"Ice Cream"

Nick and I are on a strict budget and allot $150 to groceries per month. This is not to say that we are living off of Ramen; in fact, it has forced me to get very creative with our meals. I have fun browsing recipes for tasty dinners that won't push our budget. I always make sure that we have several different veggies in the fridge and freezer, as well as the standard staples.
Quite honestly, Nick and I are eating healthier than we have in years. You know how they say once you begin living a healthy lifestyle, you start craving healthier foods? Well, you could say that the following recipe proves that saying true.
One of my very favorite foods, ever, is ice cream. Nick will tell you that I'm a borderline addict. I can't help it! I've been able to keep it in our grocery budget, but just barely. With this new recipe, though, I'm okay with leaving it out of the cart. Not only is this new "ice cream" cheap, but it is delicious, healthy, and incredibly simple--one ingredient!
 Okay, so I added some chocolate "Magic Shell" to this one. It was fifty cents at the Grocery Outlet though, so it's excusable! :)

 The magic ingredient? Bananas! 

 Step 1: Slice bananas into pieces. Freeze for at least 3 hours.
Step 2: Blend in a food processor until smooth an creamy. Add a splash of milk for creamier consistency (optional). I put a spoonful of Nutella in the above dish. You could add peanut butter, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, a splash of coconut milk... the options are endless.

What you get is a gelato-like consistency that has a slight banana flavor, yet tastes very close to ice cream. It's healthy, it's cheap, and it's the perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth. This is now a staple in our freezer!

Fresh Baked Bread

Today, for the first time in 5 months, I made bread with our bread machine. Normally this would be a silly thing to bring up in a blog, but I feel like this has some symbolism. For the last 4 months, Nick and I did not have the luxury of doing a lot of things around the house that we enjoy. One of them (for me especially... well, and for Nick because I'm pretty sure he likes eating...) is cooking and baking in the kitchen.  While we were living temporarily in different places over the last few months, we did not have access to any of our things, besides that in our suitcases. It was near impossible to make extravagant dishes because we were living out of someone else's home and did not have the necessary space, ingredients, supplies, etc.

Making bread today (despite it requiring only 5 minutes of labor on my part...shhh!) means a lot to me because we finally, finally have all of our precious kitchen tools back in our very own home. Maybe that's why the bread tasted extra yummy this afternoon...

 

 ...Either that or it's the extra butter I slathered on. ;)