Copycat Chocolate Fudge Brownie Nice Cream

Get ready for your favorite new summer indulgence: Chocolate Fudge Brownie Nice Cream.

Heads up: the base here is made of frozen bananas and it definitely tastes like a frozen banana/chocolatey mix. Don't go into this thinking it tastes exactly like Ben and Jerry's. Gotta manage your expectations.

Quick backstory behind this recipe: growing up, Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie was my absolute favorite ice cream and I couldn't get enough. We didn't have it in the house all the time, it was something we had more for celebrations. But once I was 18 and moved out of my parents home and was living with friends and roommates, I decided that being able to have ice cream whenever I wanted was the best part of being an adult.

I had pints of CFB in my freezer at all times and probably went through a pint or two a week. When I started dating my now husband, he liked vanilla based flavors like cookie dough better than CFB which was just unacceptable to me. Thankfully I showed him the right path and got him to convert to preferring chocolate over vanilla before we got engaged.

My husband proposing to me with customized CFB ice cream. September, 2016

Speaking of getting engaged, I loved this stuff so much that my husband literally proposed to me with a pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Other girls seemed to get engaged with something that hinted to their hobbies. Like getting engaged at a baseball game or in Bloomingdales. Well this was my hobby. Eating ice cream all the time. Sometimes for dinner, sometimes for dessert.

And yet I was still shocked when I was diagnosed with insulin resistance a few years later.

Since beating my sugar addiction a few years ago, I don't crave the real thing as much and prioritize eating foods that balance my blood sugar and support my hormones. But I still wanted to find a delicious way to enjoy CFB every once in a while, which is how I decided to make this copycat chocolate fudge brownie nice cream.

Ingredients:

• One batch of my fudgy chocolate chip sticks. Recipe here. I made them without the chocolate chips to keep the texture as close to the real thing as possible.

• 2 cups frozen bananas

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 tbsp cashew butter or almond butter

• handful of ice cubes

• 1/4 cup milk or water

Instructions:

1. Prepare the fudgy chocolate chip sticks. This can be a few days in advance. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or the freezer.

2. Add bananas, vanilla, cashew butter, ice, and milk into a blender and mix until combined.

3. Break up a few of the fudgy chocolate chip sticks into bite size pieces and mix it into the batter.

4. Pour it into a loaf plan and place in the freezer for 4 hours or overnight.

5. Scoop into a bowl and enjoy!