Mint Nice Cream

Freeze your overly ripe bananas for a delicious ice cream alternative! Throw in your favorite fruits, nuts and other goodies to cure your sweet tooth.  

Ingredients:
3 Frozen Bananas
1/2C Fresh Mint
1/2C Non-Dairy Chocolate Chips
Splash of Almond Milk

In a food processor (or in a high-speed blender) place the frozen bananas, fresh mint and the splash of almond milk. Pulse until the nice cream has a smooth and creamy consistency. You may have to mash up the bananas between pulses to help in the process. Next, pour in your chocolate chips and pulse until they are spread evenly. Serve immediately!

Homemade Popcorn

Ingredients:
1/2 Organic Popcorn Kernels
2T Coconut Oil
1T Nutritional Yeast
Salt, to taste

Directions:
Heat a large pot on the stove on high. Add 2T of coconut oil and allow it to melt. Then, add in the corn kernels. Place the lid on the pot. Shake the pot back and forth, so the kernels can get an even roast. Make sure to keep the lid closed, or else they'll pop out! Keep shaking until all the kernels have finished popping. Transfer to a large serving bowl and season with nutritional yeast and salt.

Sweet Mint Lemonade

Soak up the sunshine with a sweet-tasting beverage! This lemonade has a perfect dose of mint and lemon, with a subtle coconut flavor.

Lemonade:

5C Water
2C Sparkling Water (or 2C Water)
1C Lemon Juice (2 Large Lemons)
1C Fresh Mint

Sweetener:

1/2C Coconut Nectar

1C Water

Let's first make the sweetener! In a small saucepan over medium heat, add one cup of water with the 1/2 cup of coconut nectar. Stir frequently and bring to a boil. Then, remove from the heat and let it cool.

In a large pitcher, add in the water, lemon juice, mint and the sweetener. Stir everything together. Serve over ice and garnish with additional mint leaves and lemon slices.

Banana Nice-Cream

Banana Nice-Cream is a tasty, easy and quick dessert that happens to pack a great energy boost.  This can be made a lot of ways, but here's the basics (serves 2):

Ingredients: 

2 Frozen Bananas 

1/2 c dates (pitted) 

1/2 c cashews

Splash of water or nut milk (apx. 1/8 c) 

Directions:

1) combine ingredients into blender

2) blend on low-medium until you've achieved ice cream consistency 

3) serve and enjoy!  

We like to put fresh berries on top of ours, or mix up the flavors a bit.  Play around with vanilla extract or cocoa powder to make stronger flavors.  Adding frozen strawberries or cherries also creates a really nice taste.  If you feel it needs to be sweeter, you can add a little maple syrup or agave nectar, but keep in mind there are a lot of natural sugars in this tasty treat already.  Enjoy!       

Prep time: 5 minutes
Serves: 2

Banana Walnut Bread

We had a lot of ripe bananas, so we decided to make some banana bread. This is a simple recipe that tastes so divine! So, if you have plenty of bananas and you are craving something sweet, go all in for this bread! 

4 Ripe Bananas

1/3C Vegan Butter, melted

1/3C Brown Sugar

1 Flax Egg

1.5C Spelt Flour

1.5T Cinnamon, ground

1/2C Walnuts, chopped

1t Vanilla Extract

1t Baking Soda

First, make your flax egg. In a small bowl, or cup take 1 tablespoon of freshly ground flax seeds. Add 2.5 tablespoons of water and whisk together. Put this mixture into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to thicken up. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Now, in a large bowl, mash up your ripe bananas so they are like a pudding. Then, add all of the ingredients. When ready, put the flax egg into this large bowl. Mix well with a spoon. Put the mixture in a small/medium bread loaf non-stick pan. Bake for an hour and let it cool before cutting. 

Carrot Spiced Cake Balls

It's okay to splurge once in a while, especially if you are celebrating an occasion! These mini cake balls are a quick treat, just make sure you share them!

1.5 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/3C Light Brown Sugar
1t Baking Powder
1t Ground Cinnamon
1/2t Ground Ginger
1.5C Carrots, grated
1/2C Almond Milk
1 Flax Egg*
1/2C Walnuts, chopped
1/2C Raisins

*Simmer 2T of ground flax seeds and 3T of water in a saucepan for about 5 minutes or until thick, egg-like consistency has been reached. Let cool before using in a recipe.

First, set your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the flax egg (see above). Then, in a large bowl, add in the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and stir thoroughly. Next, grate your carrots, or chop them up as finely as you would like. In a separate bowl, add the carrots, milk and flax egg- stir thoroughly. Then, slowly pour the liquid mixture into the large bowl. Stir in your walnuts and raisins. Once you mix everything together and there are no dry spots, you can form the dough into balls. Place the balls on parchment paper with a cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 15 minutes. Let them cool down before eating!

Prep time is about 20 minutes
Makes about 10-15 cookies