Banana Ice-Cream with Banana Whipped Cream

It's Aidan's 1st b'day next month and I've been searching for a healthy birthday cake idea for him.  I haven't introduced any sugar to him yet and am trying to give him the healthiest meals I can.

Well, I just couldn't find a cake that met my criteria - either they had sugar in them, or I tried to substitute the sugar for something else healthier and it didn't work out, or I tried a sugar-free cake and it didn't turn out good, so I was disappointed that I couldn't find a healthy b'day cake!

Then I found someone online who made banana ice-cream - I tried it and it turned out really well. :D  And then elsewhere I found another recipe for banana cream - all I changed here was to sub stevia for sugar and leave out vanilla essence because I didn't have one without some nasty ingredients in it, and it's so tasty. :)

So here's my practice round for Aidan's b'day "cake" . . .

How cute is that? :D

All you do is freeze a ripe banana - just don't use an overly ripe one whose skin has already gone black - the ice-cream will taste bitter (I used such a banana 'cause I was so impatient to try out this ice-cream to see if it works, that I used the only banana I had on hand).  The recipe also said not to use a green banana, because it will make for a "green" tasting ice-cream.

• peel banana, chop banana into bite size chunks (I used 1 1/2 banana for this single size serving)
• freeze for 2 hours
• put in a food processor and blend until it turns creamy

When you start blending it will look all crumbly, but eventually (less than a minute) it suddenly turns creamy and ice-cream texture-y.  If it sticks to the sides of the food processor, just scrape it down back onto the blades and keep blending.

Then it's basically ready to eat!  It's so creamy, and really good actually.  This must be one of the healthiest ice-creams ever!

I put the ice-cream into a mini silicone mould though, 'cause I wanted something that looks more like a "cake" with some shape instead of a bowl of ice-cream, so I froze it for another few hours - I accidentally forgot about it and so don't know how long it was in the freezer for, but I froze it until it was quite hard.

To get it out I loosened the edges of the mould and ran the bottom of the mould under warm water to get it loose, and it came out easily.

Next time I'll just make sure to press the ice-cream down nicely into the mould, but it doesn't matter, it's getting covered by cream. :)

As for the cream, here's what you need (this is WAYYY more than you need for a little baby dessert, so use less if you don't like to eat the cream throughout the day). :)

1 cup fresh cream
15 drops liquid stevia
1/2 banana, mashed REALLY well until it's almost liquid with no chunks in it (add more banana if you want it more banana-y)

• add stevia and whip until stiff - make it as stiff as you like it
• mix in banana by hand, or for just 1 second mix it with your blender - you don't want to over-whip the cream
• scoop into ice-cream

Serve immediately.  Hope it turns out this good on his b'day!

A cute little "cake" that baby can make a yummy mess with. :)  You'll probably have to feed the ice-cream to him with a spoon though.

Scrambled Eggs with Cheese & Avocado

Here's a recipe I found online and tried it this morning, and I'll definitely be making this fancy scrambled egg version again. :)

For 1 serving, this is what you'll need:

1/2 small onion (small onion = 2 inch onion)
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used cheddar)
1/2 an avocado
salt & pepper to taste
butter for frying

• Heat up butter then fry onion until lightly browned
• Beat eggs then add cheese and mix together
• Pour eggs into pan and fry like normal scrambled eggs
• When cooked, stir in chopped avo, plate up & munch

Ok so I overcooked my onion a little, which are the brown bits you see there.  It really is more appetizing than it looks in my pic. :)  I wouldn't have thought eggs & avo are a good combo, but surprise surprise...

Pineapple & Coconut Pudding

This tastes more like a pineapple cake and I can't really taste any coconut, maybe one could add some desiccated coconut next time.  But it's sooooo tasty, especially served with cream poured all over. :)

The recipe is actually a cake, but I used a glass dish and baked it like a dessert, 'cause cake tins can't be put into the dishwasher. ;)

Ingredients:
175g cake flour (I used wholewheat normal flour and it worked perfectly)
10ml baking powder
150g castor sugar
95ml sunflower oil
75ml coconut milk
2 eggs, separated
1 lemon's grated zest
1 can crushed pineapple pieces, drained and juice reserved

Method:

• mix flour, baking powder and sugar into mixing bowl.  Mix oil and coconut milk in a separate bowl
• add egg yolks and lemon zest to coconut mixture.  Fold into dry ingredients and add pineapple pieces
• beat egg whites until stiff and fold into cake batter.  Pour into baking tin (or glass dish) and bake for 40 mins, or until skewer comes out clean.

Sauce:

• 30ml pineapple juice
• 30ml golden syrup
• 125ml coconut milk

          Mix together and heat to luke warm.  Pour over cake when you take it out of oven.

Serve hot or cold.

Yum yum yum!