Soft-Serve Ice Cream

The first time I heard about banana ice cream, I had absolutely no desire to ever try it.  It's not that I don't like bananas.  They're ok; but I usually buy a bunch, eat 1 or 2, put them in the fridge when they start to get mushy and throw them out a week later.

But then I saw some pictures that looked really good.  And I saw a couple people post somewhere that it didn't really taste too banana.  So I cut up a banana that was getting freckled and put it in the freezer.

Fast forward two weeks to today when I was telling someone at work about banana ice cream and powdered peanut butter (PB2) which I bought awhile back but haven't really used.

So I decided to jump on the banana ice cream bandwagon.


But first, I had to unpack a new toy.
















I took my previously frozen bananas (please note the freezer burn.  Apparently I don't just burn food with heat...)












And put them in my new toy.













Pulse a couple times (which, incidentally, I think should earn me at least 1 Activity Point)












Throw in some PB2 (maybe 2 teaspoons?)












Pulse some more and viola!

It wasn't ice cream, but it was pretty good!  Nice peanut butter and banana flavor.  I can see myself eating a lot of this in the summer.  This was maybe 2/3 of a banana (whatever didn't fit into the first container I used), and it made about 1/2-3/4 cup.  Next time I think I'm going to add just a touch of milk to make it more creamy and some cocoa powder to make chocolate.

One "recipe" (I laugh when I call it that since it's just 1 ingredient) recommended slicing the banana and freezing it for about an hour.  Maybe I'll do that, too, to eliminate the freezer ice crystals.

Chopped Salad and Upside Down World

Is it weird that I hate salad but loved chopped salad?  Apparently if something is in small enough pieces, it's more fun to eat and tastes better.  Hmm...

I found some Chopped Salad Kits at Sam's Club last week.  Tonight I had the Chopped Asian Salad with some (chopped) chicken.  It was good.  A little too much green onion for me, but I'll eat it again.  Tomorrow.

I also took some before pics tonight.  I wasn't going to post these anywhere for a very long time, but I remembered when you take your picture in a mirror that is slanted it doesn't look so bad.  So here's my before.  Actually my during since this is 29 pounds down from when I started.  And unfortunately 11 pounds up from where I was.

Yes, my ceiling has a gaping hole in it.  Yes, my mirror is dirty.  It's been waiting to go to the garage for trash day.  Now that that's out of the way...

Seeing these pictures in the mirror reminds me of something I used to love when I was little.  I would take a hand-held mirror and hold it facing the ceiling.  Then I would look into it and walk.  It's like a whole new world!  You need to step over door jambs, watch out for light fixtures all while trying not to bump into anything back in the "real world". 

Yes, I realize that makes me a little different.  Enough to think maybe I shouldn't mention that another favorite thing to do would be to spin in circles and lay in the grass while watching the sky spin.  Actually, I still do that.  And I may or may not have taught my niece and nephew how to spin...

Toasted Apple Marshmallows

Ok, so this post doesn't really have anything to do with marshmallows; but I'll get to my reason for the title a little later.

I was told I need to update my blog.  I guess it's about time. 

Today I spent some of the day compiling healthy recipes from my Pinterest Healthy Recipes board.  Basically I've pinned every other recipe I see from Dashing Dish and Chocolate Covered Katie and quite a few from Emily Bites and Skinnytaste.  These are some terrific blogs, and I highly recommend that my 2 followers check them out!!  ;)

Other than that, I celebrated a milestone today in that I actually made something that I found on Pinterest.  Finally!  It was this Slow Cooker Orange Chicken. 

Mine didn't look quite look the picture (ok, I thought it looked pretty disappointing), but it was really good!  I added a bunch of fresh broccoli about an hour before it was done.  I actually messed up because my slow cooker only has 2 settings for high (4 or 6 hours) and 2 for low (8 or 10 hours).  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but I knew it had to cook for 5-6 hours on low.  So I chose 6 hours on high.  Duh. 

It was only a little burnt, but it was still really good with plenty of sauce for my rice.  I got 5.5 servings out of it which I figure should be a little less than 7 Weight Watcher Plus points plus 3 for my rice.

I recently bought this amazing invention from a Pampered Chef party. (Amazon actually sells the same thing for less.) 

I'm still trying to get the hang of cooking without burning (and not just on this!!), but I have some apples I need to use up so I decided to try my hand at apple chips. 

This plate is probably 1/2 - 3/4 of an apple (some were still cooking and quite a few didn't make it to the plate...like the whole first tray!).  I sprinkled the apples with cinnamon before cooking.  The best part?  0 points!!  And so much more fun than eating an apple...  Oh, and the burnt ones taste like toasted marshmallows.