Vegan Nut Butter and Banana "Ice Cream"

I have an ice cream maker, but sometimes I want to make an even more simple "ice cream", one which doesn't involve the heavy cream, milk, sugar, a frozen canister, etc.  And it's nice to have a vegan version of "ice cream" on hand in case you ever have a friend who is vegan or intolerant (or allergic) to dairy.   One day as I was perusing my favorite blogs, I found this great recipe from Teri at Managed Macros.  I quickly recreated it and was more pleased than I ever would have imagined!  Not only did this "ice cream" taste amazing, but it was very simple with only three ingredients.  It's also a great way to use any bananas that are about to go bad.  Don't let them go to waste, put them in the freezer and make this recipe!

In Nick's words; "This stuff tastes like peanut butter, banana whipped cream!"

Vegan Nut Butter Banana "Ice Cream"

Source: Managed Macros

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 frozen bananas, sliced into ~1-inch thick pieces

3 Tbsp. of your favorite peanut butter or almond **

~1/4th cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Directions

1.  Make sure your sliced bananas are nice and frozen (they should be in the freezer for a few hours, at least).

2.  Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend away!

3.  Stop and scrape the sides as needed, and continue blending/pureeing until it's nice and creamy.

4.  Top with extra peanuts/almonds if you wish.

**NOTE:  If you are following a low FODMAPs diet you are better off using peanuts, as they contain much less FODMAPs than almonds, and the amount of peanuts in this recipe should be tolerable for most FODMAPs sensitive individuals.

Estimated Nutrition Facts for 1-serving (half the recipe)
Source: CalorieCount.com
Using peanut butter

This summer I tried the recipe with almond butter.  Almond butter tends to be a bit healthier than peanut butter simply because of it's higher content of magnesium and vitamin E (And a few other properties, which you can view here).  Did you know that both vitamin E and magnesium are good for preventing, or reducing symptoms of PMS?  Yeah ladies, stock up (or gentleman....).

Estimated Nutrition Facts for 1-serving (half the recipe)
Source: CalorieCount.com
Using almond butter

As you can see there is slightly more calories and less calcium and iron in the peanut butter version.  And there is also more vitamin E and magnesium in the almond butter version, as I mentioned, but neither of these nutrients are required to be on the label.  I would honestly say this could be a hearty snack, a really healthy desert, or even a pretty decent breakfast (perhaps with some type of whole grain crumbled on top, such as homemade granola, cereal, popped amaranth and/or toasted wheat berries, or raw oats.

QUESTION:  What do you like better, peanut butter or almond butter?

Thanks for reading!

The Candid Rd