Tag Archives: chocolate

Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas

Healthy Chocolate Covered Bananas Balanced Grettie Fitquestmom

Over the Memorial Day Weekend we went to a BBQ at a friend’s house and I was tasked with bringing a healthy-ish dessert.

Frozen chocolate covered bananas were always my favorite Disneyland treat and I think it is because that was the only place I ever saw them when I was younger.  I had a MASSIVE sweet tooth, yet I would choose those every time over a Mickey ice cream sandwich or the other fun ice cream treats they sold.

I thought that chocolate covered frozen bananas would fit the bill and would be fun for my daughter and I to make together.  She is the age now where I am wanting to give her more freedom in the kitchen and this was the perfect recipe for that.

This dessert ended-up being a hit with kids and adults alike…I’m pretty sure they will make a regular appearance this summer.

INGREDIENTS

  • Ripe Bananas (not too ripe though)
  • Popsicle sticks
  • Chocolate chips for melting (I used Enjoy Life brand)
  • Various toppings
    • Trail mix (we chopped ours up in the blender)
    • Nuts
    • Mini marshmallows
    • Raisins
    • Cereal
    • Sprinkles
    • Coarse sugar

METHOD

  1. Cut bananas into 3″ slices
  2. Stick a Popsicle stick into each banana piece
  3. Place the banana pieces on a cookie sheet and freeze for an hour or longer
  4. Melt the chocolate chips (I used the double boiler method)
  5. Coat each frozen banana with the melted chocolate and immediately sprinkle on the toppings (the chocolate will harden FAST)
  6. Lay the finished product back on the cookie sheet and into the freezer until ready to serve

What’s your favorite healthy-ish summertime dessert???

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Filed under Dessert, Frozen Treats, Fruit, Gluten Free, Holiday, Ice Cream, Kid Friendly, Quick, Recipes, Sorbet, Vegan

DECADENT DESSERTS AT 118Ëš

The Restaurant

Today I went to a raw cooking class at Jenny Ross’s 118Ëš in Costa Mesa and had a great time.  This was my first official raw foods cooking class.  I have a few raw foods dessert cookbooks (Ani Phyo’s and Kristen Suzanne’s) that I cook from, but nothing can quite compare to a class where there is interaction and discussion.  I loved being able to bounce questions and ideas off of the creator and chef of 118Ëš, Jenny Ross.

All of the ladies in the class (there were 8 of us) were really interesting.  Among us there were vegan chefs, a nurse practitioner, a woman who is a two time cancer survivor and has made the switch to vegan/raw in an effort to remain healthy, myself, and others interested in learning more about raw vegan food.

118Ëš This Way

We all met at the restaurant which is located in the shopping center called The Camp and then made the  short walk over to the Seed Market where the actual class took place which is right above Patagonia.  I have never been to this area of Costa Mesa and really look forward to going back to explore…it has a Sant Cruz kind of vibe.

The Camp in Costa Mesa

The class began by making three different dessert sauces; caramel, coconut cream, and chocolate sauce.  Chef Jenny made the sauces and then put them into squeeze bottles that she bought at Sur La Table (she said they sell BPA free squeeze bottles).  That is such a great way to store the sauces and it makes them easy to use on their own, i.e. with fruit or to squeeze right into the dessert recipes she uses the sauces in.

Cooking With Chef Jenny Ross

Next we moved onto dessert crusts and made a walnut based crust and a pecan based crust (that we later embellished to make raw brownies).  Below you see me making the walnut crust with Chef Jenny.

After making the crusts we moved on to making apple cobbler, avocado orange bars, chocolate brownies with chocolate fudge, macaroons, halvah with apples, drunken fruit, and fruit fondue.

By the end of class we all had a lot of desserts to take home.  When I got home my kids decimated the brownies…so good!

Completed Desserts

All in all it was a lot of fun and VERY educational.  I learned so much more from her about how to use my Excalibur dehydrator more effectively and different twists on making raw pie crusts, etc.  I can’t wait to whip up some more raw desserts…I am sure the kids won’t object.

Me & Chef Jenny Ross

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Filed under Dessert, Education, Gluten Free, Raw, Restaurants, Services, Vegan, Vegetarian