But, as the weather starts to get warmer, I prefer something cold instead - ice cream!!
I have been loving Pinterest lately (always), for giving me several healthful ice cream alternatives - which are actually dairy free and so simple.
One I love is made with coconut milk! They also sell this in the refrigerated section, with the milk and coffee creamer, too, but make sure you buy it in the can instead. It can be found with the Asian foods at any grocery store.
For this I use the full fat coconut milk. It is thicker and works much better for making ice cream that is rich and creamy.
Coconut milk is a 'good' fat, and contains vitamins like calcium and magnesium.
Note, I do not have an ice cream maker, and you don't really need one for this. The food processor works fine to blend until creamy, and as it is chills in the freezer, I just stir the mixture a couple times.
Recipe:
This makes two small servings - for more, use 2 cans of coconut milk.
1 can of full fat coconut milk, chilled in the fridge until milk and water are separated. (We are only using the milk that floats to the top.)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 Tbsp - 2 Tbsp natural sweetener, to taste (I prefer maple syrup. Agave syrup or brown rice syrup work great, too)
Directions:
Put the can in the fridge the day before you make this recipe, if possible.
This causes the milk to separate from the water, and for this recipe, we are only going to open the can and scoop out the top 'milk' part, and leave the water at the bottom for other use. Or just drink it!
Scoop this into a food processor and pulse until nice and creamy.
Add vanilla extract, plus maple syrup, (sweeten to taste), and, really, any other flavors you'd like!
Blend those in, then scoop out ice cream into a freezable container.
Freeze until desired texture is reached; you can get to a soft serve type consistency pretty quickly, or wait longer for a more scoop-able ice cream. While freezing, every so often, give the ice cream a good stir, mixing in the frozen bits along the edges into the middle.
This is best served right away, as soon as it freezes up a bit.
If frozen overnight it will need to thaw quite a bit before it is soft enough to scoop, and it loses some of it's nice texture.
In other news, it is finally Friday, and time to link up with Whitney for some #backthatazzup tunes!
Check out this awesome artist, Andy Davis. I discovered him when he opened for Colbie Caillat at a concert. He is great!
Do you make vegan or healthy ice cream? What is your favorite flavor?
Hope you all have a great weekend!!
So There.
