Caramelized Banana Ice Cream

A couple of years ago, my sister in law Monica shared a quick and easy dessert idea with me. She sliced up a couple of bananas, sprinkled them with a little brown sugar and cinnamon and popped them under the broiler for just a minute so the sugar caramelized and turned into a syrup-ish kinda thing. While it's still hot, you dump it over a bowl of vanilla ice cream and it's the most yummy thing ever. I made it recently and when I got to the bottom of the bowl I had some melted vanilla ice cream that was all combined with the cinnamon-brown sugar goodness and some remnants of mushed caramelized banana. The flavors were so heavenly, and it was at that moment I knew I needed to turn it into an ice cream flavor of its own.

My experiment didn't disappoint. I slow roasted bananas in brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, and then mixed it in a super easy {no cook!} base. The banana flavor is mild, but it's the perfect amount of sweetness and the brown sugar and cinnamon round out the flavor palate. I know a lot of people have issues with cooked bananas- and if you're one of those people, don't fret. I puree the caramelized bananas into the ice cream, so all you get is the amazing flavor and extra creaminess!


Caramelized Banana Ice Cream
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4 ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2-1" segments
1/4 C brown sugar
1 T real butter, melted
1 t cinnamon

2 C heavy cream
1 C whole milk (vit D milk)
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 t salt
2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a 9 x 13" baking dish with foil and place bananas in it. Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter over bananas and toss well with hands. Spread bananas out in a single layer.


Bake bananas (in your 400 degree preheated oven) for 15 minutes. Stir, and bake for 15 more. Remove from oven and cool on counter top. By this point you will have a scrumptious, thick syrup in there too.


Combine whole milk, white sugar, salt, and vanilla. Whisk until sugar is dissolved. When bananas are completely cooled, puree them in a blender or food processor with the milk mixture until completely smooth. Add cream and pulse just enough to combine (1 or 2 times) Chill entire mixture in the fridge until cold. The colder the better.

Churn in an ice cream maker and transfer to an air tight container in the freezer to set. Makes 1 1/2 quarts.


After I took the picture above, I started to wonder what I could add to it. Nuts? Coconut? Cookies? My husband told me not to mess with a good thing and I'm glad I took his advice. (Although one thing still on my list is to make it into ice cream sandwiches with these cookies) It's perfect just the way it is. But I could think of just one thing that would make it irrisistable.

Wait for it...


Ya, that's what I'm talking about.


Get the recipe for Kate's buttermilk caramel syrup here.
And then go make yourself a bowl of this:


The only other thing that can make home made ice cream any better than it already is are homemade waffle cones. I make mini ones and they're perfect for my mini monkeys.


Would you guys be interested in a tutorial on making homemade waffle cones? Even without a waffle cone maker? Cuz I just configured a great way to make them without any special equipment. Let me know if you want to learn and I'll create a tutorial on it.

So who's in the mood for ice cream now??!



PS- BE HERE MONDAY! Sorry to yell at you in caps, but on Monday we're kicking off an awesome theme week! We're so excited about it, and Monday's post will involve something that starts with G and ends with iveaway. So be here- we'll be posting every day next week!

Grilled Chicken and Veggie Skewers

I think I've mentioned before that although I've always loved to play around in the kitchen, I didn't really start exploring my inner foodie until I moved to an apartment my sophomore year of college and had my own (well, shared with 3 other girls, but not my parents) kitchen for the first time. This is literally one of the first dishes I made on a regular basis that wasn't 100% from a cookbook. And I mean, it's really not rocket science, but believe me, marinating and grilling vegetables was a long, long way from Some-Kind-of-Browned-Meat-in-Cream-of Something-Soup-Over-Some-Kind-of-Starch-ville where I grew up.

I had completely forgotten about this recipe and then I reconnected with one of my former roommates on Facebook and I remembered that this was one of her favorite things to eat. I feel like I really have come so far in the years since we lived together that it may not be "my thing" anymore, so I decided to try making it again. After pulling these off the grill, I was genuinely surprised that not only was it "my thing," but it was ultimately "my thing"--fresh and flavorful, a slight twist on something a little more classic. It really kind of...I don't know...gave me more faith in myself that my initial foodie instincts were so true to who I am now.

You can mix this up a little--use steak instead of chicken or throw in some eggplant and nix the onions if you want. I normally also use green zucchini, but every grocery store in my area was out the day I went shopping, so I doubled up on the yellow zucchini. Also, I am totally and completely in love with mushrooms anyway, and I'll tell y'all...after they've marinated and then been grilled, they are positively divine. But I also (very sadly) get that mushrooms aren't everyone's thing. I really, really, REALLY encourage you to keep them, but I definitely don't want to trigger any gag reflexes out there, so leave them out if you absolutely must.

Grilled Chicken and Veggie Skewers

1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into small, bite-sized pieces

1 each yellow and green zucchini squash, cut in half (if large) and sliced

8 oz. small whole mushrooms, stems removed

1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper (or combo of 2 or more), chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 small red onion, carefully cut into bite-sized chunks (try to keep as much of the pieces in tact as possible, but don't stress it if they start to fall apart)

Sweet cherry tomatoes

1 recipe of Zesty Italian Dressing (below) or 1 bottle of Berenstein's Italian Dressing

Prepare Zesty Italian Dressing:

1/4 c. white vinegar

1/4 c. lemon juice

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. seasoning salt

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (this really doesn't add much heat; it's better with it!)

1/4 tsp. black pepper

4 cloves garlic

1 c. canola oil

1/3 c. Parmesan cheese (either fresh or from a can)

3/4 tsp. Italian seasoning (add more if needed)

In a blender, combine vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, mustard, salt, seasoning salt, black pepper, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Blend. While blender is running, slowly add oil in a steady stream. Turn off blender and add Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese. Pulse blender 2-3 times to combine herbs and cheese. Remove 1/2 c. of dressing for basting during grilling and set aside.

Place cut-up chicken in a shallow dish and pour a little less than half of the remaining dressing over the chicken. Place in refrigerator for 2-3 hours or until ready to use.

Place chopped veggies in a dish (a 9x13 pan works great) and pour remaining dressing (except for reserved 1/2 c.) over the veggies. Toss gently to combine. Set aside.

If using bamboo skewers, soak in water for about 30 minutes.

When chicken is done marinating, skewer veggies and chicken (you'll have far more veggies than chicken, so keep that in mind when assembling your skewers; I use about 3 pieces of chicken per skewer, but as many vegetables as I can get on there).

Preheat grill and then cook skewers for about 10-12 minutes over medium heat until chicken is cooked through and veggies are tender-crisp, turning at least once.

They will smell fantastic--the smell and flavor, strangely, is actually very reminiscent of Churrasco restaurants like Tucano's or Rodizio grill. Pop off one of those GLORIOUS mushrooms as soon as they're cool enough to handle and serve with some cubed watermelon and Brazilian Lemonade for a fabulous summer feast!

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

I don't know about all of you, but after my weekend and the copious amount of calories ingested, I need some major detoxing! The only thing that sounds good right about now is a giant salad. And today is a two-for-one, so check out the post below this one for the other half to this recipe!

I've mentioned how much I love Kate's Thai Peanut Noodles only about four-thousand times in the last year or so. I love them so much that I always overestimate how much I'll eat and I end up making way more than my little family can handle. So then I put the extras in the fridge and I find myself sneaking back into the kitchen all night slurping cold noodles out of the container. The next day the huge container only has a small puddle of sauce with a few noodles in it and my husband always asks why have such a hard time estimating the size of tupperware I need when putting food away. What can I say? Apparently I'm just bad at estimating all together. Back to the cold noodle slurping though. I realized I really like those noodles cold. I also really love Asian inspired noodle salads which involves mixing a bunch of salad ingredients with some pasta and drenching it in a yummy dressing. It seems everyone has their own version and they all are pretty similar. I created mine to taste like the Thai Peanut Noodles so I can actually have this as a meal and get over the late-night cold noodle slurping habit.

This salad is awesome as a meal because it just combines everything in one pot. It's a great luncheon salad for the same reason. I tested it out recently on a group of girlfriends (my girlfriends, not some random group of chicks like that kind of sounded like...) and they voted it a keeper. This is one of my new favorites and I think I'll be making it a lot this summer because I love cold meals on hot days! All you vegetarians out there, just skip the chicken and you've got a nice hearty meal.


Thai Peanut Noodle Salad
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8 oz Linguine Fini (or regular linguine)
4 C shredded greens: any combo of napa cabbage, romaine lettuce or even spinach
2 C thinly sliced purple cabbage
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, julienned
1/2 medium cucumber, halved and sliced
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
3 C diced grilled chicken
honey roasted peanuts (about 1/2 cup)

Thai Peanut Salad Dressing (save some time and make this part ahead!)

Start by bringing a pot of water to a boil. Add a spoonful of salt and then add your pasta. While pasta is cooking, start chopping those veggies.

You can really use any mix of veggies you want. I have a thing with rainbows, so whenever I make this type of salad I pick the vegetables purely based on color so I can have something in every shade of the rainbow. I think it makes for a happy salad and happy salad makes happy people. But use what you like, pretty much anything slathered in this dressing is going to taste good. For me, it's this stuff:


See, happy right?? I mentioned you can play around with the leafy greens. I like to use both napa cabbage and romaine lettuce. If you're eating this right away lettuce works great, and spinach is even good in there. However, if you're taking it to a picnic, or serving it on a buffet or anything like that where it will sit a while, I recommend going heavy on the cabbage because it will stay nice and crunchy for ya.

As soon as your pasta is done drain it and run some cold water over it until it's cool. If you're not going to use it right away, add a drizzle of the salad dressing and stir to coat. This will prevent the noodles from getting all clumpy. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

When you're ready to assemble the salad, place noodles, veggies, and chicken in a large bowl.


Pour the Thai Peanut Dressing over everything, stirring as you go until you have enough to coat. I use it all!


Sprinkle peanuts on top and garnish with some cilantro if you want. And there you have one happy, pretty, and extremely delicious salad!

Thai Peanut Dressing

I came up with this yummy salad dressing to mimic the flavors in these Thai Peanut Noodles that we love around here. Try it on the Thai Noodle Salad it's made for, or any other Asian inspired dinner salad. It's even great basted on chicken skewers or used as a veggie dip!

Thai Peanut Salad Dressing
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1/2 C peanut butter
1 lime, juiced and zested
2 1/2 t sesame oil
1 T seasoned rice wine vinegar
2 T soy sauce
3 T honey
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 T minced ginger
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro (stems and all)
1/2 C vegetable oil
1/4 t kosher salt*
2-3 t sriracha chili sauce*
2-4 T water*



*The need for salt may differ depending on the brand of PB you use. Taste first and then add.
*I use 3 t Sriaracha, but you may want more or less depending on your preference of heat levels. Again, taste first and then add.
*Lastly, the addition of the water is purely for consistency which again, depends on the PB brand you use. Add water until you get the consistency you want, or leave it out completely.

Place everything in a blender and mix until smooth. Makes about 2 cups.


Store in the fridge and serve on Thai Peanut Noodle Salad.

Strawberry Sorbet

I don't know about anyone else, but both Sara and I are so surprised at how busy we are this summer! I had all sorts of grand plans for posting some amazing 4th of July food craft, but after I left my half gallon of vanilla ice cream for my Martha Stewart-esque strawberry sorbet sundaes in my car (let's not even talk about how not-nice I was about that one!), I was done. And I figured, hey, I can't be the only one here who's strapped for time and really not feeling the urge to cook. Enter David Lebovitz's Strawberry Sorbet from his fabulous ice cream Bible The Perfect Scoop, which, fortunately, is gorgeously perfect for the 4th of July!

Strawberry Sorbet

1 lb. strawberries, washed, hulled, and chopped

3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Combine sugar with chopped strawberries and stir until sugar begins to dissolve. Allow to stand for about an hour, stirring frequently.

Add lemon juice and salt. Blend strawberries in your blender and then freeze according to your ice cream manufacturer's instructions. Place in a freezer-safe container and freeze 1-2 additonal hours. Scoop it up and enjoy!

Now...if you were after my original idea, you could place some broken sugar cookies in the bottom of a parfait dish, add a layer of sorbet, a dollop of vanilla ice cream, and garnish with blueberries for a fun, cool, and easy holiday dessert!

Or if you just need some blue to go with this red- try one of our favorites- blueberry cheesecake ice cream.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend full of great food and fun!

PS- Check out "The Daily Bite" section in the side bar for lots of fun foodie ideas for the 4th!