Banana soft-serve ice cream (without the cream!)

Edie Shaw-Ewald is a Registered Dietitian and Personal Trainer, and a regular contributor to the Bedford Beacon.

She coaches clients to use real and natural foods to achieve their healthiest body and mind.

She runs her own business called Nova Scotia’s Nutrition Coach:

Bella and I went to the Vet recently. Bella walked on their scale and it registered that she had gained 5 pounds. Thinking the scale must be off, I jumped on to check my weight, expecting it to show my usual weight. When it registered at 5 pounds over, I confidently reported the problem to the vet assistant: ” Your scale is off by about 5 pounds.”

She promptly picked up a 10 lb bag of food and put it on the scale – it registered at 10 lbs…OOooops!

I should have known that I had gained a few pounds over the winter….when I went to put on something ‘summery’ for a recent Margarita party I found that shorts of ‘summers past’ were too tight. I ended up wearing a pair of drawstring pants – God help me!

Not that 5 pounds is a big deal…but if midlife weight gain is not caught at the first 5 pounds, it will settle in and next year another 5 pounds will move in and so on, and so on….

So Bella and I have put on 5 pounds over the winter. Now what?! Take my own advice?

Here is my plan:

I will only eat while sitting down at the table. There have been too many “BLT’s” as one of my clients calls the phenomena of taking ‘bites, licks and tastes’ while standing at the counter.

I will reduce the portion size of my night snack.

I will be more diligent about strength training 3 times a week. This isn’t strength training at a gym though – it may be in my backyard, on the beach or a hiking trail.

I will do interval training during walks and hikes by injecting at least three 3- minute bursts of jogging or skipping, etc.

But I love ice cream – and summer just begs to enjoy it. I will definitely have a couple of scoops of “Dee Dee’s” homemade ice cream at Peggy’s Cove – but since I discovered this fantastic trick with bananas….I will be able to satisfy my longing for something cool, smooth and sweet (other than Mike!) without the fat and calories.

Soft Serve Banana Ice Cream (without the cream!)

Peel and slice some very ripe bananas. Put in a freezer bag and freeze for several hours.

Put the chunks of banana slices in a high powered blender or a food processor.

Blend. At first it will look crumbly and you will think that it is not working – keep going – all of a sudden it will turn into the consistency of soft serve ice cream.! Yumm!!

Serve right away!

O.K….so we had it with a homemade brownie too! Yum Yum!

Source: http://www.bedfordbeacon.com/banana-soft-serve-ice-cream-without-the-cream