The Beauty Department: Your Daily Dose of Pretty.

Beauty Bites

POST/PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHIC DESIGN BY NORAH CURLEE

From a truck, a bowl, or straight out of the carton…we all scream for ice cream! Well today, we’ve got the scoop on how you can make a benefit packed, dairy free, super healthy version of this frozen favorite. You’ll never know the difference! Fresh cherries are the highlight of today’s recipe and we can’t wait to tell you why.

We used frozen bananas as a base for this faux ice cream. Something magical happens when you blend frozen bananas. It adds that creamy texture of ice cream without having to use cream! It’s totally genius and completely customizable. You can add any fruit you like and the bananas take on any flavor they’re blended with. The options are endless. Here’s what you’ll need for our cherry chip version:

4 frozen bananas

1 1/2 cups fresh pitted cherries, frozen

1/4 cup almond or coconut milk

1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate (we used 80%)

THE PROCESS:

1. Peel your bananas and slice your cherries to remove the pits

2. Put the bananas and cherries into the freezer (3 or 4 hours)

3. Place frozen bananas, 1 cup frozen cherries and almond milk into a blender and blend until smooth

4. Pour into a container and mix in 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate and remaining 1/2 cup of sliced cherries. (We sprinkled some on top as well for the pretty factor!)

5. Put the entire container into the freezer for at least 1-2 hours

6. Start scooping! (Two scoops please!)

So let’s talk about our delicious friend, the fresh cherry..

There are so many amazing varieties of fresh cherries out there: Bing cherries, Black cherries, North Star cherries, Rainier cherries; all with great health and beauty benefits! Cherries have super high antioxidant levels. For example, the the Montmorency cherry has one of the highest antioxidant levels of any fruit with 17 different antioxidant compounds present. Woah! Antioxidants are vital to the body in order to fight free radicals…the biggest causers of aging. Free radicals are the pits! (We couldn’t resist). Tart cherries are high in melatonin which is a natural way to help that much needed beauty sleep come to fruition. (We know it’s tough to come by!) Cherry juice is also rich in vitamin A and its antibacterial properties remove toxins from the blood and fight bacteria trapped under the skin.

The month of June is the peak of cherry season! We plan on taking advantage of these sweet benefits all month long.