Vacation Report - Chocolate Ice "Cream"

I am home from my vacation, and back into a work week routine. My week of laying (not) in the sun, eating and drinking was absolutely fabulous! We stayed at this lovely secluded camp on Richard Lake.

I read fashion magazines...

played lots of cards...

Swam...

Went hiking...

And explored an abandoned mine...

But that is not why you are reading. You want to read about FOOD!!  Here's a lil bit about things I made on the trip.

First off my sister's super veggie & chip dip from The Wedding Shower 

It's the perfect sitting on the beach lunchtime snack accompaniment.

We had summer extremely hot weather that required very cold beverages (alternated with bottles of water of course)

Iced coffee for a mid afternoon pick me up. Or a bottle of my fav cheap beer that we don't have here in Manitoba, Lake Port Honey Lager....yummm. If you've never made iced coffee before, it's simple. Brew double strong cold and chill it in the fridge for a couple hours. Pour over iced and add soy milk and raw sugar. I find for whatever reason that iced coffee needs to be sweeter than hot coffee. Not sure why, but it does.

But by far the best food creation was Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream!!!Oh yes, I did say chocolate ice cream. You should now be familiar with our good friend banana soft serve. This is just a twist on it.

2 frozen bananas, chopped
6-8 frozen strawberries, sliced
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 to 1 1/2 tbsps cocoa powder
1-2 tablespoons seed or nut butter of your choice (I used pumpkin seed butter)

Blend the frozen fruit in a food processor until smooth. When freezing fruit always do the peeling and chopping first. I tried to bring 2 ziploc bags of frozen bananas in the cooler out to the lake and with the long ride and extreme heat they turned into a brown liquid...ick. So I just chucked 2 fresh bananas in the freezer when we got there, forgetting to peel and chop them first. Let's just say my finger is healing nicely

The strawberries survived the ride but were one solid mass I had to hack away at. Once the fruit is well blended add the cocoa, seed butter, and maple syrup to taste. I'm not gunna lie, it's pretty banana-y, which is why I added the maple syrup. I recommend slowly adding these last ingredients and taste testing as you go. The end result should be a cocoa//nutty flavour with a banana undertaste.

Doesn't it look delicious?!

Anyways, that was my holiday. I hope you are enjoying the summer and staying cool!