Summer has almost arrived, and the weather is warming up here in the great southwest city of San Diego! I am somewhat of an ice cream addict, but since I found out I'm allergic to milk, I had to come up with a healthier solution. Frozen bananas really do the trick nicely for an ice cream consistency. For best results, re-freeze the ' Ice Dream' after blended, and stir after about an hour in the freezer.

RECIPE:

6 Large, ripe bananas, peeled & previously frozen solid
1/4 cup Silk Coconut or Almond milk (I use coconut)
2 tablespoons each dark chocolate chips, chopped peanuts, coconut chips
1 teaspoon unfiltered raw honey

DIRECTIONS:

1.) Place frozen bananas and coconut milk into blender or Ninja. Make sure lid is tight; pulse quickly on high 20 times.

2.) Add honey and pulse quickly 3 times.

3.) Add chocolate chips, peanuts, and coconut. Pulse quickly 3 times.

4.) Add frozen banana mix into a freezer safe container and cover with a tight fitting lid. Freeze for 1 hour.

5.) Remove banana ice dream from freezer. Scrape with a fork to mix ice dream and break up the pieces. Re-freeze for one more hour, repeating this step.

6.) Serve in a bowl, cup, or cone. Make additional and freeze in freezer-safe bowl, container, or baggie.

Makes 6 servings

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS:

ALTERNATE ADD-INS:

Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds, white chocolate, M & M's, crushed up candy bars, gummy bears, strawberries, peaches, blueberries, chocolate covered cranberries or pomegranate, vanilla, caramel chunks, colored sprinkles, tiny gum balls, mango chunks, cherries, blackberries/raspberries, goji berries,
mint white chocolate chips, pineapple, peanut butter swirls.

ALTERNATE FLAVORS:

Try mixing berries and bananas in a freezer bag, then blend them together in step #1 for a delicious and flavorful treat. Add frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, boysenberries, blackberries, goji berries to the blender in step 1 for a delicious combo flavor.

Love Disneyland's Dole Whip? You can make it yourself. Just use frozen crushed pineapple instead of banana.

Frozen pure pumpkin cubes can be added to the banana too... you'll definitely want to add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of pure honey and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice to the blender!

You can also add real extracts, such as vanilla, to the blender in step one. Vanilla, coconut, lemon, mint, orange, lime, etc. The key is to use only 1 to 2 drops max per blender container. Extracts come in a variety of flavors and brands, so be sure to choose one that is all "natural extract" and not "flavored." You will definitely be able to tell the difference between the two.