Healthy Gelato & Popcorn

Wednesday’s Eat of the Week:  a satisfying (and guilt free) combo of peanut butter-chocolate gelato and popcorn (ahhh too much yum!).

This healthy version of gelato was incredibly quick and easy to make, and could easily double as a part of your lunch instead of dessert.  I learned about his recipe from one of my favorite blogs- The Londoner.  Get the recipe here.  The blogger for The Londoner is absolutely adorbz, and her posts are always utterly chic or omnom scrumptious.

Switching out the cocoa powder with carob powder (found at Whole foods) works too.  I also threw in some splenda for added sweetness.. though, between the bananas, cocoa powder and honey, it may already be sweet enough.  When choosing the peanut butter, grab the natural kind that lists the ingredients as “peanuts”, or “peanuts, salt”…this is healthier than the kind with added palm oils and such.  Fruit, protein, and a small amount of sugar– this is an excellent alternative to digging into store-bought ice cream.  Toss the handful of ingredients into the blender, blend for a minute or so, and voila, it’s ready to be devoured.

Make sure you peel and freeze a few bananas beforehand.  I used two for this recipe and it made plenty of gelato for two people.

 

For a perfect combo of salty & sweet, make a fresh batch of popcorn.  For this, I suggest using an electric stir popper instead of the microwave.  With an electric popper the kernels are always perfectly popped and fluffy- never burnt.  And you can add the amount of oil, salt and seasoning that you desire.  Grab a popper, such as this one, from Walmart.  It’s super easy to use– just add your tablespoon of olive oil to 3/4 cup of kernels, plop the top on (doubles as a bowl after), plug it in and watch it goo!  And the 3/4 cup of kernels seems to make a lot of popcorn.  Spray it with zero cal oil afterwards and sprinkle on the salt/popcorn seasoning.

Enjoy!