Name: Vennie Muenzen
Class Year: 2010
Country of Residence: USA

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

Mountain Day has been a favorite Mount Holyoke tradition. I liked the concept of climbing
a mountain and celebrating the accomplishment with a big scoop of ice cream. All
students anticipate the announcement of Mountain Day by the President of the college
with a huge excitement. During my college years I oftentimes studied late into the evening
— either writing politics or economics papers or solving mathematics problem sets.

 I relished conversations with my friends on various topics as we were all burning the
midnight oil feeling the power of education. So when Mountain Day was to be announced
early in the morning as a surprise and classes were cancelled in order for students to go
climb the mountain and have a scoop of ice cream, I would usually relax and sleep in. It
was not until I graduated that I would partake into this common Mount Holyoke tradition.
Regardless of my location around the world, I would always try to attend Mountain Day
and share this beautiful tradition with other Mount Holyoke alumnae as we learn about
each other’s experience moving mountains in life and celebrating each other.

Homemade Dairy-free Banana Ice Cream

Serves 4 x takes approximately 1 min
(need to freeze bananas (and strawberries for a couple of hours or overnight)

Ingredients:
Banana Strawberry Ice-cream
2 bananas frozen
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Adds-ons:
1 cup frozen strawberries,
4-5 basil leaves +1-2 basil leaves for decoration
1 tbsp almond butter,
1/2 inch piece peeled ginger,
1 cup almond milk

Banana Chocolate Ice-cream
2 bananas frozen
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Adds-ons:
1 oz chocolate + chocolate square for topping
1 cup almond milk,
1 tbsp almond butter,
1 tbsp shredded coconut + some shredded coconut for topping

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients (banana base plus the additional ingredients of your choice)
   into a high speed/high performance blender (such as Vitamix – ensure your blender
   can handle frozen fruit) and blend on high until soft serve ice cream consistency is
   reached, which should be about a minute.
2. Serve in an ice-cream bowl, decorate the banana strawberry version of the ice
   cream with basil leaves and the banana chocolate version of the ice cream with
   coconut flakes and a chocolate square. Enjoy!

Source:

My exploration into making healthy dairy-free and sugar-free ice cream and reminiscing
about Mountain Day