I Scream for Ice Cream (Banana Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Soft Serve)

Really, if that's what it takes to get ice cream, I will scream.

Today, around 11 am Josh looked at me and said "Ice cream today?" I casually said "Sounds good." Oh yeah I am that cool. I'm all like yeah, what 'evs. But inside I was very much ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM! I immediately started thinking about what flavors I wanted. Mentally I very well may have planned my day around ice cream.

So we hung out till the middle of the afternoon. I silently dealt with the internal war of deciding if I can ask if we are heading out for ice cream or if that will make me seem to desperate. I chose to say nothing and just save my excitement for that first bite I would be having (at some point today). Then we went out to run some errands. Everywhere we went I made mental notes of all the possible ice cream places near us and listed them in my mind in order of preference. Still I kept all this quiet.

We finished our errands and headed home. We ate dinner then Josh and Little Bit turned on a video game to play together. That's when I broke my silence. "Ice cream?" You know, just throwing it out there, letting him know I have not forgotten. He smiled at me, but that smile made it obvious he didn't really want it anymore. So I tried again, "I'll go pick it up, you two can stay here and play games, just tell me what you want." That same smile. Darn! And he said he didn't want any anymore. Shoot.

I didn't give up there, though. "Are you sure?" I asked about 10 minutes later. And, "Really, really sure?" another 10 minutes after that. Yeah, he was sure. Did I give up yet? No, not really. I went paced the living room for a minute and contemplated just going, then I realized the roads are not really good right now and that it may be unwise. I mean I would really kick myself if I wrecked or got stuck all in the name of dessert. And, a little more to the point, I really didn't need to cheat anymore. Part of Josh's smile said to me, "I know you're cheating again." I have been horrible about cheating on my Paleo diet lately and I know and he knows, I want to do it right again. So I decided not to leave.

I almost gave up at that point. Well kind of. I started thinking how I really don't want to break out my ice cream maker, and that takes too much time anyways.  Then I remembered banana ice creams. I had never made one before, but this was as quick and as close to the real stuff as I could possibly get tonight. So I did.. It's not bad. Not exactly what I was itching for but it scratched the itch anyways. And I didn't cheat when I really wanted to! (Finally.)

For this recipe you will need a powerful blender or food processor.

Banana Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Soft Serve
(Boy that's a mouthful of a name isn't it?!)
Serves 3 (or 2 if you want a lot, or 1 if you're really pigging out.)

3 frozen very ripe bananas
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 TBS almond butter
Paleo Chocolate Syrup (recipe follows)
 1-2 TBS chocolate chips (I suggest Enjoy Life brand

1. Slice frozen bananas and place them in blender.
2. Add vanilla, and almond butter. Blend until smooth.
3. Pour a layer of chocolate syrup on top, pulse to mix.
4. Add the chocolate chips and pulse a few time to break them up.
5. Top with chocolate syrup and enjoy!

This should be sweet enough as is because of the ripe bananas. If you prefer it sweeter, taste it before you add any chocolate and you can add some honey or agave syrup to taste. The syrup hardens when its cold, like a chocolate shell so it will not remain syrupy when you put it on top. When I made this, I added too much syrup for my taste and ended up with a stronger chocolate flavor than I intended. This ended up working for my benefit though, as I was tasting all that chocolate I realized it could taste kind of like the Blizzard I wanted if I added Heath pieces. The results were yummy. (See I still cheated a little.)

Paleo Chocolate Syrup (Chocolate Shell)


1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons maple syrup
! teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients well. I store in a squeeze bottle in the fridge. This will harden when it's cold so you must warm it up before using.

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