Eat This, Not That: "Nice" Cream Cake

Everybody loves ice cream cake, right? I'm always convinced that it's the crunchy crust and topping that makes the cake for me. 

Well, since changing to a WFPB (whole food, plant-based) diet, we've come to love making "Nice Cream" in place of regular ice cream.  I first found this simple recipe to try.  After that we have let our imaginations soar as we try different flavors, textures, and add-ins.  It's a lot of fun to see what we can create with real, nutritious, guilt-free foods. 

I've made several "Nice" Cream Cakes over the years. They've all been well received.  I've used recipes to guide me, like this one.  But, I think I'm to the place where I can sort of "wing it" and come up with something pretty enjoyable.  That's what I did for my daughter's recent birthday party.  I am excited to share that it was a delicious success!

I know this will be a little annoying to some of you, but I didn't record the exactness of my recipe. I'll try to share it with you here, but just remember that you may need to adjust or play with the amounts to get the cake to where you would like it to be. 

Chocolate Vanilla, Blueberry Nice Cream Cake

Crust:
About 1/2 bag of pecans (1-2 cups or so)
About 1/2 bag of walnuts (1-2 cups or so)
15-20 medjool dates, pitted
1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I prefer dark chocolate)
splash of vanilla (1-2 tsp)

Blend in your food processor with the S blade until crumbly. Press the majority of this mixture into a large spring pan. Cover the bottom fully.  Reserve 1/2 - 1 cup or so of the mixture to sprinkle on the top of the cake.

Filling:
About 1 gallon sized Ziploc of sliced, frozen bananas.
2-3 tsp vanilla
About 1 cup frozen blueberries

Add about 2/3 of the bananas and vanilla to the food processor and blend with S blade until it transforms to the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Be patient, this will take a while. *add a bit of water or non-dairy milk if needed

Pour over the crust in the pan, spread evenly. Place in freezer to chill while you work on the next layer. (I didn't do this step and wish I had)

Add remaining bananas and blueberries to the food processor. Blend with S blade again using the same technique as above until it reaches desired consistency.  Pour this over the first layer and top with remaining crust mixture in whatever creative design you'd like.  Cover pan with foil and return to freezer to chill for at least a couple of hours. 

Just before serving, remove the sides of your spring pan and top with berries to add a little extra flair.

 

Eat This,Not That: Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Pumpkin Sauce

I've decided to start a new series on the blog. I wish I had more time in my days to be here writing, recording, and learning more about food, nutrition, and health. This season has me busy with schooling, choring, and directing this small army of ours so my time is highly limited. 

Frankly, I'm struggling to just find the time and energy to prepare the foods we should be eating, never mind blogging about it.  Today is a rest day, though, so I'm going to rest and refresh by putting some words on the screen so I can sit back and look at how lovely it is to see something I've done...you know, stay done.

Oh, yes. The new series.  Along with starting the 6 week plan afresh, I want to work on recording my efforts to tweak and "nutrify" recipes.  I'm not promising gourmet results, but I can share what I'm learning and thoughts on how it was received in our home.  I'm completely open to your suggestions as well.  I'm learning that the more time I spend in the kitchen, the less I really know about real cooking. 

This past month we celebrated our oldest child's 18th birthday. *wince*  This child is my total "foodie" child.  I knew the food had to be strictly plant-based and still tasty for the guests that were coming that weren't used to eating plant based cuisine. 

I chose, among many other dishes, to try a new sauce recipe to serve with gnocchi. (she and I happen to LOVE gnocchi)

I used this recipe for inspiration and then tweaked it as follows:

Ingredients
          3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided *I used about half of the oil called for. Next time I will omit the oil completely and saute with vegetable broth.

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage *I used ground sage but I would love to have fresh to try with this next time.
• 1 16-ounce package shelf-stable gnocchi
• 1/2 cup sliced shallots *I used yellow cooking onion for this because it's what I keep on hand. Again, when time and budget allow, I'd like to go with using shallots to see how it tastes different.
• 8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry *SUBBED unsweetened pomegranate juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree *SUBBED pumpkin that I thawed from the freezer
• 1/2 cup half-and-half *SUBBED this with 1/2 cup of raw cashews blended with 1 cup of almond milk.  Next time I will decrease the cashew to 1/4 cup and likely add a bit of water or more almond milk.

 

Preparation

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil and sage in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until the sage begins to sizzle. Add gnocchi and cook, stirring often, until plumped and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cover to keep warm. *I followed this, decreasing the oil. Next time I will omit the oil and cook in water or veg broth and hope that it doesn't stick in the pan.
2. Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable broth in a pan. Add onions and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms start to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add pom juice, salt and pepper and cook until the liquid has evaporated, about 1 minute. Stir in pumpkin and cashew-milk; cook, stirring, until the sauce begins to bubble. Serve over the gnocchi.

This is a creamy comfort food, for sure.  I expected it to taste sweeter than it did, given the pumpkin base. I'm glad it wasn't sweet. I prefer a savory flavor to my comfort food. It also thickened up while sitting, so that's why I'm planning to decrease the nuts and increase the liquid the next time around.

I'm looking forward to enjoying this again on a cold, cozy day.  If you work on this recipe and find a way to alter the seasonings, texture, or anything else, please let me know. I'm always eager to learn how to do better in my kitchen endeavors. :)

(The gnocchi is above and to the right of my cashew-ricotta lasagna)