Peanut Butter Banana Strawberry "Ice Cream"

My husband makes fun of my love of ice cream.  It's completely irrational.  I could be freezing cold (and I often am) and say, "You know what I want?"  To which he'll answer either "frozen yogurt" or "ice cream".  It could be 15 degrees outside, and I'll still think, "You know what would be awesome?  Eating something that will make my insides cold, and will then make me want to curl up in the fetal position under a blanket with the cat serving as a heating/massage pad."

You know what I hate about ice cream though?  I hate when it's hard.  My sister, who has naturally perfect teeth (without any braces or major dental work), use to take an ice cream cone, and bite off a huge chunk of the ice cream right in front of me.  The sight of that always made it seem like my spine was made of glass and she threw a rock into it, crushing it into a thousand pieces.  I hated it.  This, of course, meant that she did it all the time.  I either patiently licked at the ice cream on the cone until it was soft, or just put it in a bowl and juhjed it up until it was nice and soft and creamy.  Soft serve and froyo has always been my thing because of this.

So, I'm always disconcerted when I ask my husband "You want to go get froyo with me?" (which I do almost nightly) and he says "no".  I have a great habit that's also terrible.  I very rarely buy ice cream/frozen yogurt/sherbet.  I know that I shouldn't eat it often, and I know that if I have it in the house, I will eat it often. So I just pass by the aisle and don't give it a second look, (this is also my strategy for potato chips, because I can eat a bag in one sitting and not think about it until I'm crying about what a terrible person I am an hour later).  This also means that I often don't get to fulfill my craving for delicious frozen dairy treats.

But, there is hope.  I almost always have bananas in the house.  I could eat 2-3 of them a day, and I think they're fantastic.  I will be incredibly sad when the world runs out of bananas in like 20 years.  Plantains just aren't the same.  In any case though, I almost always have bananas in the house.  So, I can almost always fulfill my "ice cream" craving.  Tonight, I remembered that I had an "ice cream" starter banana in the freezer.  I also remembered that I made a giant batch of strawberry puree for bellinis for New Year's that my husband forgot to take with us when we went to a friend's house.  And peanut butter?  Well, is there ever a time when banana and peanut butter shouldn't be combined?

Peanut Butter Banana Strawberry "Ice Cream"

1 banana, cut into coins
2-3 tsp. strawberry puree
1 heaping spoonful smooth peanut butter

1.  A day, a week, a month ahead, cut up one banana into coins and place in a sealed zip top bag in the freezer.

2.  When you're ready for your ice cream, take the banana out of the bag and place the coins in your food processor.

3.  Pulse the banana coins until they resemble soft serve.  This might take a bit.  It'll look grainy and ricey at first, but be patient, it's worth it.

4.  When you've got a smooth thing going on, add the strawberry puree and peanut butter.

You can adapt this recipe in a million different ways.  Add chocolate.  Add marshmallow cream.  Add nutella.  Add other fruits.  Add sweetened condensed milk for some dulce de leche action.  Add pork chops (Elvis would probably come back from the dead for that combo).  Whatever floats your boat.  This is another "blank canvas" type recipe that's just waiting for you to do delicious things to it.  So, go do 'em!