Toxic Fumes and an Ice Cream Sundae

You think your house is messy?

Think again.

This is what happens when you live in an old, drafty house with a bug problem. Sure, you enjoy the charm and real wooden floors of a classic, but you're also forced to deal with an exterminator who makes you empty your kitchen of all its contents so he can then pump it full of poison. Lovely.

Since today was my last nutrition class of the semester, I only had two additional hours to kill out of the house after it was over to allow the fumes to dissipate.

That time as happily spent wandering aimlessly around the Barnes and Nobles travel section, followed by lunch with Alex at Blossom, an uber popular Vietnamese restaurant downtown.

Of course I left my camera at home so I don't have any evidence... the food was alright. I think all the local buzz surrounding it is a tad exaggerated, but then again I've already found my Vietnamese culinary love in Gingergrass.

When I got home, I could still smell fumes. The landlord was parked outside and told me to run some errands and stay out of the house for as long as possible.

"Great," I'm thinking, "I've got SO much to put back together in the house and still need time to complete my brownie sundae experiment before work."

In the end, fears of toxin-induced diseases lured me into more errand running.

Once I'd had about all I could stand of car time, I bravely headed home to (thankfully) find the air much cleaner.

And so the [healthy] brownie sundae mission continued.

If you missed the start yesterday, check it out here.

Today was all about the ice cream.

I've tried making vegan soft serve before, but today I attempted a different recipe: Heather's Protein Ice Cream, which I've been seeing all over the blogosphere for months now.

If you check out the photo she has posted at the link above, you'll understand why.

I dug the blender out from under a heap of crap kitchen utensils in the dining room and got my ingredients together:

Put everything in the blender and pressed the button. Easy enough...

It started to thicken, thanks to the xantham and guar gums.

Then was time to add the frozen goods (I used ice and frozen bananas, but plain old ice is enough)

After I had a mixture that seemed somewhat ice cream-like, it was time to test my 2 afternoons-worth of labor!

Would my brownie sundae taste as delicious as I'd hoped?

I took the black bean brownie tray out of the fridge and cut a little piece (quality control, obviously).

Looks normal enough. And tastes surprisingly rich and delicious!

I cut another slice and plopped it in the dish.

So far, so good.

Then came time for the ice cream... Now, my texture didn't turn out exactly like Heather's- I think it's due mostly to the fact that I don't have a super duper blender like a Vita Mix to pound through the ice, so I just made due with what I had, BUT

I'm not lying when I tell you: the combo turned out to be astoundingly delicious!

As I've said before, I am generally my own worst critic when it comes to trying recipes but this time was different. The coffee in the brownie is really apparent (which is fine by me) and when it's paired with the iced creamy texture of the ice cream, you come as close to food heaven as "healthy" can get. Plus, with protein from both Sun Warrior AND black beans, this could technically be a post-gym snack of the future!

I'll definitely be trying the ice cream again with more ice next time and perhaps a different flavor.

I plan on serving a plate of the secret ingredient brownies at our Christmas party tomorrow night. I wonder if anyone'll notice something different about them...

We shall see!

Which reminds me: I've got A LOT of cleaning to do.

Happy Friday!