Healthy Cherry Banana ‘Ice Cream’ with Chewy Coconut-Date Granola

I need you all to ask yourselves a questions, and be honest. Have you ever wanted to have ice cream for breakfast?? If your answer is something other than “Um. YES every day!” we need to talk…

For those of you with the same passion aka unhealthy obsession with this perfect frozen treat, this post is going to rock your world.

If you troll Instagram, like myself, in pursuit of the perfect healthy yet #foodporn worthy meals, you probably know what nice cream is. For the rest of you, nice cream (‘nana ice cream) is just bananas that are frozen and then blended that magically takes the consistency of the creamiest soft serve.

Oh yeah, you read that right, creamy soft serve made from just bananas. Even better, I top it with a sweet and salty chewy homemade granola that takes just like cookies. I swear. It’s almost too good to be true.

After reading this post you may or may not get Gwen Stefani’s song where she spells out ‘B.A.N.A.N.A.S’ stuck in your head. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

To begin, simply gather all of your ingredients and dump them into a bowl. There’s a lot of room for experimentation here.

Don’t like dates? Use any other dried fruit. Not a fan of cashews? Perfect, any nut can work too. Prefer flax to chia? Not a problem. You get the point.

Once everything is in your mixing bowl, pour in your coconut oil and honey, and stir until evenly coated.

Sprinkle with salt and spread on a baking sheet and bake for an hour, or until golden and fragrant.

The granola clusters into chewy, dense, chunks that work perfectly on top of yogurt, popped straight into your mouth, or as we’re going to make, on top of banana ice cream.

For the ice cream you’ll need frozen bananas, and any other fruit you want to add. I chose cherries for their vibrant color, but any other berries would work, or you could leave it plain.

Pop the bananas in your food processor for a minute or so, and pulse until they start looking crumbly. After this phase, the bananas start to form a ball.

At this point I break out my spatula and smash my bananas back down towards the blade of the food processor.

Keep it whirling around until it looks like so, and then you can add your other fruits.

The cherries gave the soft serve a beautiful pink tinge, and an additional layer of flavor. From here, pile your ice cream into a bowl, and top with chunks of your freshly made granola and piece of fruit.

Want a taste??

I’m not going to lie, I crushed the entire bowl in about a minute and a half. Although I definitely wouldn’t recommend that since a brain freeze is inevitable.

Anyways, promise me that next time a craving hits for ice cream you’ll give this one a go. Delicious and healthy, what more could you want??

Chewy Date-Coconut Granola Recipe Inspired by The Hungry Hippie (serves 6 as a topping, depending on your idea of a serving size)

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup creamy wheat cereal, or you could use buckwheat if you’re gluten free (Bob’s Red Mill is best)
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped and pitted dates
• 1/3 cup chopped cashews
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 225, and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
3. Pour the granola on the parchment, sprinkle with a little salt, and flatten it out using a spatula into a giant sheet.
4. Pop in the oven for an hour, or until golden. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
5. Resist the urge to eat it all at one time.

Banana Soft Serve (serves 1)

• As many frozen bananas as you’d like, I used 2
• Any fruit you’d like, I used about 1/4 cup cherries

1. Chop your banana into small pieces, and pulse in a food processor until creamy. Feel free to add any fruit you want.
2. Yes, that’s it.