Monday, September 3, 2012

Frozen Banana Bliss

I am certainly not the inventor of this idea, but oh my, I will definitely brag about it!
A while back, I came across a 'clean' way to make a substitute for ice cream. You take bananas and freeze them and when processed in a food processor, they have a consistency closely resembling a soft serve ice cream.
I have used this method to make peanut butter banana frozen stuff, and also chocolate banana or chocolate peanut butter banana. Y.U.M.
Today I came across a blog called The Gracious Pantry.
I am in love with this woman and her kitchen creativeness!
I was immediately intrigued.
I have this bad (good) habit of buying too much when it comes to fruit sometimes. I try not to eat too much of it because of the natural sugar content, so I either have to put it in the freezer or it will go bad in my refrigerator. I have let far too many things perish because I did not get it in the freezer soon enough. So as a result, I have baggies of frozen cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and I also peel and freeze bananas almost every time I buy a bunch. Some weeks the bananas don't last 2 days because the boys get a craving for them, and some weeks I have to freeze 4 or 5 bananas at a time because no one will touch them. I like to have a small variety of fruits for the boys to choose from, but I hate it when things go bad  I will admit- whereas I love banana flavored things, I do not love raw bananas. I am okay with them mixed in things, but I can't remember the last time I peeled one and ate it.
I knew I had the ingredients to make a similar dessert as the one I found. I had 3 frozen bananas and threw them in the processor with what looked like a 1-1.5 cups of cherries that I had pitted and frozen. I also used 1/8 tsp of almond extract, but probably could have used the whole 1/4 tsp that the recipe called for. The result?
Mmmmmm...cherry-banana goodness!
I offered some to my husband (who always refused offers of my other banana concoctions) and he actually ate it. Didn't say either way if he loved it or not, but he ate it.
I have discovered that I can not take part in this delightful dessert very often. Eating bananas like this always leaves my mouth a little sore. I noticed it the last time I had made something similar and I ate it two nights in a row. My mouth was sore for another two days. So, no go on the banana anything for another few days now.
But seriously. It's delicious.

On to other matters....
I still have not set my goals for the month of September. At first I thought I was going to aim for 150 miles and be worked up to running 10 miles at a time. I am second guessing that now and I really think I need to dial it back a little. Not only because I am chicken to shoot for something that big, but because I think I need to get myself conditioned better for 6 and 7 milers. I went out on Saturday morning thinking I was going to get an easy 5 in, but I never hit that 'zone' that lets me forget about stuff and just run. I ended up cutting it to 3 because I was struggling. I had no concentration, the boys had to be up in an hour to get ready for football (one had practice and one had a game), and I had to be back in time to make sure they got where they needed to be on time. Sure, my husband was home, and he could have gotten them up and to the school, but I am a bit of a control freak about stuff. I have to work on that someday. :-)
So Saturday was a crappy run. Sunday I was fully ready to give it my all because I did not have anything planned at a certain time. I went out to run 7, but only ended up running 5 1/2 and then walking the rest out. Ugh. I should not be upset with myself about it, but I sort of am. My left hip is still bothering me. It has been for some time now. I'm not sure what exactly is making it hurt, but I'm dealing with it. It was really flared up when I did my 3 day stint of 6 plus miles last week. So, for that reason alone, I feel like I should just work on my conditioning this month for the longer runs. I was just doing some calculations, and I feel like I should set my goals for 125 miles and keep my runs to 5-7 miles each when possible. I already have 10 miles in, so I'm off to a good start. 
One last little note:
We were going to a friend's party yesterday, and I wanted to pick up a new pair of capri's to wear. I brought a (hopeful) size 14 into the fitting room along with a (standard) size 16. I tried on both, and although the 14's were slightly snug, they were made from that wonderful stretchy denim (best stuff ever!) so I knew I could get away with those! They were mostly just snug across my hips and not as much in the thighs so I didn't look like a completely stuffed sausage :-) I was happy to be able to squeeze into the 14's again. I do hate buying clothes right now because I do not expect to be wearing these sizes next year! I will get another month or two out of capri's, and they were $9 on clearance, so yeah. I needed them.
Anyone else set goals every month? If so, what kind of goals do you set?

No comments:

Post a Comment