This is part two of a three part post sponsored by Blendtec. All opinions are my own.
Stumped on whether or not to buy a high powered blender like a Blendtec? I feel you. I mean, it's a blender, you know?! It is really worth it to spend so much money?! So when Blendtec offered to let my try one of theirs I decided to see if these expensive blenders could actually save us money in the long run. First, I made some tomato sauce.
Today, I had intended on focusing on ice cream. Because who doesn't love ice cream? The recipe is pretty clean - there's no added sugar - but don't let that fool you because the bananas offer up enough sweetness that tastes indulgent.
The problem I had, though, was that my bananas weren't 100% frozen, and so my intended ice cream came out like a super melty soft serve at best. No problem, though, because voila! It's a smoothie. Learn from my mistakes, people!
(I have previously made this recipe using bananas frozen all the way through and it came out the perfect ice cream consistency. I just didn't photograph because it was nighttime (indoor lights are the worst photography lighting ever) and also because I ate it. Freeze your bananas all the way through if you want ice cream, or don't if you want a smoothie.)
So back to the recipe. Indulging in my love for pecans, I thought making a pecan ice cream/smoothie would be delicious, especially when paired with banana and chocolate. I made my own pecan butter, which was seriously the easiest thing ever (check out the video!) and made me never want to make it any other way. All you do is push a button and the twister jar does all the rest.
Cost of Homemade Pecan Butter
Homemade: Pecans 16oz $9.99 (made about 14oz of nut butter, so $.71/oz)
Cost of Store-bought Pecan Butter
Store: Raw pecan butter 8oz $13.20, ($.83/oz). I thought it was interesting that I couldn't find a pecan butter that didn't have cashews added "to enhance smoothness" - totally weird, because the homemade pecan butter was perfectly smooth and spreadable.
Once again, the homemade version is cheaper!
Pin it! Banana chocolate pecan butter smoothie.
Then, I got to work making the ice cream/smoothie.
Ingredients for Banana Chocolate Pecan Smoothie
4 frozen bananas (just peel, cut and put them in the freezer for two hours)
4T pecan butter (or use homemade like I did - just grind the pecans in the Blendtec twister jar)
1/2c homemade yogurt (get the recipe when you sign up for the weekly YBC newsletter)
Directions for Banana Chocolate Pecan Smoothie
Um, it couldn't get easier than this. Are you ready? Place all the ingredients in the Blendtec, with the bananas added last and hit the ice cream button. Voila!
I wasn't able to find the banana chocolate pecan ice cream in stores to compare, but let's compare pecan butter.