Strawberry Cheesecake Nana Ice Cream

It seems like a lot of my recipes are products of my cravings for unhealthy food. This one goes out to Ben & Jerry's, the masters of (poisonous) delicious ice cream. Shockingly, this healthy, vegan, refined sugar-free recreation could actually give the original Ben & Jerry's flavour a run for its money. 

As a disclaimer: This recipe is pretty adaptable. I made more of some stuff and ate it by itself. If you just want to make one massive batch of ice cream, then go ahead and double the fruits. Add more of this if you like, use less of that. It's really all about what you want. This recipe is more of a framework than a set of unbreakable rules. So do whatcha gotta do.

Also, you have an option to either have some left over cheesecake bites or to double the bananas and strawberries if you don't want any leftovers (but i'll explain that a bit more later)

In order to kick a Ben & Jerry's craving, you'll need:

1 cup of cashews

1 (or 2 if you like it heaps lemony) tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon coconut oil

2 tablespoons agave

4 frozen or fresh bananas (only upside of frozen, is it'll be ready faster) (or 8 bananas, if you don't want extra cheesecake bites)

1/2 cup of frozen or fresh strawberries (or 1 cup if you don't want extra cheesecake bites)

almond milk if using frozen bananas

5-10 fresh strawberries (use your best judgement)

So first you'll want to make your cheesecake bites (since you need it freeze them before you can add them to the ice cream). Chuck the cashews, lemon juice, coconut oil, and agave into your food processor and blend until smooth. Now get a sheet of baking paper and drop little bits of the cheesecake batter onto the sheet (about the size of a dime/aussie 5 cent coin/fingernail). Freeze until solid (about 30min to an hour). 

Cheesecake bites solid? Awesome! So, here's the thing. The cheesecake bites are double the amount you actually need (because anything less won't blend up properly). I was personally pretty pleased with that, because I got to eat the remaining cheesecake bites by themselves as a little snack. Buuuut, if you want them all to be a part of the ice cream double the bananas and strawberries (So, that's 8 bananas, and 1 cup of strawberries). Now blend up the bananas and 1/2 cup (or 1 cup) of strawberries (add a bit of almond milk if using frozen bananas in order to get it to combine properly). Place the ice cream in a tupperware, and start freezing it while you cut up the additional strawberries.

Cut up the extra, fresh strawberries into little chunks and stir them into the ice cream. Add the cheesecake bites and stir it up again. You can either go ahead and eat it right now, if you're happy with the texture. Buuut, you can also freeze it overnight, let it thaw a bit in the morning, and scoop yourself out some "Ben & Jerry's Stawberry Cheesecake" for a more authentic experience.