I partnered with my friends at Torani on this post, as usual all opinions are entirely my own. Click here to sign up for the Torani e-mail newsletter and get 10% off your first purchase, plus more Torani recipes, news and product information delivered to your right to your inbox.  #AToraniVacation

Nothing says summer like a tall glass of icy lemonade — add one of Torani’s flavored tropical fruit syrups and you’ve got a sippable summer vacation!

I’ve come up with a refreshing lemonade and added sparkling water for fizz and fun because summer vacation is all about fun!  I used Guava syrup for a taste of the islands, but this recipe is so easy and interchangeable you can use Torani pineapple, coconut, passion fruit or even lychee syrups and “visit” a new flavor destination all summer long!

Sparkling Guava Lemonade

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sparkling water
• 1/2 cup lemonade (fresh-squeezed or bottled is fine)
• 4 tsp. Torani Guava Syrup
• ice

Directions:

1. Fill a tall glass with ice.
2. Add the Torani syrup to the bottom of the glass.
3. Pour the lemonade over the ice and syrup.
4. Top with sparkling water and enjoy!

Tip: Sugar the rim of the glass for a special presentation and serve with a colorful straw. 

Monetary compensation and/or product has been provided by Torani. 

Lemon Chicken is my go-to order whenever we go out for Chinese food. My favorite is from a little, hole in the wall in downtown San Diego. I love the lightly crisped, juicy chicken chunks bathed in the sticky sweet and tart sauce. I’ve been tempted to try to copy the dish at home and was inspired by Torani Lemon Syrup, which I have on hand for iced tea.

I love experimenting in the kitchen and I love Torani syrups, the lemon syrup is just the right balance of sweet and tart, I added some fresh lemon juice and zest for brightness and balance and with just a few extra ingredients I already had on hand I came up with a winner, every bit as good as the Lemon Chicken I order at that San Diego Chinese food joint.

It’s super simple and so delicious, using an unexpected ingredient – Torani Lemon Syrup! Who knew how versatile these syrups can be?!

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. chicken breast, cut into 1″ chunks
• 1 cup Torani Lemon Syrup
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• 1/2 cup, plus 2 tsp. corn starch
• Salt and pepper to season
• 1 cup of cooking oil for frying (I prefer coconut oil)
• Sliced scallions and/or sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Generously season chicken chunks with salt and pepper.
2. Add chicken and 1/2 cup cornstarch into a large bowl or gallon sized ziplock bag and toss to even coat each piece. Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add chicken chunks and fry until cooked through and crispy brown, about 2-3 minutes on each side. You may need to do this in batches as to not overcrowd pan. Once chicken is cooked lay out on paper-towel lined plate. Season again with a sprinkle of salt.
4. Discard excess oil from the pan, and add the Torani Syrup. Allow to come to a boil, then reduce to medium low heat and allow to reduce for 5 minutes.
5. Mix the lemon juice with 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and add to the pan of Torani syrup, whisk to thoroughly combine. Allow to simmer and add lemon zest.
6. When the sauce has thickened add the cooked chicken chunks and toss to coat.
7. Garnish with scallions and/or sesame seeds and serve.

Tip: Serve with steamed white rice or atop a bed of bok choy cabbage and greens.

Monetary compensation and/or product has been provided by Torani. 

Jax was so excited to give her teacher this “Refreshing Summer” Basket full of the fixings to stay cool and beat the heat. Her teacher looked equally excited to receive it. It felt good to make them both so happy. Even better – it was easy and inexpensive!

This gift basket cost less than $10 to put together. I found the cool glasses in the Target bargain bins, two glasses for $3 and all the drink mixes were on sale.

I hoard gift bags, tissue paper, bag filler, gift boxes and baskets. I have a pretty impressive stash and it always comes in handy and saves me money when giving gifts. Gift wrap, boxes, bows, etc. can sometimes cost as much as the gift so save it when you get it!

I had this white woven basket in my stash along with some yellow shred. As it turned out there wasn’t enough shred to fill the basket so I bulked it up with some tissue paper. Easy!

Of course, Jax added her own touch by creating a special card to include.

We were so please with how it turned out. And her teacher beamed when she got it.

Gift cards are great, but always feel so thoughtless and impersonal too me. I prefer to put in a little extra effort when giving gifts, especially when the person is so special to us. And a kindergarten teacher is a pretty special person.

P.S. I can’t believe my little girl finished kindergarten! Where does the time go?!

I have partnered with Smile Brilliant for this post. As always all opinions within this write-up are entirely my own.

I recently turned 40 and with that monumental birthday came a bevvy of insecurities about entering a knew decade. The number seemed daunting to me and where I was comfortable with my appearance before I suddenly became self-conscious about the tell-tale signs of aging – abundance of greys in my hair, crows feet and wrinkles in my forehead – ugh! Thankfully my smile still shines bright because of Smile Brilliant Teeth Whitening System.

Honestly, I never thought my teeth needed whitening until I started using Smile Brilliant and saw results. I don’t smoke or drink coffee and I brush with a baking soda toothpaste 2-3 times a day so my teeth appeared pretty white. But evidently age yellowed my pearly whites and after only three applications I saw obvious results.

My experience with Smile Brilliant was fantastic. I was sent the whitening kit which includes all that you need to get you on your way to a dazzling smile.

To get started I had to make impressions of my teeth. The kit includes a base and a catalyst paste to make the putty along with step-by-step instructions on how to get perfect impressions. At first I was a little intimidated but the directions are clear and concise and if you have questions you can call or chat with a Smile Brilliant teammate for support. You can even send in photos of your impressions to get approval before sending them in.

It was a smooth and seamless process and I received my trays within a couple days. I was a bit worried because I have very small, gapped teeth and a pretty pronounced overbite but since the trays were custom-made from the molds I made the fit was snug and perfect.

Smile Brilliant recommends the whitening process be done at night when settling down for the evening. This is because you aren’t supposed to eat or drink anything afterwards so going to bed after completing the whitening is best.

The nightly whitening process was easy. After brushing I put a small ribbon of whitening gel along the front of each tray (top and bottom) and fitted the trays onto my teeth. You need to leave the trays in for anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours. I started off at 30 minutes and by the time I completed 10 days of whitening I was leaving them in for over an hour.

The whitening gel can cause some gum irritation so it is important to follow the instructions carefully and not use too much gel. I did experience some minor uncomfortable tingling a few nights in so I discontinued use for the evening and started again the next night. It may be helpful to rub some coconut oil on your gums before starting to create a barrier between your gums and the gel. That is just one of the tips I learned from the helpful folks at Smile Brilliant.

After the whitening gel you brush and then use the desensitizing gel which hydrates the teeth, helps prevent tooth sensitivity and protects the teeth from re-staining. The desensitizing gel stays on the teeth for up to 15 minutes and then the process is done.

Like I said I saw visible results within only three days of starting the system. After 10 days my teeth were shiny, white and brilliant. I truly had no idea my teeth needed some brightening but they certainly did and now I have a dazzling smile.

Now I can smile my way through 40 (after I get my greys dyed and maybe some botox) with pride and confidence.

I am excited to give one of my readers the gift a brilliant smile too! Click here to enter.  One winner will be randomly selected on Friday, February 2, 2018.

And to get $20 off whitening trays use coupon code: yaybabyblog20 at checkout.

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Disclaimer: I received the Smile Brilliant tooth whitening system free of charge to help facilitate this review. All opinions within this post are entirely my own. 

*Thank you to our friends at Torani for making this post possible. As always all opinions are my own. 

I am having a love affair with Torani syrups. I’ve always loved them for soda bars or to add a little something special to my tea and coffee but my partnership with the brand has challenged me to think beyond the beverage. And I am having so much delicious fun.

My latest Torani creation is this White Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding and O-M-G is it a winner.  A DELIGHTFUL WINNER!!!

Buttery croissants baked with a white chocolate-infused custard, studded with white chocolate chips and drizzled with a white chocolate caramel sauce. The result is a show stopping dessert so special it will make perfect ending to your holiday feast. #atoraniholiday

Just a few ingredients and you are on your way to something truly decadent and delicious – croissants, heavy cream Torani White Chocolate Syrup, white chocolate chips and eggs. I’ve made this bread pudding with and without dried cherries and honestly I prefer it without; but if you are one that needs the chewy texture dried fruit gives bread pudding – go for it; dried cherries or cranberries go well with the white chocolate.

The icing on the cake (literally) for this dessert is a rich, luxurious white chocolate caramel sauce that is so good you’ll want to just eat it with a spoon.

Oh, Torani, thank you for adding so much sweetness to my kitchen and table.

Read on for the recipe and click here to sign up for the Torani e-mail newsletter and get 10% off your first purchase, plus more Torani recipes, news and product information delivered to your right to your inbox.

White Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1 dozen small croissants (buy them a day of two before and let them dry out on counter overnight)
• 1 1/2 cup Torani White Chocolate Syrup (separated into 1 cup and 1/2 cup)
• 2 large eggs
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream (separated into 1 cup and 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips (divided in half)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dried fruit of choice (optional)
• butter or oil to grease baking dish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease baking dish.
2. Cut croissants into large chunks and arrange in an 9″x9″ baking dish. Sprinkle top with 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips and the dried fruit (if using).
3. In a mixing bowl whisk eggs until well beaten.  Add 1 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup of the white choclate syrup and whisk until well combined and frothy.
4. Pour the egg mixture over the top of the croissants.
5. Cover with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes covered and an additional 20 minutes uncovered. Remove from oven and allow to set for at least 15 minutes before serving.
6. While the bread pudding is baking you van make the caramel sauce. Add the remaining white chocolate syrup and cream, white chocolate chips and brown sugar into a small sauce pan. Simmer over low heat until reduced to a thick syrup.
7. When ready to serve drizzle bread pudding with caramel sauce. Serve will remaining caramel sauce on the side.

*Note: Bread puddings should be baked in a water bath to keep the baking even and gentle and not burn the bottom. I don’t have a pan large enough create a water bath so I do it without and have had success. Without the water bath the bread pudding will have a crustier bottom (which I actually like) and the pan will need a good soaking before washing (greasing helps). If you have a pan large enough and you want to do a water bath, simply place your bread pudding baking dish into the larger pan and gently fill with water until it comes halfway up the side of the other pan. Carefully place in oven and bake as directed. 

*Thank you to our friends at Torani for making this post possible. As always all opinions are my own. 

It is my culinary belief that refrigerated biscuit dough is the unsung hero of a home cook’s kitchen. Seriously.

The potential in that exploding tube of dough is infinite, especially during the holiday season. Transform those biscuits into a topper for turkey pot pie, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, or these apple stuffed bombs of delight topped with Bourbon Caramel sauce made with Torani syrup. #atoraniholiday

These bombs are da’ bomb and will leave you on the nice list all year. They are the perfect addition to a holiday brunch or a sweet ending to a festive feast. And they are so easy to boot!

The ingredient list is simple – a can of biscuit dough, apples, Torani Bourbon Caramel Syrup, brown sugar, cream and cinnamon. Simple and the method is easy too.

Simply peel and chop your apples (I like Granny Smith), simmer in the Torani syrup until soft, stuff the biscuits and make the caramel sauce while the bombs bake. And let me tell you — that apple infused Bourbon Caramel Sauce is epic!

I really gotta pat myself on the back for this one, guys!

Read on for the recipe and click here to sign up for the Torani e-mail newsletter and get 10% off your first purchase, plus more Torani recipes, news and product information delivered to your right to your inbox.

Bourbon Caramel Apple Bombs

Ingredients:

• 5 medium sized apples
• 1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough (10 biscuits)
• 1 cup Torani Bourbon Caramel Syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash, peel and chop apples into a small dice.
3. Add the diced apples into a medium sauce pan with Torani syrup and cinnamon. Simmer on medium/low heat until apples are soft, but not mushy (about 10 minutes).
4. Remove apples from pan using slotted spoon (strain as much liquid as you can) and put in a bowl, reserving the syrup in the pan.
5. While apples are simmering, open tube of biscuit dough and cut each biscuit in half. Roll each half into a ball.
6. Pat or roll out each biscuit half into a circle about 3″ in diameter.
7. Place a tablespoon full of apples into each biscuit circle and seal by folding over one side, then crimping the edge and gently rolling back into a ball.
8. Please each ball, seam side down onto a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Tops will be golden brown and dough will be cooked through.
9. While bombs are baking you can make the caramel sauce. Add the brown sugar and the cream to the reserved liquid the apples were cooked in. Whisk together until well combined. Simmer on low/medium heat until reduced into a rich caramel syrup. You will need to whisk the syrup frequently to prevent burning on the bottom.
10. Remove apple bombs from oven and drizzle with caramel sauce. Serve with caramel sauce for extra indulgence.

*Thank you to our friends at Torani for making this post possible. As always all opinions are entirely my own. 

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Two of my favorite things in life (Halloween & cupcakes) combined into one sweet treat! These Mummy Spookcakes are so fun and easy to make.  Your little ghouls and goblins will howl in delight with every bite.

I used Torani strawberry syrup, but raspberry would be just as delicious. The syrup adds a pop of spooky color to the inside and making a delicious and visually cool surprise.

#ToraniHalloween

Mummy Spookcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 Box white cake mix (and whatever ingredients are needed according to box directions)
• 2 cans cream cheese or vanilla frosting
• Torani Strawberry or Raspberry Syrup
• Edible eyeball decorations

Directions:

1. Make cupcakes according to box directions and allow to cool.
2. While cupcakes are still warm gently poke a few holes into the top of each one and pour 2 TBS of Torani syrup onto each. Allow cupcakes to fully cool.
3. Add frosting to a zip lock bag and snip off the corner of one side, gently squeeze until frosting moves to the hole you snipped.
4. Pipe frosting on to each cupcakes using a zig zag motion to make “bandages”.
5. Add the eyes.
6. Enjoy your Spookcakes.

Click here for more Torani recipes, news and product information delivered to your inbox. Sign up for their e-mail newsletter and get 10% off your first purchase.

Today’s post is brought to you by my friend, Kimberly Smith, lead aesthetician at Rejuvena Health & Aesthetics in Scottsdale.

Summer takes a toll on our skin, especially in Arizona. As the season changes and you look in the mirror is something akin to a Halloween mask looking back?

Don’t be tricked into expensive products to treat your face right. I’ve come up with three masks perfect to remedy scary skin problems.

**Tip: Apply the last two masks in the shower and let sit for 3-5 minutes to make for easy cleanup and take advantage of the steam from the hot water.

Green Goblin Mask
This mask may sound ghoulish, but it will make your skin feel like you’re dressing up as a pretty princess for Halloween!

Ingredients:

• 1 Avocado: This superfood promotes soothing skin, hydration, and calming properties.
• Green tea (1 tablespoon): Green tea has anti-aging and antioxidant benefits that can help delay signs of skin aging.
• Full-fat cream (organic – enough to make spreadable paste): This provides a comfortable, soothing base that balances out the pumpkin and makes for a thick texture.

Directions: Mix everything together and smooth evenly over face and neck. Let sit for five minutes and remove with a warm wash cloth.

Pumpkin Mask
This fun mask gently exfoliates your skin and helps shed dead skin cells in a less harsh way than synthetic products on the market.

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin (1 regular can): This orange veggie evens out skin tone, lightens discoloration, and is a perfect way to help your face recover from summer sun damage.
• Cinnamon (1/4 teaspoon): Make sure you buy ayervedic or organic cinnamon for best results. This spice promotes circulation and stimulates the other ingredients to act.
• Honey (1 tablespoon): Only use raw, unprocessed honey to take advantage of all the nutrition and trace minerals in the product. It’s a great powerhouse ingredient that offers hydration.
• Full-fat cream (organic – enough to make spreadable paste): See above for health benefits.

Directions: Mix all ingredients, separate into an ice cube tray and freeze. You’ll have fresh pumpkin mask for months!

Honey Cinnamon Mask
If you have oily or acne-prone skin, this simple mask combines just 1 /4 tsp of raw, unprocessed honey with a pinch of ayervedic cinnamon. You can spot apply it through your t-zone or use it on your whole face. See above for health benefits of Honey and Cinnamon.

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About Rejuvena Health and Aesthetics:
Rejuvena Health and Aesthetics helps patients look and feel their best using a revolutionary, integrative approach that includes all aspects of both naturopathic and aesthetic medicine. Rejuvena believes that total body wellness encompasses both the inside and the outside, and that your appearance is a direct reflection of what’s going on beneath the surface. Rejuvena offers the latest regenerative medicine techniques to resolve pain, enhance tissue and wrinkle repair, customized diet plans, organic whole food based supplements and detoxification therapies.

To learn more, visit www.werejuvenate.com or call 480-551-9000.

Cheese makes the world a better place…and it makes canned biscuit dough a great supermarket purchase. These Cheesy Biscuit Bombs are proof of that. You can’t go wrong with piping hot, soft biscuits encasing a center of molten cheese.

These make a great quick snack and are tasty served at room temperature so make them in advance before the kiddos get home. Save a few to serve as a dinner rolls at dinner time.

Add a couple cubes or ham or turkey and turn these biscuits into a bomb lunch (see what I did there?), perfect for lunch boxes!

Cheesy Biscuit Bombs

Ingredients:

• 1 (10.2 oz) can refrigerated biscuit dough, containing 5 biscuits
• 10 1″ cubes of cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons finely grated cheddar cheese
• 1 Tbs melted butter
• 1/4 tsp granulated garlic

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Open can of biscuits and cut each one in half.
3. Flatten out one piece of dough in your hand creating a disc. Place one cube of cheese into center of disc and enclose dough around it, rolling it in your hand to create a ball. Smooth out any seams or cracks. Repeat until all are done.
4. Line biscuits on baking sheet.
5. Add garlic granules to metled butter and mix. Brush the tops and sides with the garlic butter.
6. Sprinkle small pinch of cheese on tops of each biscuit.
7. Bake on top rack until golden brown – about 18 minutes.
8. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving as the cheese inside will be very hot.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Out of all the snacks I have posted here the past few weeks this one os my absolute favorite. I eat these regularly, in fact, I am enjoying a Fruit Toastee as I type this post. So good.

We always have fresh fruit on hand — grapes, strawberries, bananas, peaches, a variety of berries – our fruit bowl and crisper is always full of sweet goodness. So it’s no wonder many of my snack ideas contain fruit, we live off of it.

This recipe calls from cream cheese sweetened with honey, but you can use ricotta or mascarpone cheese. If you don’t have honey feel free to swap it with agave or maple syrup or maybe even a pinch of brown sugar. And use whatever fruits you like. My favorite with the sweetened cream cheese are the grapes, but strawberries, peaches and bananas are delightful too.

P.S. The honey cream cheese makes for a pretty sweet and tasty dip too. Dip graham crackers or apple slices in it for another snack option!!

Fruit Toastees

Ingredients:

• 2 slices cinnamon swirl bread
• 2 Tbs softened cream cheese
• 1 tsp honey
• fruit of your choice

Directions:

1. Toast bread.
2. in a small bowl mix the cream cheese and honey together until smooth and well combined.
3. Slice fruit into thin slices.
4. Spread cream cheese onto each slice of bread.
5. Arrange fruit slices on the toast.

We love smoothies in our house. I have a Vitamix blender so I make them all the time. They are one of our absolute favorite treats. We always have fresh fruit on hand so I like to get creative. Banana is my go-to ingredient for a creamy texture but sometimes I find the flavor can overpower the other fruits I use. So for this smoothie I used almond butter to achieve some rich, creaminess while also providing some protein. I loved how the almonds and peach flavors complimented each other. Now we make this smoothie all the time, sometimes I add a handful of baby carrots for some extra nutrients.

Smoothies are always more fun when served with cute paper straws. For Jax, that detail is a must.

Peach Almond Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 large ripe peaches (or nectarines)
• 1 cup vanilla or *unsweetened almond milk
• 1 heaping Tbs almond butter
• 1 Tbs agave nectar *(if using unsweetened almond milk)
• 1 cup ice

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Serve and enjoy.

P.S. If you don’t already have one I highly recommend investing in a Vitamix. It is our most used and best loved Kitchen appliance and has paid for itself with all the smoothies, iced coffees and milk shakes I make at home. I use it to make salsa, soup, and whip cream too. Love. Love. LOVE our Vitamix. This is not a sponsored post, but I truly think every household should own a Vitamix.

All kids love sandwiches…except mine. My child will not eat sandwiches and it is frustrating. She claims she doesn’t like bread but occasionally she will eat toast. Her anti-sandwich stance can make lunch and snack time a challenge and helped me to discover a little trickery goes a long way. I got creative and discovered if it doesn’t look like a sandwich she will eat it. Hooray for sandwich sushi.

These little sandwich rolls have been making an appearance in her lunch box and she gobbles them up. So on mornings when I make them for her lunch I’ll make an extra for a snack when she comes home. Jax prefers turkey over most other deli meats but I have made these with ham as well. Roast beef would work too. And add some greens if you’re child will go for it!

Oh, and I should tell you – I just call these turkey rolls around her. I know the words “sushi” and “sandwich” would turn her off in a heartbeat even though she loves them; she is weird that way. But I think Sandwich Sushi is cute and fun. Plus, they look like little sushi rolls, so call them what you will and enjoy.

Sandwich Sushi

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of soft wheat bread
• 1 slice of deli meat (turkey, ham, or roast beef)
• 1 string cheese
• 1/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1 tbs whipped cream cheese

Directions:

1. Cut the crusts off the bread.
2. Line the bread up with the bottom of one slice slightly overlapping the top of the other slice. Using a rolling pin flatten out the slices pressing together where they meet, creating one long, flattened slice of bread.
3. Spread the cream cheese on the bread.
4. Lay the deli meat on the bread. Trim to fit and add the trimmings to the center.
5. Lay the shredded carrots, arranging evenly over the deli meat.
6. Lay the string cheese along the bottom of the sandwich and begin to roll it up.
7. Roll tightly and secure with toothpicks if desired.
8. Slice into individual pieces about 1″ thick.
9. Serve and enjoy.

That’s right, another apple recipe snack idea. That’s because apples, like bananas are a staple in our fruit bowl. Jax will eat several apples in a sitting if I let her, and sometimes I do because there could be worse things for her to binge on than apples.

I often cut up apples for her and let her dip them in peanut butter or yogurt or if I’m feeling especially nice, caramel sauce. Apple dippers are a fun snack but not too creative, so I came up with these Apple Stackers, which are pretty much apple sandwiches using apples for the bread. They can get messy, but that’s why the kids will like them.

I like to use peanut butter and jelly in my apple stackers and Jax LOVES chocolate hazelnut spread on hers, but the possibilities are endless.

The Apple Stackers in the photos are chocolate hazelnut spread, almond butter and jelly, almond butter and cream cheese (yum), and cream cheese and jelly. Go crazy and use whatever spreads you love or have on hand.

Apple Stackers

Ingredients:

• Apples
• Whatever spreads you like — nut butters, jellies, jams, honey, cream cheese, etc.

Directions:

1. Wash and dry your apples.
2. Cut the apples into 1/4-1/2 inch slices crosswise (I get 4 slices per apple).
3. Cut the seed/cores out of the apple creating an apple ring.
4. Schmear on your spreads on one apple ring, then place another apple on top, creating an apple sandwich.
5. Enjoy!

Bananas are a staple in our home and without fail, not matter if I buy a bunch of four or a bunch of eight, there is always one or two bananas that start to go dark.

I used to toss the bananas at the start of browning, that is until I discovered nice cream. We LOVE nice cream. It’s creamy, dreamy and satisfies the sweet tooth perfectly. I simply peel spotty brown bananas, cut them up into chunks and freeze. Then whenever we need a little treat I put some frozen bananas in the food processor and give them a whirl. Yum. Eat as is or top with a little chocolate or caramel sauce.

Even better you can add other fruits and make tasty flavored nice creams like strawberry, mango, peach or whatever other fruits you have on hand. And don’t limit it to just fruit add peanut butter, almond butter or coco powder for a more decadent treat.

I love nice cream so much I even hosted a demo about it at Whole Foods Market last month.

It’s the perfect after school snack, or late night treat. I have even let Jax enjoy a scoop for breakfast! Why not, it’s just bananas!!

Here is the “base recipe” and a few flavor variations.

Banana Nice Cream 

Ingredients:

• 4 cups frozen banana chunks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Directions:

Add bananas and vanilla to food processor and puree until smooth. Add small amounts of water if needed to get the desired consistency.

Variations:

Fruit Flavors
Substitute 1 cup of fresh strawberries, cut fresh peach or fresh cut mango for 1 cup of the bananas and blend together.

Peanut butter Chocolate Chip
Add 2 Tbs peanut butter (or nut butter of your choice) to the bananas and blend. Once smooth and cream stir in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.

Pineapple Coconut
Substitute 1 cup fresh cut pineapple for 1 cup of the bananas and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes to the frozen bananas and blend.