch and pour its frothy deliciousness in a tall glass, and take that first luscious sip, I feel like all the “NOs” have fallen away, and I’ve been given permission to indulge in a little decadence. But there’s not a single forbidden item in this … and you would never know it.
I like to call this …
Banilla Bliss
- 1 frozen banana, which you cut into small pieces before freezing
- 1/2 cup rice, almond or coconut milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (I use CrioSport brand from Costco. If you don’t have vanilla flavored, just add a dash of pure vanilla extract to the mix)
That’s a short list, but you’ll be amazed at what it produces. I use my VitaMix for this, and it handles the frozen banana bits like a pro. But as long as the pieces are small enough, any blender should be able to mix this up.
Using a medium banana, rice milk (as I did), and the protein powder I use, this is 239 calories for the whole batch, if that matters to you.
Because of the protein powder, this is great any time of the day as a meal replacer. Because of the deliciousness, this is great in the evening as a treat for all the other “being good” you did all day.
You could add all sorts of things to this and change it up any way you wanted, but I purposely left it in its plainest state so you could see how easy it is to be good and still get that “I’m having ice cream” feeling.
That’s it. You’ll think you’re drinking a vanilla shake. Really.
Thirsty monkey.
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