Great food ideas...its kids stuff

It's evident you are food obsessed when even an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood, a popular updated rendition of Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood on the PBS Kids network, gets you in the kitchen trying out recipes.

I was watching the show with my son and niece one day. The topic was all about trying new foods, a great message for youngins.  In the show, the various characters tried different vegetables whilst singing "you have to try new food because it might taste go-od" (a ridiculously catchy tune by the way).  Anyways, the characters took turns, some enjoyed, some not, but everyone enjoyed their bowl of something called banana swirl.   Now of course anything looks great in animation, however, these tigers were on to something. 

It turns out banana swirl is just frozen bananas blended up. Yes, simple...yet genius!  I know because I gave it a try.

Nowadays kids, and adults, alike, are exposed to way too much sugar.  It's sometimes hidden or it's often grossly underestimated how much is even consumed. So why not try variations of common treats that fill the sweet tooth but don't feel like a sacrifice. 

Yes folks, it's entirely possible...shocker.

I took frozen bananas,  added a hint of vanilla extract,  a splash of skim milk and blended away, adding milk to induce creaminess (you don't necessarily need to add milk, but if you don't then I suggest a sturdy blender).  And voila! I had instant,  low sugar, low fat, banana ice cream!  I tested it with my niece,  who is definitely a food critic in her own right, and she absolutely loved it, didn't even notice it wasn't really ice cream.

This was fabulous...so I started experimenting and here are some of my favorite banana ice cream creations:

PB'n J
Blend the bananas,  add a touch of your favourite nut butter, and some frozen strawberries.  Add milk until you have the consistency of ice cream.

Dark Chocolate
Same premise...bananas,  vanilla,  milk. This time add pieces of dark chocolate or cocoa powder.  Just note, add the amount of dark chocolate that you know you enjoy. 

S' mores
Same as the dark chocolate but add a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs. I personally am not a fan of marshmallows,  but I suppose you can add that too.

Berry Banana Blast
Bananas, blueberries, blackberries...yes and the milk. Add a touch of fresh mint

Perfect for summertime!  

Now that I think about it, you could easily add more milk and make it a smoothie consistency,  then use molds to create banana popsicles...I will get on that tomorrow.

The basic beauty of this is, just play around with something that makes sense.  You don't have to have recipes for everything; case in point this very simple kid show idea. Just know what you like, keep it still relatively healthy, and try it out...

...because it might taste go-od (yes I am still singing that song in my head...those darn PBS  geniuses).

Banana ice cream with milk added