Cactus Pear Nice Cream RECIPE With Pomegranate & Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites – (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

Cactus Pear Nice Cream RECIPE with Pomegranate and Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites

Wondering how I naturally obtained this lovely shade of hot pink in my bowl of nice-cream (vegan ice-cream)?? Easy! I owe it all to the cactus pear, also known as the prickly pear. The flesh of a cactus pear, when combined with a banana, will give you this gorgeous magenta hue. This cactus pear nice cream recipe is a healthy dessert that will most definitely make your child excited for a yummy treat that is naturally sweet from nature with no added sugars. Other ingredients in this frozen treat are frozen pomegranate, two frozen bananas, some coconut milk and Enjoy Life Foods Dark Chocolate Raspberry Protein Bites. This is a much healthier alternative to traditional ice-cream and I always enjoy creating this and serving it at home. Super simple and easy to do too!

Nice-cream is the vegan and paleo version of ice-cream. It is dairy-free and lactose-free.

Cactus Pear & Pomegranate With Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites Nice-Cream

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A good food processor comes in handy for making vegan nice-creams at home. You will also want to prepare in advance for making this by freezing two sliced up bananas overnight. Also, chill a can of full-fat coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight for best results. If you have a can of coconut cream on-hand that makes for even better results, a lot more creamy, but coconut cream is usually around $4 a can and coconut milk works just fine.

The Enjoy Life Foods Dark Raspberry Protein Bites were a wise choice here as a nice-cream topping. I chopped them up small and placed them on top. The dark raspberry flavor is actually my favorite flavor of all the Protein Bites and it paired nicely with the flavors of the cactus pear and pomegranate. It also gave this bowl of nice-cream a boost in protein, which is always welcome, especially if you are following a vegan diet.

Ingredients used to make Cactus Pear & Pomegranate With Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites Nice-Cream (Protein Bites not shown in this photo)

Cactus Pear Nice Cream Recipe

Cactus Pear Nice Cream RECIPE With Pomegranate & Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites

This simple and easy to do gluten-free and vegan nice cream recipe results in the prettiest of pink nice creams you have ever seen.

2 Bananas (Frozen)
1 Cactus Pear
1/2 cup Pomegranate (Frozen)
6 Enjoy Life Foods Dark Raspberry Protein Bites
1/2 cup Full-fat organic coconut milk (Chilled overnight in fridge)

Place the frozen bananas, cactus pear, pomegranate, and chilled coconut in the food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Remove cactus pear nice-cream from food processor bowl.
To the nice cream with small chunks of Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites. I used the Dark Raspberry.
Divide into two bowls.

Serve, eat. and enjoy!

Cactus Pear & Pomegranate With Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites Nice-Cream in the food processor. Do not add Protein Bites at this time!

Enjoy Life Foods Dark Raspberry Protein Bites chopped into small pieces

Final thoughts on the cactus pear nice cream recipe

I do believe that you will love this hot-pink cactus pear nice cream recipe if you do decide to give it a whirl. It is super unique in its flavor and unlike anything I have ever tried! I am extremely happy with the results of mixing these ingredients together. I was not sure what the outcome would be, but I got brave in the kitchen and I have no regrets!

If you are looking for a healthier alternative to ice-cream that is dairy-free and contains no added sugars, you should try making vegan and glutern-free nice creams at home. They are very versatile and you can get creative by whipping them up and experimenting with different ingredients. As a base, I usually use two frozen bananas and make sure I have a can of chilled coconut milk (it must be full-fat and not light coconut milk) on-hand to make this. This will result in approximately 2-3 servings. Most often it is just my daughter and I sharing but sometimes my hubby wants some too.

You can read more about the Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites on a previous blog post:

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Have you ever tried vegan nice cream? How do you like to create yours? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Here are some other posts you will enjoy!

Want to find out more about Enjoy Life Foods?

September 6, 2018 8

The Most Scrumptious Gluten-Free Cotton Candy Cake & How I Created It

COTTON CANDY CAKE by GIVE IT A WHIRL GIRL - Gluten-Free - How I Created It

This morning I would love to share with you about my experience with the Wilton Easy Layers cake set and how I made my gluten-free cotton candy cake. I blogged about this cake pan set on a recent Friday Faves post and I ended up ordering myself one and I am so happy that I did. I ended up creating the best cake I have ever made in my life yesterday! I am truly proud of it and I was happy to serve it to my mother, who came over for a t-bone steak dinner. The cake that I made was the most perfect dessert to serve to her and she fell in love with it. And of course, my daughter, Chloe, was absolutely in love with this cake. She assisted me in making it and it is always a joy to work alongside her in the Give It A Whirl Girl Kitchen.

Cotton Candy Cake by Give It A Whirl Girl — Cotton Candy Cake

Here is how I made my gluten-free Cotton Candy Cake

Here is how I used Wilton Easy Layers Cake Pan Set

The Wilton Easy Layers contains 5 pans that are 6 inches in diameter. They are pretty shallow pans. They have a non-stick coating but I still sprayed mine with a bit of coconut oil just in case I had a problem with my cake sticking. The pans will fill up one standard size serving of cake batter. These cake pans will also all, conveniently, fit inside the oven at the same time due to their small size.

Most of the ingredients I used in the Cotton Candy Cake - Give It A Whirl Girl — Most of the ingredients I used

Pamela’s Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Mix

The cake itself was made with a gluten-free mix by Pamela’s. I used Pamela’s Vanilla Cake Mix. I have used this mix once before for cupcakes and I was very satisfied with the taste and texture. What I also love about the gluten-free mix is that it is non-GMO, uses no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives, and no high fructose corn syrup.

Lorann’s Cotton Candy flavor oil

I achieved the cotton candy flavoring using a bottle of Lorann’s Cotton Candy Flavoring Oil. This was my first time using a flavoring oil of this kind and I heard that a little bit can go a long way but I ended up having to use about half of the bottle to get the flavor I was going for. I really enjoyed the flavor of this, though it was not exactly like cotton candy. I will have to explore other flavor oils and extracts from this brand because I am just not a plain vanilla person.

How I created the frosting for this cotton candy cake

For the frosting, I decided to go with a homemade buttercream. I had a fridge full of different kinds of butter from Chef Shamy so I gave the Honey Butter Vanilla Bean a whirl. Chef Shamy serves up a high-quality butter with no weird ingredients… just pure butter. It is also gluten-free. This particular vanilla flavor produced the most glorious buttercream I have ever whipped up. I used Simple Truth Organic Powdered Sugar with the butter and a few splashes of almond milk. The flavor of this buttercream was out of this world. If I had to give myself a grade it would be an A+. It really was that great!

Coloring the cotton candy cake

Now let’s get on with the color. Yes, this time around I was naughty and used artificial colors… GASP! It’s true that I did. I’m not proud but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and YOLO! I used Betty Crocker’s Neon Gel Food Colors for the pink and the purple. Gel food coloring is some pretty potent and powerful stuff. They really do produce gorgeous coloring on your creations. I don’t know why but for the neon pack they do not include the color blue, so for that, I used a Kroger brand neon blue. I am so pleased with how the colors turned out!

A ton of candy to top it all off!

And for that gorgeous candy that is all over the cake? I created my own mix of sprinkles with several different brands. The sprinkles with the big bits are pieces of candy that were from Celebrations By Frey. My local Kroger store sells them but I can not locate them on Amazon. The bottle of sprinkles is titled MixLicious.

Final thoughts on this gluten-free cotton candy cake

I am super duper pleased as pie (or should I say “cake”) with how this cake turned out and I was proud to serve it to my family. It really did taste as good as it looks. I am not a professional baker so I am aware that the cake is a little sloppy but I am always working towards bettering myself as a chef and as a baker.

This cake was so incredibly fun to make with my daughter and I could do this every single day if I had the funds (and if I wanted to be on 600lb Life). I am going to definitely be working on more cakes in the future and I might even get brave and give fondant a try. I love the way fondant cakes look. They are edible art! The beautiful cakes that I see on Instagram and on food blogs are so inspiring.

Slice of gluten-free Cotton Candy Cake by Give It A Whirl Girl — Slice of gluten-free Cotton Candy Cake

So tell me… what is your favorite flavor of cake? Leave me a comment and let me know. Would love to hear from my readers. Comments always brighten up my day.

Did you enjoy this post? You might like these:

BUBBLEGUM CAKE w/ Pamela's Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Mix by Give It A Whirl Girl — CLICK HERE TO READ THIS POST

Find out more about the brands I used to create this cotton candy cake!

August 8, 2018 11

Cactus Pear Smoothie RECIPE With Raspberries- Tried It Out Tuesday

Cactus Pear Smoothie RECIPE by Give It A Whirl Girl

I went shopping at Nino Salvaggio’s International Marketplace this past weekend and that is my go-to place for unusual fruits and vegetables. They carry the mainstream and also the more obscure. If you are looking for beautiful produce, Nino’s is the place to be. You can tell that they are super picky about what kind of produce is allowed to hit the shelves because it all looks beautiful and perfect! This past weekend we went to the exotic fruit section and decided on bringing home a couple cactus pears, also known as a prickly pear cactus. Imagine my surprise when I sliced into it and discovered that it is a vibrant hot-pink, magenta color. I had no idea this cactus pear had such a gorgeous interior! I was thinking hmmm maybe cactus pear smoothie? Keep reading to find out how you can make this delightful pink drink with my cactus pear smoothie recipe!

37697111_10156518991034420_6636608170431086592_n — Nino Salvaggio’s

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I did a bit of research before eating the cactus pear. I sliced the skin off and I noticed that it had quite a few hard seeds inside. They are not something you can bite into but they are safe to swallow. When I blended this up in a smoothie the seeds got ground up in the blender.

So the taste? Super sweet like candy, a cross between juicy watermelon and bubble gum!

Here is a recipe for a cactus pear smoothie that you can have all to yourself or share with a loved one! I shared mine with my adventurous eater, Chloe Pearl, who is 8 years old and loves trying new things with me.

37772613_10156519053229420_295658517795176448_o — Cactus Pear Smoothie

Cactus Pear Smoothie Recipe

cactus pear

cactus pear diced

unsweetened almond milk

banana

fresh raspberries

Cactus Pear Smoothie Recipe With Raspberries

This delightful hot pink smoothie drink not only looks incredible but it tastes great too and it is a healthy choice to make!

2 Cactus pears (Peeled)
1 Frozen banana
1 handful Raspberries
1/3 cup Unsweetened almond milk

Place all of the ingredients in your blender.
Blend until smooth.
Serve, eat, and enjoy!

37746566_10156518976374420_8763659834370293760_n — Cactus Pear Raspberry Smoothie

37700487_10156518991104420_7947507913738682368_n — Chloe enjoying her cactus pear smoothie

Tidbits of info on the cactus pear:

Cactus pears grow on the Nepales Cacti and these plants can be found in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, and Morrocco
Cactus pears contain potassium, calcium, vitamin C, iron, and beta carotene.
Cactus pears can be used to make smoothies, candy, syrups, jams/jellies, wine, juice, pies, and more! Get creative!
They have anti-inflammatory benefits and also have anti-viral perks
High in fiber and rich in antioxidants
Can be used to lower blood sugar in type 2 diabetics
They can help strengthen hair and nails
The average cactus pear has 60 calories, 14 g of carbohydrates, and 5 grams of fiber.
The fiber in the cactus pear can help with weight loss since the fiber makes you feel full longer.
Do not consume large amounts at first. They have been known to have side effects so please research before consuming large amounts. This does not affect everyone but some may get side effects.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Please do research on how this may benefit or impact you.

I hope that this cactus pear smoothie recipe will inspire you to give it a whirl! This hot pink concoction is simple and easy to do with your blender and home and it is a fantastic smoothie recipe that you will want to incorporate into your morning smoothie regimen.

So have you ever tried a cactus pear? How did you eat yours? If you have not tried it yet does this look like something you would try? Leave me a comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

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July 24, 2018 2

Tag: hot pink