Easter Travels and Banana Ice Cream

This past weekend was Easter so I was home in Boston for the weekend. I always get scared when I travel because it's so easy to pick up something fattening or high in calories in the airport. This time, I decided to take matters into my own hands and pack my food. For my flight home, I packed an apple and Kind granola and for my flight back to Chicago, I packed a Mojo Cliffbar. Since my flight to Boston was in the morning, I really didn't get too hungry and slept through most of my flight. My flight back to Chicago, I caved. It was a noon time flight so I decided to grab lunch at the airport. I ended up getting a Cosi Asian Salmon salad which was spectacular! I was originally just looking for fruit (literally it is non-existent in terminal E at Logan), but couldn't resist when I saw this on the menu. The total calorie count is 445 which I think its great for airport food. I ended up only eating half the salad to save on some calories. It was great that I was able to find something to support my specific diet needs, but I do suggest bringing snacks to the airport especially if you cave easily.

Generally I eat a bunch of food when I'm home. New England has some of the best food in the country, most of it is typically healthy (seafood, anyone?!) but it is easy to fall into a trap of pizza (we have the best sweet sauce pizza, don't care what anyone says), cake (Italian bakeries galore!), and fried food (mostly seafood). When I was home I made sure my parents were well-informed that I did not want to indulge. Just because I am technically on vacation doesn't mean my lifestyle can up and change. We went out to eat, actually it was take-out, once over the 3 day period, to the Cheesecake Factory. I ordered the goat cheese and beet salad because anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for some goat cheese. The whole dish is 270 calories and so rich, creamy, and refreshing. For Easter, my family was eating glazed ham... a big no-no for me. My parents and I headed out to the seafood market and I picked up a half pound of lobster meat and 10 scallops. Lobster has about 100 calories and scallops have about 15 calories. I ended up eating 2 claws and 5 scallops for a total of about 160 calories. Of course I had a salad with lemon vinaigrette and a half of sweet potato for a total of about 300 calories! Not too bad for Easter dinner!

So I've been back for a few days now, back into the habit of making my own food and buying my own groceries. I've been pinning a lot recently and saw a great recipe for banana ice cream using just frozen bananas. Yesterday I was craving ice cream hardcore, chocolate ice cream to be exact, and remembered pinning a recipe for raw ice cream and decided to try it. I modified it just a bit to add my own twist.

Raw Banana Chocolate Almond Ice Cream
Serves 1

1 Banana (frozen)
1 tbsp cocoa (I used Ghirardelli unsweetened powder)
1 pack Stevia
Splash of unsweetened almond milk

Combine all ingredients in a blender and pulse until smooth. Use more almond milk to reach desired consistency.

This recipe is perfect for when you feel like cheating. I am really not a fan of bananas and I immediately fell in love with this 'ice cream.' Its so healthy and totals a little over 100 depending on what size banana you use. I know I will definitely be making this more often!