The best healthy treat. Ever.

What if the healthiest treat imaginable was also the tastiest? Here is how to turn pure fruit – nothing but pure fruit – into scrumptious ice cream.

Close your eyes. Imagine sucking gently on your favorite flavor of gelato, slowly letting it melt and trickle down your throat.  Feel the cool sensation.  Taste the delicate flavors.
Gelato is how Europeans eat their ice cream, and is easily one of the most delicious treats.

Now close your eyes again.  Imagine you could have all this taste, all this sensation, all this smoothness without any fat and without extra sugar or any chemicals added.  That’s what Yonanas is.  The ultimate healthy frozen treat

Yonanas ingredients - pure fruit

TRUE STORY: My younger daughter is ten years old, and still very difficult when it comes to fruits and vegetables.  Sometimes we even get mini tantrums from her over having to eat fruit.  My wife convinced her to buy me a Yonanas machine for Christmas.  She was, of course, eager to try it out with me.  And when we did…

“Can I have more?”

My Yonanas Review

This was pretty exciting.  But what exactly is Yonanas?  The best way to describe its composition would be “pure frozen fruit purée”. The photo above includes the ingredients for three servings (each bowl for one of my daughters, and I had a hybrid of the two).

Yonanas coming out from the  machineThe best way to describe the taste is “gelato”.  Oh, yeah!

The Yonanas machine is actually a specialized blender of sorts that works best with frozen fruits that have been thawing for about 15 minutes.  All the recipes that come with the machine are pure fruit.  And all include bananas.

There are plenty of recipes listed at http://yonanas.com/recipes/ and I notice that many of them don’t have bananas in them, so we shall be doing some experimentation, especially this summer.

BONUS: One unadvertised benefit of Yonanas that we discovered is that it does not melt as fast as ice cream, perhaps because it is made with pure fruit and no added liquid.

The trick is to freeze the bananas when they are “spotted” – overly ripe but not yet quite rotten.  If it looks like any other fruit is on its last legs, don’t throw it out and don’t wait.  Pop it in a freezer bag and into the freezer.

So the first question I had, and I have been asked by others, is “Why not just do that in the blender?”  In fact, I make plenty of smoothies in the blender, as regular readers of this blog know very well.

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But smoothies are drinks, and from my experience, regular blenders don’t work well without sufficient liquid. To make something the consistency of gelato requires a different machine.

FRUGAL YONANAS TIP: At your local grocery store there is probably a “Reduced for quick sale” rack that you might have never noticed before.  It’s the place where you buy fruit and vegetables on their last legs at a huge discount, like Penny does.  Most people won’t buy from that rack because chances are that a lot of what is there will spoil before they eat it.  But bananas and other fruit are just perfect for freezing at that point, so buy anything you wish for your Yonanas from the “Reduced” rack (maybe not green peppers, though).  So Yonanas is a healthy treat and a cheap treat.

How to get your own Yonanas machine

There are three ways for you to get your own Yonanas machine:

  • Look for one in a local store, as my wife and daughter did for me (and one of my brothers has since picked one up, too)
  • Shop online at http://yonanas.com/shop/
  • Win one below (Giveaway now closed).

Yes, I asked Yonanas if they would be willing to supply a free machine to one lucky reader, and they said they would.  So we did a Rafflecopter Giveaway.  The winner is @JustPlainSuzi. Congratulations!

This giveaway was open only to residents of the US and Canada, as that is where Yonanas can ship right now.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* This post has been edited to reflect the completion of the giveaway.

Comments

  1. I’ve heard rave reviews for this machine, but I never was able to budget for one. I’d be thrilled to be able to serve up frozen treats that are healthy & inexpensive & delicious to my family. Hoping to win!!!

  2. FoundProdigal (Nicolle) says

    Thanks for the chance. I’ve been curious about these. 🙂

  3. Brianna Heller says

    I love smoothes

  4. Jaime Brown says

    This would be so yummy, that means I can get my family to eat way healthier. Thank you:)

  5. This is so cool David and I would love to get my hands on one of these. Oh and I love bananas and found a great way to make them a treat and yes, you freeze them.

    I love fresh fruit as well but like you mentioned here, it can go bad rather quickly so this is really a great thing to do with that which is on it’s last leg. But I never had paid attention to that section in the store so now you have me curious.

    Thanks so much for sharing this with us and I did enter the contest. I’m excited.

    ~Adrienne

  6. Wow! The things I would make!

  7. I have heard a lot about these and how they can help you have a healthier treat which sounds very good to me. I would love to have one of these.

  8. I’d love one of these. I’m eating healthy and really miss my ice cream!

  9. I NEED ONE OF THESE. Period. I am off to see where I can buy one. I used to eat frozen yoghurt EVERY DAY as a teen in the summers. LOVE! This is the first I’ve heard of this product.

    Thank you so much for making this giveaway open to Canadians and for posting this giveaway to my weekly giveaway linky (http://www.journeysofthezoo.com/category/giveaway-linky).

    Follow on Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/journeyofthezoo).

    Besos, Sarah
    Blogger at Journeys of The Zoo

  10. Good stuff here David. I think we have one of these makers in our house. We used it a few times and now it is just sitting around. Have to pull that baby out and use it again. Love the pictures.

  11. Hi David,
    I was so delighted to learn about the uses and benefits of the Yonanas machine. I can’t wait to try using one so I can make this sweet treats. Thank you so much for sharing healthy, amazing, tool on the Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Blog Hop! I appreciate it!

  12. Yonanas machine and a yogurt maker, this is how I imagined my dream kitchen should have. All that sweet indulgence minus the guilt.Luv it!

  13. Perfect sweet indulgence. So irresistible!

  14. That is indeed an eyeopenner David. Its not normal to find that optimum of sweetest treat and at the same time healthy. Yonanas is quite intresting. Now whats needed is more experimentation on other fruits recipes.

  15. I was so delighted to learn about the uses and benefits of the Yonanas machine. I can’t wait to try using one so I can make this sweet treats. Thank you so much for sharing healthy, amazing, tool on the Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Blog Hop! I appreciate it!

  16. Hey, this can be an interesting suprise treat for the health watchers. Particulary the Apple Maple Walnut Yonanas just looks so savory!!

  17. The day I started making smoothies for breakfast is the day I changed my whole life and become a healthier person. No more cookies or other sugar stuff. Great post!

  18. I too purchased this machine. I sit my fruit out 10-15 min before inserting in chute. I always have the machine freeze up and stop. I then unplug, dismantle, clean and start all over. Do you ever have this problem

  19. Yonanas is a valuable machine to give variety in the way we eat fruits. There are many recipes available too. My Fav(Turn on the Yonanas machine and add one banana. Then add in the cocoa powder. Then add in the second banana. Press out)

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