Faux Chocolate Ice Cream

A great ice cream gives you the feeling of indulgence.  This one does that without the guilt feeling after you eat it!  It only takes about 2 minutes to make, so get ready for a treat!                                                                                          

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados, peeled and pits removed
2 bananas, peeled and frozen
2-4 dates, pitted 
1/4 cup (60 ml) carob powder (or you can use cacao powder for a the chocolate version)
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla powder* (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

Combine all ingredients in Vitamix or other high speed blender.  Enjoy!

To make it lower fat version of this recipe, omit the avocado and use chia instead....to do this, 30 minutes before preparing the ice cream, place 1/4 cup of chia seeds in a container with 1 1/4 cups of water and mix well every 5 minutes to prevent it from clumping.

Or you can mix the chia and water in advance and just store it in the refrigerator. It stays fresh for about 4-5 days, so you'll have it handy to use to make more ice cream or as a thickener in your soups or salad dressings.

You will have to freeze the chia gel if you like a really cold ice cream. I don't like it that cold, so I just use it as is.

Another way to make it low fat is to make it with one avocado and 2/3 cup of chia gel. 

Play around with it and tell us how you liked it best!

​*Many of the commercial vanilla powders contain maltodextrin, corn syrup solids, or other ingredients I try to avoid.  Here's my recipe for vanilla powder if you'd like to make your own: