Protein Soft Serve (raw, vegan)

I can easily get in a rut with my favorite foods. If you really love something…why not have it every day, right? I try to do this but always become burned out after a couple of weeks. Previous breakfast ruts have included oatmeal, overnight oats, baked breads, cereal, and most recently protein pancakes. I always enjoy a smoothie for breakfast but sometimes even that can start to get monotonous (almond milk, protein powder, fruit, go).

We are now in the dog days of summer…well you are. I live in a magical place in which the highs never seem to get past 83, but I brag digress.

Here I am wearing a sweater in the middle of summer…

Anyway, for those of you who are in sweltering temps, I have a cold and refreshing breakfast for you! This is pretty much exactly what I put in my favorite smoothies, just in different form. The idea just hit me one day and I jotted down “make breakfast ice cream.” It is inspired by Gena from Choosing Raw who popularized the infamous raw banana soft serve. I also recently saw a protein soft serve recipe on PB Fingers (and lamented that I had not posted mine just a bit sooner), but Julie’s calls for greek yogurt. The recipe below recipe is not only vegan, but can be raw if you use raw nut butter (although you can certainly use whatever you prefer).

Just another way to answer the age old question of “well, where do you get your protein?” Now you can say, “I get it by eating ice cream for breakfast!”

High Protein Banana Soft Serve (raw, vegan)

serves 1

Ingredients

• 1.5-2 bananas, frozen
• 1 scoop raw, vegan protein powder (I use Sunwarrior)
• 1 tbsp. raw nut butter (I used chocolate almond butter, yum!!)
• Splash Almond Milk
• Toppings of choice: hemp seeds, cacao nibs, shredded coconut, chopped strawberries

Directions

1. Pull banana out of freezer and let it thaw for a couple of minutes (this just makes it easier and quicker)
2. Pulse the banana in the food processor a few times, until it is broken down. I thought it resembled Dippin’ Dots at this point!
3. Add in protein powder, nut butter, and almond milk.
4. Run the processor until a smooth, soft serve like consistency forms. This took me less than a minute.
5. Sprinkle on topping of choice and devour! This was soooo good I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to actually make it.

To make things super easy, I froze a single serving worth of bananas the night before (if you chunk and store a ton of bananas, like I usually do for smoothies just eyeball your portions). Also, as soon as I finished this bowl, I cut and froze all remaining bananas in the house. It’s that good. 

My ingredients of choice (to keep it raw, vegan) were Sunwarrior, Navitas Naturals Cacao Nibs, Shredded Coconut, and hemp hearts.

The ice cream banana soft serve of the future

This is the best stage in which to add the protein powder, nut butter, and just a splash of almond milk (really no more than a tablespoon).

Suggested toppings: sliced almonds, raisins, chia seeds, brown rice cereal, mini chocolate chips, other diced fruit (blueberries would be a good combo if you used plain nut butter!!), cinnamon, chia jam sauce, etc… Just think about what you would put on froyo or soft serve and go for it (well if this is breakfast I would suggest staying away from the candy!!)

I think the key to my strawberries being perfect was that I used previously frozen berries! I just pulled them out of the freezer the night before and by the time I was ready for breakfast they were all gooey and delicious (kinda like strawberry shortcake strawberries, but without the sugar)! However, fresh fruit would be perfect as well.

So, with just a couple of minutes (seriously, less than 10 probably even less than 5) you can switch things up and feel like you’re having dessert for breakfast!! What are you waiting for? Chop and freeze those ‘naners!!

What breakfast could you eat every day for the rest of your life??