From Lauren: Last week, I moved to Seattle and transferred to Bastyr University. While I’m busy settling into my new schedule, I’m excited to host some special guest posts. Today’s post comes from Erin at Pure and Simple Nourishment. Erin is an MD who believes in the healing power of food and is helping spread her knowledge in the medical community!
Hi Empowered Sustenance readers! My name is Erin (Dr. Carter to my patients) and I run the blog Pure and Simple Nourishment. I am thrilled to be posting here today for Lauren. I have been a fan of her blog for years now so you can only imagine how excited I was to have the opportunity to share a recipe with you all.
I started eating a whole foods diet a few years ago after struggling for years with diarrhea prone IBS. I tried many different treatments, both from conventional and alternative medicine practices, none of which helped. Through my own research and a lot of trial and error, I have learned how to treat my condition with nutrition.
I recently finished my internal medicine residency and am currently completing my training in rheumatology. I have seen dietary changes make huge differences for the patients I treat, and I firmly believe that nutrition should play a central role in the treatment of any chronic condition. Lauren is an amazing example of how using food can help your body heal. Unfortunately, most physicians still do not realize the impact that nutrition can have as a treatment strategy, and I am hoping that through my blog I can slowly help spread this knowledge throughout the medical community.
Pure and Simple Nourishment is a place where I explore areas related to health and wellness, with a main focus on recipes that follow paleo, SCD and GAPS guidelines. It is my mission to show you that healthy food doesn’t have to be boring! You can also find me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
Today I am sharing one of my favorite ice cream recipes with you. I have always loved the flavor combination of orange and chocolate so I decided to create my own ice cream version. This Dark Orange Chocolate Ice Cream is dairy free and safe for the paleo and GAPS diets. It also doesn’t require an ice cream maker so all of you should be able to make it with the kitchen tools you already have at home.
I know that many of you (me included) try to avoid added sweeteners when it comes to recipes, so good news for you, this recipe requires no added sweetener. It is made sweet by the fruits and coconut butter that are in it. I have added the option to include a couple tablespoons of honey if you want this to be slightly sweeter, but I rarely ever include that myself.
Now I realize that winter is just around the corner, so I hope you have time to make this one before it gets too cold for ice cream (although I personally don’t think it is ever too cold for ice cream). I would love to hear what you think of this one. Enjoy, and happy eating everyone!
- 2 large, ripe bananas
- Zest from one orange
- Juice from one orange (1/2 cup)
- ½ cup coconut butter (available here)
- 3 TBSP coconut oil
- 1 tsp organic orange flavor (available here)
- pinch sea salt
- 3 TBSP organic carob powder (for autoimmune option) OR cocoa powder
- 1 TBSP grassfed gelatin (available here)
- Optional: 1-2 TBSP honey
- Place a medium sized pot on the stove and turn the burner to medium heat
- Place all the ingredients except the cocoa powder and gelatin into the pot and allow to melt, stirring occasionally
- Once the ingredients are melted together and smooth add the cocoa powder and mix well
- Turn off the heat and add the gelatin, stirring well until it dissolves
- Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof bowl
- Place the bowl in the freezer and freeze for 60-90 minutes, stirring every 20-30 minutes until it has the texture you desire
- Remove from freezer, serve and enjoy!
About Erin Carter
I’m Erin: MD by day and paleo blogger by night. Through my own health struggles I have come to realize the healing power of real food. Pure and Simple Nourishment is a place where I share recipes and health information, and hopefully I can show you that healthy doesn’t have to be boring! You can also find me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
This looks delicious!
Lauren, a little suggestion when you can wrangle the time. It’s always a good idea to have your featured post titles above the featured photo on your home page. As it stands, an annoying add for a cordless vacuum is the first thing I see. I have to scroll to see the title for your most recent post.
And for a blog like this, if you can’t get sponsored ads that are relevant, I would do away with that ad header or move it elsewhere. It really distracts from your good work here!
I appreciate your feedback and I wish I could avoid using Google ads altogether, but that’s not possible for me right now. This is my advertising disclosure: Some of the ads on this site are served by AdChoices and, as a result, I do not necessarily recommend the advertised products. The revenue from the ads makes it possible for me to continue blogging, so I appreciate your understanding.
I completely understand. For now if you could put the post title above the featured image on the home page, it would really help with the initial confusion of seeing the ads in that space. That way the eye will quickly see a distinction.
:o)
You have a really nice looking website, by the way. I love the addition of the signup box just under the navigation links.
About the recipe, I’m going to give this a whirl before it starts getting cold. It looks scrumptious!! I’ve always loved chocolate and orange together, but never made anything like that before.
Love dark chocolate and orange! Congrats Lauren on going to Bastyr! I hope you do really well! I was wondering if you could do a post differentiating the very similar natural health careers (ND, homeopath, osteopath, NTP, etc) and why you chose to become an NTP over the others. I’m applying to undergraduate schools and trying to decide on what to major in. I think this could help clear up confusion for those who want to have a career in natural health.
That’s a great post idea, thank you for the suggestion! I’m been on the Bastyr campus for a week now, and I just love it. I’m working on blog posts about my natural dorm room and healthy dorm cooking, too 🙂
Thank you so much for replying! I’m so excited for the dorm cooking post!
Hi, this looks so yummy but I am a little puzzled. You say to mix all the ingredients in a pan and heat until melted, where do the bananas come in? Am I totally missing something, that wouldn’t surprise me!
Also, I tried to subscribe to your newsletter and I typed in my email address but it is still saying to put in a valid email address. Could you possibly add me manually?
Hi Stephanie. This is Erin (creator of the recipe). You put the bananas in the pot with everything else so that they soften and blend with the other ingredients. It’s super easy! Hope that helps
Great looking recipe. Simple and classic!
Question – in the notes it says “If you don’t eat this all right away it keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days “.
Is this correct? Shouldn’t ice cream ( if any leftover) be stored in the freezer?
Thanks!
Yes, that should say freezer! I’ll fix it now, thanks for telling me.
Hi guys. Sorry I didn’t see these comments until now. I actually do store this in the fridge and not the freezer. I find it gets too hard in the freezer but keeping it in the fridge keeps the consistency just right! It’s that gelatin that does it.
Hi there – I wanted to say that I really appreciate your site and all you have on here. What a blessing! I bet this would be great with orange essential oils instead of the citrus zest. Have you ever tried them in recipes before? This looks yummy.
This look yum – I don’t have an ice cream maker so this recipe is perfect!
I also tried to sign up for email, but it kept saying to provide a valid email address. I entered my valid email address, but it would not take it. 🙁