Alternative Chunky Monkey Ice Cream: Better For Your Health and Taste Buds

Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Alternative

 

     Pregnancy has brought on new challenges. I am currently five months along and still struggling sometimes with being repelled by some foods and finding an appetite, or finding quick-to-make foods that are still healthy and appealing. I faced just such a challenge today. Nothing ready-made in the house sounded the slightest bit appealing to me, and I find I am having difficulty eating the fresh veggies and grains that I used to - Eep - which severely limits my food choices as I try hard to eat non-processed whole foods with limited dairy and meat (and only organic at that). I scoured my Pinterest Pins for food ideas and found this (see pic above) that finally appealed to my stomach.

     The link to the original recipe is here. One of my favorite ice cream flavors pre-health consciousness was Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey. The problem now is that it is so full of added sugars and unhealthy things, particularly dairy (ICK!) and non-organic at that, PLUS it is $5 or more for a small pint. It is no longer in my budget or something I can eat in good consciousness knowing the junk I'm putting into my body. So, I was thrilled to find a healthier alternative and a quick fix, as I was not about to wait around today to make regular ice cream, plus I didn't have all of those ingredients on hand anyways.

     The beauty to this recipe is that it is very likely to have all the ingredients on hand. It only consists of bananas, a nut butter of choice, chopped nuts of choice, and chocolate chunks. I used some bananas I had that were going bad, a healthier peanut butter, chopped pecans, and my favorite chocolate -Enjoy Life Mega Chunks- that tastes like gourmet chocolate and much better than the cheap stuff found in stores. It all goes in a food processor and then it's done. What took the longest was letting it sit in the freezer because I did not use frozen bananas. I recommend using frozen bananas.

    The consistency was more like a frozen yogurt or sorbet and tasted awesome. There was no added sugar, but was super sweet to my taste buds. It is pregnant chick and 7 year old approved. My son loved it and so did I.

    Now, if there is a little more time to play with, it is super easy to make a healthier homemade version of Chunky Monkey Ice Cream also. Just make a batch of vanilla ice cream, swapping dairy milk for almond milk (in my recommendation) or whatever other milk is preferable. Then add already food-processed frozen bananas, chopped nuts of choice, and chopped chocolate. Easy, and there you will have the traditional ice cream consistency, but overall, the alternative mentioned above is just as good and definitely satisfied my craving, PLUS it's all healthy ingredients and VEGAN. Yep, the V-Word. I got nutrients for the baby, no added junk in my body, and my taste buds and stomach are very happy. Success!!!



     Happy Eating and Experimenting!


  ~ The Not-So Starving Artist