Guilt-free Banana Ice Cream

My high school friend, Emily, likes her bananas a little green and crunchy.  She'd have it easy in my house.  I like my bananas freckled.  But no matter how many bananas I buy, either my son gobbles them all up, or they go bad before they get freckly.

On Friday afternoon my neighbor brought me around two dozen over-ripe bananas ready for freezing.  I've already been baking more than usual, so banana bread was not the solution.  Unfortunately for me, it is still warm enough where I live to eat ice cream.

Last night I took several of the bananas out of the freezer and left them in my food processor to begin to soften.  Then I just turned it on.  It's that simple.  Frozen bananas in a blender (or food processor).  You can add just about whatever you want.  Yesterday added vanilla and cinnamon.  Today, vitamin D and probiotics.  You could add mint extract and chocolate chips.  Or you could pulse in frozen or fresh pitted cherries after the bananas are smooth.  Top it with hot fudge or sprinkles.  A banana split might be going a little overboard.

Don't try to save leftover ice cream because it will freeze solid if it has even slightly started to defrost first.  (I tried it yesterday.)  Today our guest had to go home to do her homework right before I served the "ice cream" so I put it in the freezer, still in my food processor, and periodically took it out and blended it. That worked very well to delay eating it for several hours, and it may have kept overnight after that.  You could freeze it into ice pop molds.  Kind of defeats the purpose of the creaminess, though.  You might as well just eat a cold banana on a stick.

UPDATE: I had some moms and little kids over last night, but something came up and I couldn't get to the grocery store to pick up fresh fruits and veggies to put out.  Luckily, the night before I had frozen 4 ripe bananas (peeled) in a zip-top freezer bag.  When the crowd was over I blended them up with natural peanut butter and vanilla soy milk.  Most of the kids were too busy playing, but the moms loved it, even on this January evening.

Also see my post on freezing fruit and more ice pop ideas.