Organic/Vegan Dessert: Chocolate Dipped PB & Banana Sandwiches

After watching the documentaries “Forks over Knives” and “Vegucated”, I’ve been really into adopting a more plant-based diet and using organic products as much as possible. I highly recommend these documentaries to anyone who is interested in improving their health, battling cancer or just curious about Veganism in general. I don’t think I’ll ever become a true Vegan because I LOVE LOVE LOVE cheese and yogurt, but other than that, it wouldn’t be too hard.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always been turned off by meat. I would tell people, “the only flesh I eat is chicken and turkey…with NO bones!”. If my Mom made chicken for dinner, I would make my Dad cut it up for me so I wouldn’t have to look at something that resembled an animal on my plate. My Dad is Italian, works at a seafood company and used to go deer hunting up in Maine so he was never too thrilled that I was such a picky eater.

Being from Massachusetts, we had lots of Lobster cookouts. I’ll never forget the day that I walked into the kitchen just as my Dad was placing a live lobster into a pot of boiling water…I was probably 7 years old…I was so upset that I yelled at him and called him a killer and then ran into my room crying. I didn’t speak to him for the rest of the day. I never tried lobster until I was probably 18 or 19. I put it in my mouth, chewed once and then spit it out. The second and last time I tried lobster was 3 years ago when I took a bite of my friends lobster taco. It was ok. It still bothers me to watch people eat lobster…with their bibs on, cracking open the scorched body of an oversized cockroach and eating its insides…so gross.

On a lighter note, I found this bomb recipe for a healthy, vegan dessert on pinterest and decided to give it a try. I eat dessert at least once a day, so I thought it would be good to make it a healthy one! The recipe called for bananas, peanut butter and graham crackers but I took it to the next level..oh yeah.

I went to Whole Foods and got organic bananas, organic peanut butter and organic grahams crackers. I also thought the recipe would be better with chocolate…duh…so I decided to try out some vegan chocolate chips for melting/dipping.

I never really measure out stuff when I cook, unless Im baking, so I have no idea how much peanut butter I used…just use what you think looks good. Cut up a ripe banana, put it in the bowl with the peanut butter and then start mashing it up.

Break your graham crackers in half. Spread the mixture onto one half of the cracker and then put the other half on top to make a sandwich.

Now, melt that chocolate! This part can be tricky if you don’t have a double boiler (the best way to melt chocolate). I don’t have one so I had to use the microwave. I put the power on 50% and started by heating it for 30 seconds, then 20 seconds, then 15 seconds and so on, stopping in between to stir it. This is really important so that you don’t overheat or burn the chocolate. That always sucks…I’ve done it plenty of times.

Once the chocolate is melted, start dipping! I dipped just one side of the sandwiches because it was easier. Place the dipped sandwiches on parchment paper and on a plate and then put them in the freezer for an hour or so. That’s it! Healthy faux ice cream sandwiches. They’re actually pretty good too.