If you’re on a diet:
You will love this recipe because it makes a gigantic serving for only 40 calories. (Seriously, the serving is huge.) Who eats a 1/2 cup serving of ice cream anyways? 😕
If you’re not on a diet:
You will love this recipe because you can up the calories by making it into a brownie sundae, by pouring on chocolate syrup, or by opting for the peanut butter version. Yes, there is a peanut butter version.
Above: a sundae with a Chocolate Workout Brownie.
Highly recommend those brownies. As for the ice cream: it could not be easier to make, and there are unlimited variations—you can add coffee, mint extract, fruit, chocolate chips… I haven’t even begun to try out all the combinations I’ve dreamed up for this incredibly versatile recipe.
Volume Ice Cream
(Makes 1 huge serving)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract (or about 1/4 of a vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise and scraped out)
- 1/16 tsp salt (trust me)
- sweetener (such as 1-2 stevia packets or 1-2 tbsp sugar)
- 1 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened Silk. See below for substitution notes.)
- optional: add-ins such as fruit, peanut butter, or extracts
Mix the ingredients together in 1 or 2 shallow plastic containers. Freeze. (You could also use an ice cube tray.) Once frozen, pop the blocks out of the container (I thaw for 30 seconds in the microwave first) and blend in your Vita-Mix. (If you don’t have a vita-mix, you’ll probably have to thaw longer, but you can still get a yummy ice milk.)
This ice cream—when made with almond milk—has a very light texture (perfect for summer). For a creamier texture that’s more like real ice cream, try using at least 1/4c canned coconut milk (or maybe even creamer?). You can, of course, also sub other non-dairy milks for the almond. But if you do this, play around with the amount of vanilla extract, sweetener, and add-ins. (For example, an already-sweetened milk will probably need less added sweetener.) To make it look like real ice cream, scoop out with an ice-cream scoop.
Warning:
This is an extremely voluminous recipe, so if you’re like me and need to watch that you don’t get full before you’ve taken in enough calories, I recommend eating this as part of a sundae or adding some extras to the basic recipe. ‘Cause it will fill you right up!
Recipe of The Day:
Deep Dish Cookie Pie (Vegan, GF)
That looks delicious!!!! My Vitamix needs to arrive ASAP so I can make this. I love banana “ice cream” but it gets high on the calories when I add other ingredients, plus it’s not nearly as big of a serving so I’m super excited to try this since it’s a lot lower in cals for the portion.
Delicious!!!
I go through phases when it comes to ice cream flavors: first it was Rocky Road, then it was chocolate chip cookie dough, and now I’m into mint chip.
Mmm cold desserts = pure amazingness in the summer time.
I’m so confused by your posts sometimes Katie. It’s seems that you are trying to advocate for positive body image etc and yet you go on about diet all the time and now making a big deal over no make-up. Diet and makeup are both strongly tied to superficial aspects of our human existence and are huge traps for all women to become obsessed with. The way we advocate for change in a positive direction is as important as what it is we are advocating for. I hope you may consider this in the future.
Fiona,
Your comment is confusing to me because my entire “no makeup” post was about how women SHOULDN’T give in to society’s pressures and look a certain way, not how we should.
Also, I never said I advocated going on a diet for vanity’s sake. Please be aware that there is another reason people sometimes need to watch calories: for their health. A lot of my readers have Diabetes, high blood pressure, and other health issues and therefore they NEED lower-calorie, healthier options. So I AM advocating for positive change in that I don’t want anyone to ever feel like he/she can’t eat good food just because he/she is on a diet.
But if you find my posts offensive in any way, you are free to not read them.
thanks for the reply Katie. I’m sorry if I misdirected my general frustration with society at you. I’m also an Aussie and we really don’t so openly talk about calories etc which perhaps is quite normal for you. What you have said with respect to your readers and their requirements makes sense. Please forgive me if I have upset you.
Aw Fiona, it means so much to me that you came back to respond. I am frustrated by society too, which was the entire meaning behind my “no makeup” post. I want people–me included–to know that it’s NOT ok for society to tell us we need to cover our “imperfections.”
As for calories, yeah they’re pretty much everywhere around here! I openly say that I don’t believe in calorie-counting, but I do know that A LOT of my readers have said it works for them. So I sometimes include calorie counts to help them out.
I can’t wait to try this! I love vanilla ice cream but i don’t eat it too often because it’s not the most figure friendly thing.
This looks amaaaazing. I love ice cream sundaes! You are making me so hungry!
Anything without the use of an ice cream maker is a winner in my book!
I tried this recipe last night, and it was awesome! Thanks for posting it!
I don’t have a Vitamix, but I put some in a quart sized ziplock bag, and put that inside a gallon sized ziplock bag filled with ice and salt. Then just rolled it gently around for about 15-20 minutes. The ice cream came out about the consistency of soft-serve frozen yogurt…yummy!
The picture of the brownie sundae is beautiful; you are so talented. 🙂
Oh wow, I wanna try that! 🙂
Oh my gosh! Super excited to try this!!
I just made this with unsweeted almond milk, stevia, and instant coffee. It’s definitely more icy than creamy but still very delish! I think next time it needs some extra fat (maybe frozen canned coconut milk?) or maybe some guar/xanthan gum. Idk! I want to experiment with it now!! 🙂