Hi all! Coach Stefanie here!
It’s summer and the temperatures have skyrocketed. If you’re like me, you’re craving a frozen treat but likely don’t want to spend the BITES on a store bought one (even though there are some great options in the freezer aisle). Not only are purchased ice creams often very BITE heavy, you also don’t really know what is in them, probably even more so if you opt for one of the lower BITE versions. So today I am sharing my favorite ways to make “ice cream” that is healthy and low in BITES at home.
Banana Ice Cream
Many of you have probably heard of this treat under one name or another. One company even came out with a whole kitchen gadget just to make this frozen banana ice cream. But you can also make it with any blender or food processor. All you need are frozen, ripe bananas. I always end up having extra bananas when I buy some (maybe because I am weird and I prefer eating them when they’re more on the green side and have no brown). To make it easier on your blender, break the banana in smaller chunks before freezing them in a baggie. When you’re ready to make ice cream, simply pull out the banana and blend it up. Sometimes I add a little bit of water to help it all come together. Once it is blended (or even while blending) you can add your mix-ins to make it extra delicious (and not as BITE friendly haha!).
Some of my favorite mix-ins are:
- Unsweetened cocoa powder (add before blending to create a chocolate ice cream)
- Other frozen fruits
- Chocolate chips
- Peanut butter chips
- Marshmallows
- You can even top it with some sugar free caramel or chocolate sauce!
But this technique not only works with bananas! The banana version will give you the creamiest version that most resembles the ice cream texture. However, I also love using just frozen raspberries and creating a sorbet-like treat!
DIY Popsicles
We all remember those frozen pouches of colorful yumminess from our childhood. Loaded with sugar and all kinds of chemicals, they are one of the most common icy treats. The good news is that there is a way to make your own at home! Simply grab some zipzicles from amazon and get to filling. The zipzicles are ziplock bags in the form of our childhood treat which makes them great to fill with your own flavor combinations.
Some of my favorite ways to fill them (not all are super low BITE, choose what works best with your plan):
- Juice
- Smoothies (my personal favorite are the naked smoothies)
- Greek yogurt blended with fruit
- Water with drink mix packets
Yogurt Dots
These remind me of the famous “dippin dots”. Simply flavor your Greek yogurt with a flavoring of your choice. You can go for different fruits to keep it zero bite or blend in some 100 calorie snack packs for other flavor options like cookies and cream. Once smooth, fill your Greek yogurt into a ziplock (or piping) bag and cut off the corner. Using a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, put little yogurt dots all over the parchment and freeze.
Bonus Tip:
You can also freeze fruit and eat those as a frozen treat by themselves. Grapes are amazing in frozen form. Another option is banana slices (or little banana bite sandwiches where two pieces of banana are filled with just a tiny bit of peanut butter and frozen together). And lastly raspberries filled with just a hint of chocolate and then frozen are super good as well.
There you have it: my favorite ways to create frozen treats that won’t break the BITE bank! And with the endless options, you can make sure you never get bored!
What is your favorite frozen treat?
