With the severe Winter weather we’ve been having across the United States, it’s hard to believe that Spring is just around the corner!  If you’re staying home this Spring Break, having your kids hang around the house for a week, you’re likely to hear “what can I eat?,” 5-10 times a day…I know I will. My kids love dessert and my son in particular, is always looking for away to ensure sugar in his snacks.

I have found a great solution for my kids that incorporates food, fun…and yes, even sugar…fructose!  Perhaps you’ve seen the Yonanas machine in TV commercials?  I hadn’t, but my kids have.  Yonanas Healthy Dessert Maker is a simple device where you place semi-frozen fruit in its shoot and out comes out a delicious looking dessert, reminiscent of ice cream or sorbet.  It kind of looks too good to be true, so I had it try it out for myself.

I saw one last Yonanas at my local Walmart store and jumped on it.  They kids could barely contain themselves, they couldn’t wait to get home and get started.  However, once we got home, we found “patience is a virtue,” to be applicable, as we had to have frozen bananas before we started…and not just any frozen yellow bananas…

We needed to wait a couple of days to get started because although we had yellow bananas, they were not the right color…yet.  Here are the four simple steps to making a dream (healthy for kids!) dessert…

My kids were disappointed when we read the directions for Yonanas at home because you are supposed to take spotted (aged) bananas, peel them, and place them in the freezer for 24 hours.  We had bananas, but they weren’t spotted.  Spotted bananas have the sweetest taste (key for my son!).

Along with the frozen bananas, you can buy or freeze other fruit you’d like to put in Yonanas.  I make a fruit protein shake every morning, so we always have plenty of frozen fruit in the freezer.

When you are ready to begin making your heavenly fruit treat, simply take out the fruit from t

he freezer and let it sit out for about 10-15 minutes.  You want the fruit to be soft, but not mushy.  With practice, you’ll know how many minutes to wait for the perfect consistency.

When your fruit is ready, turn on the machine and first place in a banana.  Then pour in your other fruit and end with a banana.  You will have a nice size cup full of healthy delicious fruit that looks like ice cream.  Your kids will love it.

The Yonanas machine is very simple and making a healthy dessert is very easy.  I love the fact that my kids can operate the Yonanas machine all by themselves, with no worry of their fingers getting caught in the emulsifier blades.  These are the components of the Yonanas machine.  You can see the blades here, but when the machine is put together, they are safely contained deep within the shoot.

From this picture, you can see that the unit itself remains completely clean.  You just take off the chute part of Yonanas, disassemble the chute units, and you can even place them in the dishwasher for cleaning.  Clean-up is easy.

My son LOVES making frozen fruit soft serve with the Yonanas.

My son and I gave up desserts for Lent.  We are loving having Yonanas, our fruity desserts tastes as if we are eating ice cream!  Strawberry, coming right up!

Now for some bananas and peach fruit soft serve!

I also love the fact that any flavor they choose is only limited by their imagination.  In fact, there are a number of recipes available on the Yonanas site incorporating dark chocolate (for extra health benefits), vanilla bean seeds, cocoa, cinnamon, and other fun ingredients to put through the Yonanas machine.

Not fond of bananas?  No problem.  You can place fruit in Yonanas without bananas to achieve more of a sorbet taste and consistency.

Obviously, with a dessert that is made utilizing only of or mostly of fruit, there are many benefits.  A half cup bowl of Yonanas dessert, using only 2 bananas, is approximately 100 calories.  Adding more fruit increases the calories but it’s still much better than ice cream…and it’s healthy.

• loaded with potassium at 467 mg per banana.  Studies have shown that potassium reduces blood pressure and boosts one’s overall heart health
• filled with energy providing natural energy after a workout and assist in building muscles
• a natural protection in the stomach against ulcers by creating a thick mucus barrier within the stomach, protecting it from acids
• great at night, containing a high amount of tryptophan, an amino acid that boosts serotonin production, which can lead to better moods and sleep
• nearly nonfat!  Bananas contain barely any fat (0.4 g), sodium, or cholesterol
• packed full of vitamins, containing vitamin A, vitamin B-6, iron, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper, and even protein (1.3 grams)

And of course, there’s lots of great nutritional value in various fruits you might use like strawberries, peaches, kiwi, apples, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, etc.  Find out the nutritional content of your favorite fruit on the US Food and Drug Administration site.

• it’s a bit pricey for families, I would have expected a lower price point
• it’s a bit hard to remove the shoot pieces to wash it out thoroughly.  Definitely this is an adult job

Yonanas is available at your local Walmart or at Walmart.com  for $48.50.

Yonanas is one of those novelty items that I may have overlooked had I not seen it on the shelf at Walmart.  It’s a novelty product, like those cake pops baker, home cotton candy machines, etc.  My kids like to use those things, but I don’t care for them because I’m afraid they may burn themselves and they take work to clean as they are not dishwasher safe.  The benefit Yonanas has over these other fun novelty appliances is that it creates healthy fruit soft serve desserts.  I plan to constantly keep my freezer stocked full of frozen bananas so my kids, at any whim, can make a frozen treat at any time.  Even for breakfast!  Why not?

A product like Yonanas empowers my kids, incites their creativity, and easily sneaks in some nutrition in a fun way.  The way I see it, it’s a win-win.   I have to say I’m really surprised at how good the final product is.

 Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bowl of cherry-vanilla-walnut fruit soft-serve to enjoy!

*  Nation of Change News