What can anyone possibly want on a hot summer day? I can tell you–an awesome, ice cold dessert!
Sprout and I spent the morning at the park yesterday, and we both were famished–I completed a 5 mile walk, and she spent an hour chasing imaginary cats around the playground with other toddlers.
So, we hit the local grocery store and headed home, dreaming up all the things we could eat. (Don’t tell me that you’ve never done it! At least we had it in us not to buy up the entire store.)
When we got home and enjoyed whole wheat veggie sandwiches, we were ready for that ice cold dessert. However…
…sugary desserts are out of the question, but our dessert still had to be awesome and creamy. So, I broke out our favorite ingredients to make an iced cherry smoothie.
It tasted AMAZING! Sprout even gave it thumbs up. (She just learned the difference between thumbs up and thumbs downs, so, to punish me, she gives me a lot of thumbs downs for no reason, because she finds the new gesture supper funny. I was lucky that she gave me thumbs up for this dessert before she remembered that she can point her cute little thumbs downward too, which she promptly did, after realizing her mistake. :))
However, she decided that our dessert was missing a little magic factor. So, we came up with an idea…
Make chocolate syrup and splash it all over our cherry smoothie.
Sprout was squealing for joy, sticking her fingers in homemade chocolate syrup (you wouldn’t want to buy the stuff they sell in stores–I saw the ingredient list–Yikes!)
My chocolate syrup was easy to make and does not have to be kept in a plastic container–dark chocolate meets almond milk, and the rest is…slurpolicious fest for taste buds.
This turned out to be a perfect post-workout treat for both of us, and a great evening meal too. With a perfect combination of sweetness, tartness and frosty-like consistency, we called it a dessert–you cannot convince Sprout otherwise.
The best part is that this treat is absolutely guilt-free and is loaded with health promoting nutrients for you and your little ones.
This is the kind of dessert you wish your parents made you when you were a kid, and the kind of dessert you hope your kids would beg for–it’s a combination of delicious meets nutritious.
Enjoy this goodness with your kiddos or by yourself–I won’t tell anyone.
- 3 cups almond milk
- 1 cup cashews
- 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (such as maple syrup), if needed
- 3 medium size bananas
- 2 cups black cherries
- 2 cups frozen strawberries
- 1 tsp vanilla powder or extract
- ½ block dark chocolate
- ¼ cup almond milk
- place milk and cashews in a high speed blender, blend until smooth
- add remaining ingredients, blend until smooth but still chilled
- place chocolate and milk into a small cooking pot, place on medium heat
- when chocolate begins to melt, reduce to low and stir until completely melted and well blended
- garnish smoothies with chocolate syrup and cherries before serving
