Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream Bars with Yogurt and Almond Milk

Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream Bars

with bananas, almond milk, yogurt, chocolate, and chopped almonds.

My sweet tooth has been out of control lately.  

I want dessert every night.  

And I have even been seriously craving lunch dessert (is that a thing?).  I needed to come up with some healthier summer sweet tooth options.  So the Peanut Butter Banana Bars were born.  These are made with low fat yogurt, unsweetened almond milk, PB2 powder (less calories than peanut butter) and bananas for sweetness. Bananas, chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite combos, and adding on some almonds give this bar the perfect crunch.

If you want to wow your guests with a healthy(ish) summer dessert, or just want to hoard these in your freezer for yourself, read on.  (These are soooo easy so if you are thinking that looks like a lot of work, you are wrong my lazy friend).

I used this recipe as a base and adjusted it for my taste and preferences.

What you will need:

Ice Pop Mold - Order yours on Amazon

Parchment paper, and some ingredients!

If you want to make these cuter, use a Popsicle stick instead of the stick that comes with these molds.

Ingredients:

For the Pops: 

1 cup Low fat Greek yogurt

3/4 cup Blue Diamond Unsweetened vanilla almond milk with a hint of honey

(Sweetened if you want it to be a little sweeter)

1/4 cup PB2 order some here or Peanut Butter

1/2 tsp Maple extract (or vanilla extract)

Pinch Salt

2 Ripe Bananas 

**an extra banana for banana bites if you have leftover toppings

For the Toppings:

1/2 cup Chocolate chips- melted and thinned (directions below)

1/4 cup Crushed Blue Diamond Almonds (I chose Chocolate and Sea Salt)

For the pops (SO easy):

1.  Put all the ingredients in a blender.  

2.  Blend until smooth and combined.  

3.  Fill up your molds!

4.  Set them in the freezer overnight or for 4-6 hours. 

5.  When set, dip them in the melted chocolate (recipe below). sprinkle with crushed almonds, and set them back in the freezer on parchment paper to harden.  

How To Melt (and thin) Chocolate 

Step 1

Fill the lower half of a double boiler with water and set it over high heat. Bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Set the top half of the double boiler onto the bottom half.

Step 2

Transfer the dipping chocolate to the top half of the double boiler. Allow it to heat until melted thoroughly, stirring frequently with a spoon.

Step 3

Add 1 tsp. of shortening or cooking oil to the melted dipping chocolate. The type of shortening or cooking oil you select might affect the flavor of the chocolate. Vegetable oil or shortening and canola oil will not affect the flavor. In contrast, peanut oil will give the chocolate a slightly nutty flavor and butter-flavored shortening will make it richer.

If you have leftover chocolate after dipping your bars, grab a banana and dip them too!  I cannot waste leftover chocolate and spooning it out and into my mouth just felt wrong (but kinda right).  Dip the banana slices, and then top them with almonds and pop them in the freezer with your pops.  

No added sugar, sweetened naturally with bananas, creamy peanut butter matched with chocolate and crunchy almonds.  These are the perfect summer treat.  I might have to make these again with some chocolate chips IN the pops, and some toasted coconut on the outside.  The options are endless!

Note:  This post is sponsored by Almond Breeze Almond milk and almonds.  While Blue Diamond has provided a few of the ingredients for this post, I was not compensated for this post and how to use these ingredients are ideas of my own.  Some affiliate links are included and I sincerely appreciate your support!