Recipes For Easy Low Calorie Frozen Desserts or Smoothies Using Fruit

When you buy too much fruit and find that some of it is getting a little too ripe, don't worry about wasting food. And don't throw it away or compost it!

Freeze that ripe fruit. I've done this with bananas, pears, peaches, nectarines, apples, strawberries, seedless grapes, kiwis, blueberries and - well, I'm sure I've done it with other fruit. I haven't tried it with citrus fruits yet or watermelon (or cantaloupe, either), but I intend to.

Then, when you're ready, you can make easy, low-calorie frozen desserts later. You can add several flavorings and whatever milk or milk substitute you normally use. I'll give you some ideas a little later. For now, freeze that fruit:

1. Wash the fruit and if you don't eat the skin, remove it (Well, nobody eats banana peelings that I know of, but people also like to peel peaches, etc.)

3. Cut or break the fruit into even-sized chunks.

4. Put the fruit in single portion baggies. This has two purposes. The first is that anyone who can operate your food processor or Ninja machine can make a very quick and easy, low-calorie snack. The other is that you want the fruit to be loose and to freeze in more or less individual pieces. That will make it perfect for blending after it's frozen.

Bananas are perfect for this, because not only can they get too ripe pretty quickly, but you can quickly and easily peel each one, break it into three or four pieces, throw it into a baggie and toss it into the freezer.

I used to use a food processor for this. Now I have a Ninja and love to use that - I've found that it's much better than my food processor for fine chopping of frozen fruit.

However, the food processor will work if that's what you have. If you have another brand of multiple-blade blender, I'm sure that any of them would work fine. However, I don't recommend using a single-blade blender. I tried it once and it didn't work at all.

Put the fruit into your Ninja blender (or whatever you're using). Depending on the fruit, you might also want to try adding ground cinnamon or nutmeg to taste. If you're using a milk substitute and it doesn't already have vanilla in it, you could also add either 1/2 or one teaspoon of vanilla.

I use honey for sweetener, but you could use any sweetener that you normally use. If you use more sweetener or less sweetener will depend on what fruit you're using. For example, I use about a teaspoon of honey for one banana, but use about three teaspoons for peaches.

If you're used to using sugar and decide to use honey instead, remember that a little less honey will provide the same sweetness as sugar. (It's like 3/4 cup of honey to one cup of sugar, so the small amount you'd use isn't that big a difference.)

Chop the fruit before you add the milk or milk substitute. (If you're using a food processor, the fruit may clog a little, and you may need to add the milk sooner.)

When the frozen fruit is thoroughly chopped, add the milk or milk substitute. I use vanilla-flavored coconut or soy milk, and I love the flavor. In a pinch, I've also used almond milk, and that worked fine, too. Again, the amount will vary according to the fruit you use, but add it slowly, and don't expect to need a lot. (I use less than one cup of coconut milk for one frozen banana.)

If you vote up or vote down an author's writing, you will show the people who follow you what you feel the quality of the writing is. Please support writers by voting up their work.