A few weeks ago, I told you that I was having issues with a stomach bug. Well, it turns out it’s not a stomach bug but some other undiagnosed issue. At the moment, I’m under doctor’s orders not to have any dairy, until further notice. A super-hard task for a Wisconsin girl, who is used to a daily diet that includes a healthy amount of cheese, yogurt and milk. So, I have a few weeks until my first colonoscopy – which will hopefully lend some clues to why I’m not feeling well. The thought right now is that it possibly could be Celiac Disease, or a gluten intolerance. I’ll keep you posted because it will definitely change the tone of this blog if I do end up having some sort of food allergy.

Now, I still have a pretty healthy appetite – and that includes my sweet tooth. For the most part I’ve been really good – I’ve snuck a few pieces of chocolate here and there, as well as some small nibbles of frosting from cupcakes. But, I do miss my frozen yogurt and ice cream, even my morning Kefir smoothie.

So, we decided to buy this as-seen-on-TV gadget called Yonanas, based on a recommendation from my friend Stacey. You simply need to freeze those overripe bananas that you were going to toss in the garbage or bake into banana bread. Then, you can add other frozen fruits, peanut butter and other add-ins for a frozen treat that comes out in the consistency of soft serve ice cream. If you don’t use bananas in the mixture, but just frozen fruit – like strawberries, blueberries, or mangoes – it comes out in a sorbet texture.

Here’s our first go at using the Yonana system:

The verdict? It was really good! We used two frozen bananas and added two ounces of dark chocolate for a smooth and sweet treat. Just perfect to fix a sweet tooth craving!

You can buy Yonanas at various stores such as Bed Bath and Beyond or Kohl’s. The price varies from about $40 to $60. We were able to snag ours for about $20 including shipping from Kohl’s after using a Kohl’s Cash reward online. It was a total steal considering that if we were to buy two pints of Ben & Jerry’s would cost us about $10. We’ll break even the next time we use the machine.

I can’t wait to try out some of the other recipes that came along with the machine – including one using pumpkin pie puree. It doesn’t even bother me that it doesn’t have any dairy in it!