Bill's 15 Minute Vegan Ice Creme..

Here's a recipe that will knock your socks off. I was buying the $4.98 vegan ice-cream substitutes (rice or soy) and going through two or three of those expensive little two-cup containers every week. I was getting too much sugar from them, too.

Then I discovered a way to make my own at home which was noticeably better than the storebought stuff, was much lower in sugar (but just as sweet) and full of fruit.

This recipe makes about five or six cups (depending on the amount of fruit you use) and can be frozen as pops or in containers as regular ice creme. You don't need an ice cream machine... just a blender and some containers or pop molds to hold the mix.

Here are the ingredients you need:

1. A package of MimicCreme Healthy Top (I order it in bulk since I discovered this treat.) You can order it directly at http://www.mimiccreme.com/healthy.html.

2. 2 cups of frozen fruit (I'm using cherries in this one) plus a fresh banana (a sheer extra... I like the mix of flavors.) You can also use chocolate by liquefying plain cocoa with a little hot water, then add some sweetener to it... this will take the place of the fruit (will make about 2 cups less).

3. About eight drops (or the equivalent of 2 teaspoons of regular sugar) of Sweet Leaf Vanilla Creme liquid stevia, plus a teaspoonful of powdered sweetener ( I use Truvia, which is a stevia blend). You can also use a teaspoonful of plain vanilla and two or three teaspoons of the powdered sweetener.

That's it for ingredients. Now here's the method.

1. Thaw the two cups of frozen fruit (I use 1 minute in the microwave, but you can also leave it out at room temperature for a couple of hours.) Cut up the banana into chunks.

2. Put the fruit in a blender with the cut up banana, add the vanilla stevia drops and the teaspoon of powdered sweetener and blend them until they are smooth (about a minute).

3. Add the whole package of Healthy Top, set the blender on "Beat" and let it go for 3 minutes or so....

4. Pour the mix into a covered freezer container, or into pop molds and freeze for about 3 hours.

An that's it. It takes about 15 minutes tops to make it and when you try it, you'll never buy the expensive stuff again. This costs about half as much in equivalent quantities and tastes a lot better.

Hope you like it.   - Bill