Strawberry Cheesecake ‘Blizzard’ (No sugar added)

Before being introduced to banana soft serve I would have never thought to make ice cream out of frozen fruit.

Sitting outside on a hot summers day soaking up the sunshine and cooling off with a cup of fudgy banana soft serve opened up a whole new world for me.

I’ve never been the same since.

Would you judge me if I said I regularly eat ice cream for breakfast? [with protein powder and probiotics... it's basically a smoothie, right?]

Or, that I’ve ran to the store at 11pm just to buy gluten-free graham crackers when a hankering for strawberry cheesecake ice cream struck? Well, actually what I had originally wanted to make were these strawberry shortcake sandwiches, but I didn’t want to wait for the coconut milk to harden.

I had a bag full of frozen strawberries, coconut milk ice cubes from Kevin’s pina coladas [another recipe I need to share!] and loads of fresh strawberries. What’s a girl to do?

Make strawberry cheesecake blizzards. That’s what.

How I lived in fear of food and constant deprivation is beyond me. But it’s treats like this that solidify the fact that you can eat tasty, delicious things and feel good about what you’re putting in your body.

And boy does this ever feel good!

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Strawberry Cheesecake ‘Blizzard’

Vegan, Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free, Yeast free, Corn free

These blizzards are great as an afternoon treat. Try keeping the ingredients in the freezer for quick preparation.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 8 lite coconut milk ice cubes, about 1/2 can frozen
• 2 cups sliced strawberries, frozen
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup non-dairy milk – I used unsweetened original almond milk
• 4 fresh strawberries, chopped
• 1/2 cup gluten-free graham cracker crumbs

Directions

1. Place coconut milk cubes, frozen strawberries, lemon juice, vinegar, and vanilla in your food processor. Pulse with the “S” blade until mixture is broken up. It should look like pieces of hail in the bowl. This process takes about 30 seconds of pulsing on and off.
2. Continuing to pulse, add non-dairy milk slowly. Use up to 1 cup. Discontinue when mixture forms a ball.
3. Remove ice cream ball from processor and place in a large bowl. Mix in fresh strawberries and graham cracker crumbs.
4. Serve immediately

Note: add honey or palm sugar if you don’t like the slight tartness. I loved it!

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Note to self: pour more coconut milk in the ice cube trays before heading to the gym this morning. I sense another late night ice cream session in our future.

Oh, and please join me in welcoming the newest addition to our Kevin’s family.

I wish I could say that she’s all mine, but I’d be lying. She’s pretty cute though, don’t you think?

So the deal is: I stole Kevin’s camera when I started the blog. Sharing a camera between an avid photographer and food blogger isn’t exactly ideal [aka it sucks].

Since he was into photography before me, I thought it only fair that he get the first new camera. The operative word being first… but don’t tell him I said that

We took our cameras out to the backyard last night to play around with the dogs for a bit. It was so fun getting to shoot with him!

Have a great Wednesday, and don’t forget to enter for a chance to win bean pasta!

Tagged as: blizzard, camera, ice cream, photography, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake