Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

Make your own guilt-free ice cream with bananas and peanut butter. Yum!

I made a big batch of "Nicecream" as it's commonly referred to, using frozen bananas, almond milk, vanilla protein powder and peanut butter this weekend!

I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I was very pleasantly surprised. I froze the bananas weeks ago and stored them in a big ziploc bag awaiting a warm weekend when we wanted ice cream!  

The best way to freeze the bananas is to slice them up and place them all onto parchment paper on top a cookie sheet.  This ensures they don't all clump together in the freezer bag.  I do all my berries the same way, freeze on a cookie sheet and then transfer into a freezer bag once frozen.  Do you do this too?

Initially I had made the ice cream without the intention to "Swirl" it with peanut butter BUT once I had that Jar of peanut butter in my hand it just kinda happened!  Boy I'm glad it did!  The swirl put it over the top!!  

The recipe is very versatile and I can easily see myself making several versions over the summer months.  

Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

Yield: 5 servings, about ½ cup each

Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder (I used Vanilla Shakeology)
2 medium frozen bananas (cut into chunks before freezing)
2 Tbsp. all-natural smooth peanut butter plus 2 Tbsp to swirl in

Preparation:
1. Place almond milk, Shakeology, bananas, and 2 Tbsp peanut butter in high-powered blender (such as a Ninja or Vita-mix); cover.
2. Blend on low for 5 seconds; increase power to high and continue blending for 30 seconds until smooth.
3. Pour mixture in a large glass bowl and swirl in extra 2 tbsp peanut butter; cover.
4. Freeze for 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, before serving.

Peach Pie Waffles

Peaches are a summer time treat!  I picked up a few at the Root Cellar on Monday and had them ripening in the window for a few days as they were a little firm yet.  But I knew I had to use them up this weekend and the boys requested waffles for breakfast on Sunday morning so these Peach Pie Waffles were born!  Last summer I made my grandma a peach trifle for her birthday and learned that Cardamom is the spice for peaches, so in it went into these waffles.  

These little peaches were almost too ripe as I had a hard time extracting the pit without squishing them too much.  But boy were they sweet.  I am never sure if the kids will love or reject my creations and I almost contemplated making a few plain waffles just in case.  But I bit the bullet and made the whole batch with peaches.  

These golden babies paired beautifully with a drizzle of honey to sweeten the batter and we topped our waffles with FATSO butter and pure maple syrup.  If you haven't heard of FATSO butter I posted about it last week on my facebook page and have been using it in my bullet proof coffee, and for anything that I would normally use butter.  It is a nutrient dense butter with 7 added super fats!  

FATSO Butter contains Butter, Organic Coconut Oil, Ghee, Avocado Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, MCT Oil, Organic Hemp Seeds, Cacao Butter and Hymalayan Salt!  

I can't fund much in the way of info or a company website for the company but they also have a peanut butter! 

I've gotta say taking a photo of a stack of Waffles is not the easiest, I need more of a photo set up to get a good photo of these lovely peach filled waffles.  But for now I did the best I could before they got completely cold!  I gotta eat them too!  

Next time I'll top mine with a big scoop of plain green yogurt.  I almost did this time as well but I decided to try them just with butter and maple syrup like the boys were.  They really tasted like I was eating peach pie for breakfast which is how the recipe got it's name.  I'm pretty sure that if there are any peaches left over this week I'll be making another batch of these over the weekend!  Addicted!!!  

Peach Pie Waffles

Ingredients

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom 

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Honey

1 3/4 Cups Almond Milk (or regular milk)

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1 Tsp Pure Vanilla

3 small ripe peaches sliced

Directions

• Mix together Whole wheat Flour, Baking Powder, cinnamon and Cardamom. Set Aside.
• In medium mixing bowl, whisk eggs with Almond Milk, honey, Olive oil and Vanilla.  
• Add sliced peaches to dry mixture. Stir gently to coat. 
• Add wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir to combine. 
• Spoon batter onto hot waffle iron and cook until golden brown. 
• Top with sliced peaches, maple syrup, Greek yogurt or butter. Enjoy! 

Bursting Blueberry Scones

Mmmmm.....  Scones! 

We have our 3rd lacrosse tournament in a row this weekend so us parents chipped in for coffee and brought breakfast snacks for the first game of the day. I made a double batch of blueberry scones last night for the parents. 

Our team and parents are awesome this year and we have gotten together for a tailgate party and camped together for our other tournaments this year. We are a young team against 4 stronger and older teams, so we knew it wouldn't be a winning weekend for us but we wanted the kids to have a great weekend! It's important to keep the kids spirits up and keep them motivated so we made a plan....

Gord and I came up with a real life star chart rewards system for the boys! 

Most of us have used a star chart to motivate our kids at one time or another to accomplish a task whether it’s potty training or staying in bed all night as little ones or helping with chores around the house when they are older.  It’s a proven method to motivate them and a visual representation of their progress.  

 

So…. At this mornings game we had 5 stars in the stands for parent or sibling volunteers to hold up after EVERY shift.  

Each shift could earn a max of 5 stars per shift for never giving up, working hard and giving it their all.  

The plan was that they would never receive fewer than 3 stars (we don’t want to demotivate them) but they actually never received fewer than 4! We had a great game and they all worked hard! 

 

After a shift is over and the kids go off the floor, the parents collectively decided how many stars 3,4 or 5 would be given for effort and hold them up for the kids to see with a BIG CHEER!!!  

 

I marked down the stars given after every shift and tallied them up at the end of every period to share with the team.  The goal was 75 stars for the game total!  

They earned 89 🌟s for their first game!!! 

Our kids worked so hard and really held their own in the first game! We have decided to stick with the stars for the rest of the weekend because it really seemed to motivate them!! 

The prize is a BIG water fight after the last game today!

Blueberry Scones

Ingredients

Dry Mixture

2 cups Whole Wheat flour

1/3 cup organic cane sugar 

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp Hymalyian sea salt

3/4 cup coconut oil 

1 cup blueberries

Wet mixture

1 large Egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup almond milk

Topping 

1/4 cup almond milk

1/8 cup organic cane sugar

Directions

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and sea salt into a large bowl. 

With a spoon stir in coconut oil until the mixture is crumbly. 

Add in blueberries and set aside. 

Mix together egg, almond milk or vanilla and pour over top flour mixture. Stir until dough comes together, transfer to a floured surface, knead 3-4 times. 

Separate dough into 2 small balls, pat flat and cut each into 4 pieces. 

Place scones on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Brush each scone with almond milk and sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. 

Sprialized Zucchini Shrimp Scampi

I made a Sprialized Zucchini noodle Shrimp Scampi last night for my lunch today using my Sprializer! 

Now if you don’t know what a spiralizer is, it’s basically a vegetable slicer, cutting super-thin strips resembling spaghetti strands, creating a healthier, grain-free alternative to standard pasta.

I've been playing with mine a lot lately and getting creative so you'll be seeing many more Sprialized creations in the future. 

There are many brands and types of Sprializers out there and I would recommend not using a handheld one. This is the Sprializer I use. 

World Cuisine Tri-Blade Spiral Vegetable Slicer 

I even did a live Facebook video of my very first time trying out my Sprializer. You can check that out here. 

Zucchini Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

6-8 shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup chicken stock

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 (medium-sized) zucchini, spiralized

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add shrimp, garlic and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan. 

Stir in chicken stock and lemon juice; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a simmer; stir in zucchini noodles until well combined, about 1-2 minutes.

Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan. 

BRATTY BANANA MUFFINS

Last Sick Kid Food post for a while I promise!!! 

I made hubby go get white flour for this!! Fact is I don't have white anything in the house but sick tummies and fibre don't get along so white it is. 

These make a great first food after a tummy bug. They are easy on the tummy and tasty enough that the kids will gobble them up.

BRATTY BANANA MUFFINS 

Ingredients

- 1 3/4 cups flour

- 1/4 cup organic cane sugar

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp sea salt

- 2 free range eggs

- 1 cup mashed banana *

- 1/2 cup applesauce

* approx. 2 ripe bananas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and either line your muffin tin(s) or lightly coat with olive oil. I used my silicon muffin cups. 

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt) in a medium bowl and mix well.

Mash up your bananas.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients (eggs, mashed banana, applesauce).

Add in your dry ingredients, one cup at a time, and mix well.

Pour the batter into your muffin tin(s). Filling to about 3/4 full. 

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Or until slightly golden brown. 

Homemade Pedialyte Recipe

Ahhhh.... sick kids.  I had not one but 2 sick kids over the last 3 days and of course every time they are sick the Paediatric Electrolyte drinks are either expired or we are out! I usually get the one with just apple juice flavour rather then those ones that come in bright colours full of food colouring!  But on thursday we had nothing on hand and he couldn't keep anything down so I made up a batch of homemade "Pedialyte" for him and it helped a lot.  

Oral rehydration really is just water with modest amounts of sugar and salt added so my mixture does the trick with out any additives, flavours or colours.  

Homemade Pedialyte

Ingredients

2 cups room temp water

1 Tablespoon organic cane sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt 

Directions

Stir together until dissolved.  

Mushroom Parmesan Risotto

Just fending for myself these last few days on the meal front.  My boys have been SO sick with a stomach bug so feeding them isn't a big to do right now.  Mostly liquids for them, maybe some crackers, a banana, apples sauce... you know the drill.  

We had planned for Fraser's Birthday party to happen this Sunday and I made his cake yesterday figuring that I would just freeze them if we had to cancel it, but when I turned out the cake one of them didn't quite make it out intact.  Since Fraser had been so disinterested in food all day I decided to give him a spoonful of cake in hopes that it would give him a little boost.  He was SO exhausted and although for the most part he was keeping fluids down he just wasn't eating or increasing fluids much.  Apparently birthday cake was just what he needed.... Just a few small nibbles of Mom's super moist organic chocolate cake and his energy rebounded a little.  

Sometimes you just gotta throw out the book and give them cake!  

Anyways.... today is better but they still are not eating much so at lunch time I decided to make Risotto from what I had in the fridge.  O Man this was a serious comfort food lunch!!  

I even have left overs for later :)

Mushroom Parmesan Risotto

Ingredients

1.5 cups sliced mushrooms

1/2 onion chopped

1 Tablespoon butter

1 tsp garlic powder or fresh chopped garlic

3/4 cup Arborio rice

2 cups water +

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

1. In deep frying pan, sauté mushrooms, onions and garlic in butter until soft. 

2. Add in Arborio rice and stir over heat for 1 minute. 

3. Add in 1 cup of water and stir. Put lid over rice and let water cook off. 

4. Add in another 1 cup of water. Stir in and let it cook down adding additional water as needed until rice is cooked. 

5. Once cooked add in an additional table spoon of water, Parmesan, salt and pepper. 

6. Stir together and cover until thickened and cheese is melted. 

7. Remove from heat and serve. 

Serves 3-4 depending on if you can stop at just one serving ;)