Testing the Food Network: Peanut Butter 'n' Banana Ice Cream

So I don't know about you guys, but I watch the Food Network quite religiously. I think the cooking shows are the most fun and could truthfully watch them all day long. Confession: Sometimes, on Saturdays, I do just that. I also share my day with the HSN and QVC shopping channels. Don't judge.


So anyway, on Saturdays, there is a new show on the Food Network called The Kitchen - and I am obsessed. I won't go into details, but you need to watch it.

Anyway, two weeks ago on The Kitchen, they made a quick and easy "healthy" ice cream with bananas. And I had banana's. So, during the next commercial break I got right up and threw my banana's in the freezer. And then I ran straight back to the couch to continue watching. A few hours days later, I remembered my intentions and got all the ingredients together, including: frozen banana's, plain Greek yogurt, peanut butter, Nutella (or the cheapskates version, as I have),

I didn't quite think about the banana's when I was tossing them into the freezer. It didn't dawn on me until I brought them out that I had no idea how to peel a rock solid, frozen banana. Youtubing commenced. Turns out, you let it thaw for 5 minutes, cut off the ends, cut it in half and the peel comes right off with a little help from a knife (or your finger nails when you get frustrated with the bits that remain.)

Once peeled, toss them into your food processor in chunks.

Next, add to the banana chunks your Greek yogurt. This recipe calls for full-fat, original flavored Greek yogurt. Naturally, this is what I purchased.

Honest, I swear the "low fat" was hidden in the store... it appeared while in my fridge...

Next, add a gob of peanut butter into the food processor along with your yogurt and banana chunks. A gob is obviously the technical term for "however the hell much you want". I put this much:

Next, you turn on your food processor and let it rip until it's creamy and chunk-less. I turned mine on and... nothing happened. I played with it for a good 20 minutes, but it just wouldn't lock. So, for the sake of the blog, I swore a lot about the multiple dishes, but I got out my blender and wished it luck.

But... I didn't care all that much because I had a trusty friend by my side that tends to keep my stress down.

Next, you put your mixture into a bowl and "fold" in a gob (refer to the peanut butter part for definition) of the Nutella. This makes it look... well.. not so edible and delicious.

I didn't let it phase me, although it tried because my Nutella never really did "fold" in nicely, but instead stayed in small chunks that resembled poop. (It's what we were all thinking - I just put it in writing)

After a few hours, I took it out of the freezer to see how it developed. The top of the bowl resembled ice cream, but the middle and right underneath the top was still pretty runny, so I put it back in the freezer and vowed to come back to it in a few hours.

3 days later, I remembered it was in the freezer when I went in for some real ice cream. I grudgingly surpassed the real ice cream and took out the bowl of, lets be honest, mashed bananas and gave it a go. It was hard as a rock and looked a little like this:

After a quick microwave and a sit on the counter for a bit, I finally had my taste of concoction.

Results: Yup. Tastes like frozen bananas. And if you do this, definitely eat it a few hours after freezing instead of a few days.

As a side note: I'm not completely believing this is a "healthy" alternative to regular ice cream. I made one small bowl out of two bananas (200 calories), a yogurt cup (100 calories), a scoop of peanut butter (probably 100 more) and a scoop of Nutella (about 50). Together, this small bowl is 450 calories. I'd rather just indulge in a bowl of regular ice cream of the chocolate variety for just about the same and know I will enjoy it much more.