Brownie Crumble Sundae

For Brownie Crumble:

Almonds (or almond meal)
Walnuts
Dates
cocoa (or cacao) powder

This is fairly fool proof. Measurements depend on personal taste, and amount of folks you are feeding. I used roughly 1/3 cup almonds, 1/4 cup walnuts, 5 large dates, and 6 heaping spoons of cocoa. This made *a lot*; way more than needed for a few sundaes. (I've been storing it in the 'fridge, and tossing it over fruit and such.)

Toss almonds into a food processor and process until it is a meal. Add walnuts, and pulse until chunky. Add cocoa powder along with pitted and chopped dates. Pulse until crumbly. You could form this into bars, if you wanted. I didn't bother. (if it seems too crumbly to form bars, add another date, or two.)


For ice cream:

Banana
Fruit of choice
agave/honey/maple syrup (optional)

For the sundae pictured, I used one banana and apple pulp left over from juicing; about equal amounts of each. You don't have to use pulp. You could use strawberries, or any other fruit in place of the apple pulp. If you use fresh juicy fruit, just use more banana than other fruit. Otherwise, it's a great way to use up that fruit juice pulp!

This was enough for two scoops of ice cream. I have a small ice cream maker (half pint). If yours is large, you will need to use much more, or simply place blended fruit mixture into a container in the freezer, and stir every so often to keep it creamy until done.

If you like your ice cream sweet, add some agave, or the sweetener of your choice. I find the fruit to be sweet enough on it's own.


Assembly:

Place a few spoonfuls of brownie crumble into dessert bowl. Top with a scoop of ice cream. Add berries of choice. Sprinkle more crumbles over all. Enjoy!

Fresh Almond Milk

On one of the forums I belong to someone asked how to make almond milk.  I decided after posting there, to copy my response here, since it's such a basic (and yummy!) staple.

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There are a few ways to make almond milk. Here are one's I have tried.

- Soak raw almonds in clean water over night. Rinse. Blend with fresh water. strain.

- Use purchased raw almond butter. Blend with fresh water. straining optional.

- Make your own almond butter. A coffee grinder works great for this (you may prefer to have a separate one that you label for "nuts only". Be careful when cleaning not to get water in the wrong areas!). Grind almonds and a few cashews in the grinder. (Cashews help to cream the almonds - most recipes call for adding oil. I've found cashews will do the trick, and taste less oily.) Add to blender with fresh water. Blend. straining optional.

Portions will be to taste. When making it with purchased almond butter, I use one tablespoon per just over a cup of water. When making my own almond butter (which I do most often) I use 1/4 cup raw almonds (not soaked), 4 whole raw cashews (not soaked), and between 2 to 2 1/4 cups water. I also like to add a touch of sea salt (which gives it body, not saltiness), and a bit of agave for sweetening.

It's been a while since I used soaked almonds (which won't make an almond butter). I do understand that soaked ones are more nutritious, and more digestible. I just don't like the taste of the milk, nor all the work straining, and cleaning up afterwards. I *think* it was 1/2 cup almonds per cup water, but I could be remembering wrong.  A search online may bring you a recipe to your liking.

Have fun!

:~)

BaMangoBerry

Call it soft-serve, or fruit soup, mid ninety degree temperatures just scream for something cool to eat. Tonight's evening meal: frozen and fresh banana, frozen mango, a few fresh strawberries, and a small amount of filtered water blended until thick, with small bits left in the creaminess. This was poured into bowls, and topped with fresh blackberries. Yummy, and cool. Perfect way to break the heat.

Unfortunately, we ate it up before any pictures were taken!

Banana Split Soft-serve

Banana split for breakfast? When it’s this healthy, why not? Besides, I need to use up some of those strawberries!



Banana Split Soft-serve

1 1/2 to 2 frozen bananas (peel and slice prior to freezing)
4 +/- strawberries
4 +/- walnut halves
1 tablespoon hemp seeds

Amounts depend on the size of fruit you have on hand. It’s all to taste. Blend with just enough water to make it whir. Blend until mostly creamy, but leave in a few chunky bits. Tastes like the dregs of a banana split! Yum.

If it is too thin, throw in a few more slices of frozen banana. (I keep a few bananas cut up in the freezer for just such an occasion!)

You could put this blended mix into an ice-cream maker to harden it up to more of a traditional hand-dipped ice-cream texture. You may need to double or triple the amounts, depending on the size of your ice-cream maker.