Several years ago I read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen. Around that same time I found blogger and recipe creator, Lisa Leake from 100 Days of Real Food. Between these two resources, I really started to look at the INGREDIENTS in my food, instead of what was on the front label. It has absolutely transformed my eating and the way I look at food!

I try my best to avoid eating foods that have a lot of unknown or dangerous ingredients in them. I try to make things at home with real, whole ingredients in order to eliminate toxic chemicals that make their way in through factory production.

So today I’m going to share one of my favorite easy swaps: MAGIC SHELL! You know, the chocolatey liquid that you pour on top of ice cream and then it becomes hard? Let’s be clear, although I like to eat healthy, this isn’t a HEALTHY FOOD. It’s just a better option than buying the stuff from the store. Here are the benefits of making it at home:

• Use ingredients you KNOW
• Cheaper (12 cents per tablespoon for homemade hard shell vs 21 cents per tablespoon for Smuckers Magic Shell)
• Use less plastic since you don’t have to buy the container
• Easy – can be made at any time with only 2 pantry staples in less than 2 minutes

On my health eating journey, of course I want to reduce sugar, increase my vegetables, and all that good stuff. But I also want to leave room for FUN! And this hard shell recipe helps you do just that: you can enjoy a nice treat but feel a little bit better about because you *KNOW* what you’re putting in your body!

I always love to top this homemade magic shell on my homemade NICE cream. That’s “ice cream” made with frozen bananas. Don’t knock it ’til you try it! Let’s dive into the homemade magic shell first and keep scrolling to find out how make NICE CREAM!

Homemade Magic Shell

Directions:

1. Put both the chocolate chips and coconut oil into a mug.
2. Microwave for 30 seconds.
3. Stir. Microwave for another 15-30 seconds or until completely smooth.
4. Pour on cold ice cream or nice cream, watch it harden, and enjoy!

This is SO SUPER SIMPLE! It really does take 2 minutes or less! I save the extra we don’t use in a small mason jar and keep it in the cupboard until we need it next time. It’ll harden in your cupboard and when you make your next batch of ice cream, just heat it up for 15-30 seconds in the microwave and it’s ready to go!

Now, let’s talk about nice cream.

I don’t remember where I originally found out about this…probably Pinterest…and it’s safe to say I was super skeptical about it. But I LOVE it! It honestly doesn’t taste banana-y to me at all. There are a lot of varieties you can make but I pretty much stick to two: chocolate peanut butter and strawberry. My kids also love nice cream and will often choose it over ice cream. It’s a treat you can actually feel pretty good about! Bananas are still a pretty sweet fruit but I personally feel pretty good that there is very, very limited amount of added white sugar in nice cream.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before you make your nice cream, you want to have frozen bananas. I wait until the bananas are pretty ripe and they are starting to get brown spots on the peel. I peel them and store them in a gallon size plastic seal bag in the freezer. To make the best nice cream, you want the bananas to be frozen for at least 24 hours before making. So you do need to have some forethought in making this! These days, I always freeze bananas that are turning brown and I have a consistent supply of frozen bananas in my freezer!

OKAY, so once you have your frozen bananas, here’s what ya do!

Nice Cream (chocolate peanut butter style!)

If you’re looking for something a little lighter and fruity, let me introduce you to:

Strawberry Nice Cream

Ingredients:

1.5 frozen bananas

1 cup frozen strawberries

splash of milk

You make this using the same method as the chocolate/peanut butter kind – just throw it all in the blender and mix up! The homemade magic shell also works well on this and it’s REALLY yummy with some homemade whipped cream!

I hope you enjoy this healthier alternative to ice cream and magic shell! Both of these are so economical and so easy to whip up as long as you have the supplies on hand. There are so many other varieties you can enjoy too – a quick Pinterest search will certainly help you there! Send me a picture with your favorite variety!

love your sweet-tooth lady,

::ashley