Healthy Thanksgiving Dessert – Cocoa Banana Ice Cream Turkeys

After you have stuffed yourself with delicious food during dinner. Don’t feel bad about eating dessert and enjoy these Cocoa Banana Ice Cream Turkeys. They are lightened up so you can devour them guilt free.

This post is brought to you by Ninja.

They taste sinfully rich and chocolaty but are made with bananas, cocoa powder, peanut butter and almond milk. I’m sure by now you have seen dozens of recipes for one or two ingredient easy to make ice cream. Have you made some yet?

You simply slice and freeze some bananas, pop them into a food processor or better yet into a Ninja Auto-IQ Blender, along with other ingredients like chocolate spreads, peanut butter, berries, and more, then magically all those things blend together to make a creamy decadent ice cream.

My favorite way is to mix in hazelnut chocolate spread, but that isn’t the healthiest option. Those chocolate spreads are loaded with sugar.

This Cocoa Banana Ice Cream is fabulous but there is no added sugar, just the natural kind found in bananas.

I tried this version of the banana ice cream recently at the International Food Bloggers Conference where the Ninja team, including Rachel Beller, MS, RDN, and nutritionist for “The Biggest Loser” blended their way into my heart and kitchen. After seeing the Ninja in action and tasting all the wonderful recipes Rachel made that day, my favorite of which was this simple frozen treat, I had to have a Ninja for myself.

Up to this point my kitchen was lacking one, and really only one, essential appliance, a blender. Can you believe it? I have a food processor and a stick blender, and would make do with those, but have to admit since my Ninja arrived, it’s been in constant use. I didn’t even realize how much I needed one.

My Nutri Ninja Blender includes a regular pitcher, as well as, two smaller blender cups that are great for fruit smoothies. You whip up your smoothie, pop the cup off, put on a sip and seal lid and your drink is now portable. You only have one cup to wash. It’s great.

My favorite feature is the multi-blade attachment that fits in the blender pitcher. This thing chops through ice or frozen bananas with ease and so far nothing has gotten stuck. When I make my banana ice cream in my food processor, I often have to dig bananas out around the edge of my blade.

Yesterday I decided to make myself some of the easy banana ice cream, and having had Thanksgiving on my mind, I decided to play around to see if I could turn this sweet frozen treat into a turkey. I couldn’t remember the exact recipe, Rachel used, so I just threw things together until I got the flavor I liked, then I spent hours trying to come up with the perfectly simple turkey treat. I laughed when I finished, as this edible craft couldn’t be easier.

Cocoa Banana Ice Cream Turkeys

Ingredients: (makes 4 turkeys)

Easy Banana Ice Cream-
6 bananas
2-4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons almond milk (or any kind of milk you like)

Decorations-
2 graham cracker rectangles
8 candy eyes
4 orange candy coated sunflower seeds*
4 red candy coated sunflower seeds*

*Candy Coated sunflower seeds are sunflower seeds dipped in chocolate then coated in a hard candy shell. You can buy candy coated sunflower seeds from Amazon.com. I also find them at the check out at Jo Ann Fabrics and have seen them at lots of gift shops.

You can get multi colored sunflower seeds or just orange and red.

Supplies:

Nutri Ninja or a food processor
2 inch fluted biscuit cutter or daisy cutter
4 small plastic condiment cups (a.k.a. jello shot cups)
optional, #24 and #70 ice cream scoops

Instructions:

Slice the bananas into 1/4 inch thick slices. Arrange on a two silicone mats in a single layer and pop in the freezer for about 2 hours, until they feel nice and frozen. I love using silicone mats, as the frozen bananas pop right off. I’ve tried plastic wrap, which works, but not as well.

Toss the frozen bananas into a Nutri Ninja pitcher or a food processor. Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, peanut butter and milk and pulse 5 times, just to break up the bananas, then blend on high until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. Taste it and add more cocoa if desired.

The ice cream will be quite soft at this point, so transfer it into a plastic bowl, cover it and pop it in the freezer for an hour or two, but not longer.

Meanwhile, get your 4 graham cracker tail feathers cut using a 2 inch fluted biscuit cutter or a daisy cutter. Simply press the cutter into the graham cracker and cut.

Remove the ice cream and put one large scoop into each of the small condiment cups. Then scoop a much smaller scoop on top. Attach two candy eyes, one orange candy coated sunflower seed beak and one red candy coated sunflower seed waddle. Add one graham cracker tail feather and pop back into the freezer until you are ready to serve.

I made my turkeys yesterday and they have been chillin’ in the freezer ever since. They still look great, so you can definitely make these ahead of time.

When you pull them out of the freezer the ice cream will be hard, so let them sit for about 10 minutes to soften. This will give you enough time to allow your guests to snap pictures and admire them before gobbling them up.Disclosure: I was given a free Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ in exchange for creating a recipe and sharing my story with you. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Items used to make this project that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

    

Be sure to check out all of my amazing Thanksgiving Recipes

More Turkey Treats

from Hungry Happenings

Chocolate Turkey Truffles

Chocolate Cheesecake Turkeys

Chocolate Rice Krispies Treat Turkey Pops

Chocolate Turkey Pretzel Pops

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge or Caramel