I made a delicious mango smoothie using Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream, (recipe at Elana's Pantry) which is made from raw cashews. The Vegan Vanilla [affiliate link] Ice Cream is delicious freshly made, it's similar to soft serve vanilla ice cream. But once frozen, it turns as hard as ice. A perfect way to use up these hard frozen bits is to make smoothies.
I prefer to use my Magic Bullet since I'm usually only making one serving. If I were making four or more servings, I might consider using my Oster.
Last night I shopped at Costco. I was having a bit of an anxiety attack until I got to Costco, because the price of vegetables (which I eat a lot of) has doubled and I guess will even triple here soon. Thankfully Costco hadn't raised all their prices, but I will brace myself for it to happen next week.
As a result of the anxiety, I found myself having some cravings, and I couldn't pass the lovely ripe mangoes which were 9 for $7.99. I also bought a Costco roasted chicken. I had to do something to counteract the smell of pizza wafting into my nose for the remainder of my 35 mile drive home. My son asked me to please order him a Costco pizza. It smelled good, but I wasn't tempted. That's because I was chowing down on the roasted chicken. Not organic or grass fed, but the sign said no MSG and I think it also said no gluten. Once home, I ate the ripest mango. Then I ate half of one of the wonderfully delicious perfectly ripe avocados I'd also purchased from Costco. I had to really work to persuade myself to go out and feed the goats and milk. It doesn't take too long since the girls aren't giving me much milk, but they still have to be milked at least once a day. When I got back in… I ate another mango… I think I ate another one somewhere along the way…
I have been avoiding fruit for the past week or so, and I guess I just couldn't take it another minute, at least not when coupled with my fear that I won't be able to eat soon.
Now I know many of my readers who follow GAPS are eating organic vegetables and pay far more than I am able, and you probably think $1.69 for a green bell pepper is cheap, since Whole Paycheck, sorry I mean Whole Foods sells them for $5.99 EACH. But I am accustomed to buying green bell peppers 4 for a $1, or 3 for $1, or maybe two for a dollar but I have never paid one dollar for one green bell pepper and it panics me to think of paying $1.69 for one green bell pepper.
I started to feel like I'm not going to be able to afford to eat here pretty soon. It scared me, and I guess it caused me to go on a bit of a binge.
Here is one last secret confession: I have been eating salami with nitrates from Costco. I went on a search last night to see why nitrates are so very bad for us, and found that they are a carcinogen. That's nice. I have been poisoning myself for the past couple of weeks.
I found some salami that does not have nitrates but it costs $7.99 for eight ounces. The name brand is Boar's Head. It is very delicious, but I can eat the entire stick over a day or two.
I resolve to stop buying the salami with nitrates.
Now, I should get to my recipe… last night, I put the ripest mango in the refrigerator. This morning as I was trying to figure out what I wanted for breakfast, I spotted the mango. And then I remembered the leftover hard frozen cashew nut ice cream. And our hens have been giving us 1 to 3 eggs [affiliate link] a day, so I have some good healthy eggs on hand… finally, here is my recipe.
- 1/2 cup hard frozen cashew nut ice cream/milk, chopped into small chunks
- 1 cup mango, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 egg yolks
Mix the items together before putting into the blender. Here is what that looks like:
The chunks of cashew nut ice cream looks like pieces of cauliflower, don't they? 🙂 You can see the egg yolk mixed around on the mango and the cashew nut ice cream.
Blend until smooth. You may have to remove the cup and shake up and down to distribute the larger chunks of ice cream.
This is the kind of thing I need when I see those smoothies at the store, or milk shakes, or soft serve ice cream. Then I just tell myself I can make my own that's good for me, tastes a hundred times better and is naturally sweetened to boot!
Let me know if you try this smoothie, can't wait to hear what you think of it!
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- ½ cup hard frozen cashew nut ice cream/milk, chopped into small chunks
- 1 cup mango, chopped
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 egg yolks
- Mix the items together before putting into the blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- You may have to remove the cup and shake up and down to distribute the larger chunks of ice cream.
I know what you mean about Whole Paycheck…
I was disappointed in the Costco avocadoes I bought – they never ripened properly!! They were hard around the pit but started to go black on the edges. I do buy their cut up frozen fruit – it’s a huge bag for $8 or $9 (peaches, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, honeydew). I may start buying butter there – I’m eating butter on EVERYTHING. Right now I’m having pats of it on my salad. Yep, I said salad.
I know what you mean about the expensive veggies. My organic peppers here have always been almost $4 apiece. I still couldn’t eat them even if I could afford them, though, because they have corn wax. Last summer I bought extra peppers every week and dehydrated them. This winter I was able to put dehydrated bell pepper and hot pepper flakes in my food when cooking. The only problem is that I ran out too soon so I need to step up production this summer. I’m going to try dehydrating tomatoes (the only canned ones I can find still have hidden corn) and cucumbers this year for winter tomato sauce and tzatziki sauce. I really miss cucumbers and peppers when they aren’t in season.
BTW, I found daikon radish at my local Asian market dirt cheap. Have you tried them? We are cutting them into sticks and keeping baggies of them in the fridge for snacking, but the ones I pickled are fantastic, too.
@kc, hi there! I about died when I saw $4 bell peppers at Whole Foods about a year ago. I would love to know what tzatziki sauce is… it has cucumbers? I dehydrated nine cucumbers this weekend that I got in a food box. The wrapper didn’t say organic, but it was certified pesticides free. I don’t think I have tried daikon radish. My son loves regular radishes fermented. I didn’t plant any in my garden this winter. I guess I should get out there and toss some seeds this weekend, there’s still time to grow a crop or two of them before it gets too hot. Good to hear from you, kc. Hope you are doing well.