Quasi-recipe: That's bananas.

I'm trying my darnedest to chill out with the overconsumption of sweets these days for so many reasons, one of which that, now that I'm unemployed, I don't have money to buy pants the next size up.

Enter: homemade banana "ice cream."

I like mixing up the add-ins and encourage you to do so, too, when you try out this incredibly easy recipe (serves two):

Cut up 2 bananas in chunks and freeze. Place frozen chunks in a blender (this is my new go-to, btw). Add 1/4 c almond milk—or whatever kind of milk you prefer—or water. Add in 1 Tbsp ea cacao nibs and ground flax seeds*. Pulse until smooth, but not liquid. Serve with 1 Tbsp chopped pecans or your favorite nuts/toppings.

*I added these for a little power boost and they're not awesome tasting on their own, so this is the time to hide some nutritional ingredients in your version: consider wheat germ or maybe even spirulina, although if you're going with the latter, you might want to also toss in 1 tsp maple syrup.

Quasi-recipe: Aw, sugar, sugar.

For a reason that is of no business to you, yesterday, I had a major craving for a chocolate-layered hunk of chocolate sprinkled with chocolate-covered chocolate.  So, naturally, I plugged in my panini press and made this:

If you would like to make one of these, but don't have a panini press, you can use a pan/grill pan instead. Just make sure it's very hot and well-coated in oil or butter.  You only need to leave the sandwich on the pan for a few minutes (until everything melts and makes a disastrous, but oh-so-yummy mess), pressing down lightly on it with a large spatula, and turning it over once to crisp both sides.  When done, wait until the pan cools down before trying to lift it to your face to lick the mess off.

Here's how I made my "S'mores Panini," but, as always, you can use whatever ingredients work best for you:

I took 2 slices of whole wheat sourdough bread and brushed the "outside" of each slice lightly with grapeseed oil. Then, I smeared 1 Tbsp of my awesome, homemade almond butter on the "inside" of one slice, topped that with 1/2 of a Vivani dark chocolate bar broken into bits, then placed 4 marshmallows on top of the bar, then placed the second bread slice on top of the whole thing—oiled side up—and jammed it into my panini press (that's what she said) for about 6 minutes.

It's a very decadent dessert (or, in this case, lunch...who am I kidding?), topping out at about 600 calories and 30-plus grams of sugar.  I normally try to limit my daily intake of all sugars to 5% of my total calories, so this little treat definitely put me over, but it doesn't happen often and it's better than me punching a hole in a wall, which is what I was about to do before deciding to eat this instead.

Just writing about this is making me want to go make another one, but I'm too tired to burn off the calories, so enjoy yours without me and let me know how you liked it.