Sunday, May 18, 2014

Fig Banana Soft Serve, Meal Prep, and Two Hikes

It was quite hot here last week, and I continue to enjoy a nice banana soft serve quite regularly these days.

I usually buy two bunches of organic bananas at Costco. Once they are ripe (but not too ripe), I peel them and cut them into thin slices and put one sliced banana in each bag. I then freeze the bags. They are great for smoothies or banana soft serve.

I usually use my mini food processor to make banana soft serve as it’s so easy to clean. To not overtax the mini food processor, I let the frozen banana slices slightly defrost for about five minutes.

I have been reading about a new Trader Joe’s item for a while now – frozen green figs. I bought a bag a few weeks ago but then forgot about it. But the other day, I added two frozen figs to a green smoothie, and we all agreed that it was the best green smoothie ever. I also enjoyed a few slightly defrosted ones as a nice half-frozen treat.

Trader Joe's Frozen Figs

So then I thought, “why not add the figs to banana soft serve?” The figs are whole, so in order to not kill my mini food processor (which I have done before…), I defrost them for about 20 minutes. Then I cut them into quarters, and process them with the bananas.

Fig Banana Soft Serve with Pecans

2 servings

Ingredients
  • 2 frozen bananas, peeled and cut into thin slices before freezing, defrosted for about 5 minutes
  • 2 green frozen figs, defrosted for about 20 minutes, cut into quarters
  • Pecans, cut into small pieces
Directions
  1. Defrost figs for about 20 minutes and then cut into quarters.
  2. Defrost banana slices for 5 minutes.
  3. Process in a mini food processor until smooth. If you are using a Vitamix or another more powerful food processor, you don’t need to defrost the fruit.
  4. Top with small pecan pieces.
Fig Banana Soft Serve

The fig banana soft serve is a sweet treat with some texture from the figs. It’s a great dessert, and it’s even cleanse-friendly (minus the nuts). In case you are curious, the next Conscious Cleanse starts on June 7. I did my first Conscious Cleanse in January 2013 and discovered several food sensitivities, which helped me improve my quality of life a lot. Click here to read several post about my experiences doing the Conscious Cleanse as well as some post with recipes and meal ideas.

On Saturday, we went on a family hike. If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably already seen these photos.

Weekend hike

We had a low-key evening on Saturday – like pretty much every Saturday evening. The kid had a friend sleep over, and hubby and I were going to watch some recorded TV. I decided that I wanted to get a head start on my weekly meal prep and looked through the fridge and cupboards. I realized that I had all the ingredients to make a pot of bison chili. So after some cutting and sautéing the meat and veggies, the chili simmered by itself while we watched TV. It felt great to have several lunches and dinners for the week taken care of! Meal prep doesn’t have to be stressful; the key is to “sneak” in little prep sessions. 

Bison Chili

Making the chili on Saturday night was especially a good idea because friends invited us to go on another hike on Sunday, so there was less time for meal prep on Sunday. The hike was well worth it.


Questions: Do you like figs? I love figs and always splurge on some fresh ones when they are in season. But having the organic frozen figs around is awesome. Do you have any new (to you) food finds? Please share! What was the highlight of your weekend? I love that we went on two hikes this weekend. It felt great to be outdoors and get plenty of steps. 

Be well,
Andrea