Kitchen Stories: “Count the Monkeys” Banana Ice Cream

Celebrate the silliness of “Count the Monkeys” by Mac Barnett with this four-ingredient, healthy, banana ice cream recipe!  A clean-eating, guilt-free and no-churn ice cream your whole family will love!  From the popular Kitchen Stories series on Forks and Folly.

My kids are starting to get so stupid-excited whenever I tell them we need to prep for a Kitchen Stories post.  They analyze books that we read each night, deciding if they are blog-worthy.

Criteria include: Can we come up with a fun recipe or game based on the book?  Does the book make us laugh?  Is it a book that gets requested again and again? Does it say naked, fart or butt? (That one’s from Will.)

“Count the Monkeys” by Mac Barnett meets all of our needs, except maybe that last one from Will.  Phew.  It’s perfectly silly, filled with puns (for kids and adults), and yes… at the end, you get to count the monkeys.  Kind of.

The boys and I were discussing the book and how we would highlight it on the blog, when we all decided… maybe if we enticed the monkeys with bananas, they’d drop into the book a little earlier.  Make that banana ice cream.  That should definitely do it.

Turns out, Banana Ice Cream isn’t just monkey bait.  It works well for kids too.  Give ’em a spoon and tell them to dig in.  With just four healthy ingredients this “ice cream” is clean-eating and guilt free.  So be sure to save some for yourself!

“Count the Monkeys” Banana Ice Cream

Whenever you have them, peel and freeze almost-past-their-prime bananas.  They are their sweetest at this point and perfect for cooking with, even if you don’t enjoy eating the raw.  Embrace the brown dots! 🙂

For this recipe you’ll need four frozen bananas (for about 6 servings).  Place the frozen bananas in your Vitamix or food proccessor, along with three tablespoons of peanut butter, three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, and one cup of coconut milk.

Process until smooth.

Either serve immediately, if you like a “soft serve” style ice cream, or pour into a loaf pan and return to the freezer for a few hours.  Scoop, top with sprinkles, if you like and invite any monkeys and children you’d like to share with!

'Count the Monkeys' Banana Ice Cream

Yield: 6 servings

Celebrate the silliness of "Count the Monkeys" by Mac Barnett with this four-ingredient, healthy, banana ice cream recipe!  A clean-eating, guilt-free and no-churn ice cream your whole family will love!  From the popular Kitchen Stories series on Forks and Folly.

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Ingredients

• 4 frozen bananas, peeled
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup coconut milk (I prefer the full-fat)
• Optional: Sprinkles

Instructions

1. Whenever you have them, peel and freeze almost-past-their-prime bananas.  They are their sweetest at this point and perfect for cooking with, even if you don't enjoy eating the raw.  Embrace the brown dots! 🙂
2. For this recipe you'll need four frozen bananas (for about 6 servings).  Place the frozen bananas in your Vitamix or food proccessor, along with three tablespoons of peanut butter, three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, and one cup of coconut milk.  Process until smooth.
3. Either serve immediately, if you like a "soft serve" style ice cream, or pour into a loaf pan and return to the freezer for a few hours.  Scoop, top with sprinkles, if you like and invite any monkeys and children you'd like to share with!

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