Just over a week ago, I hosted a Chopped Challenge on my Instagram page, with the winner to receive their very own “Ok, But First Veggies T-Shirt”

My followers had to come up with a creative recipe using the five ingredients I provided:

Steel Cut Oats, Peanut Butter, Strawberries, Maple Syrup & Bananas 

There were some amazing entries, but the  Nice Cream Sandwich by  Megan beck ( IG-> CookToTheBeet) blew me away.

Megan is a dietitian from Portland, Oregon and has her own awesome website and blog.

Now that you know what she’s all about, Let’s take a closer look Megan’s contest winning entry!

PB & J Nice Cream Sandwiches

 Yield: 3 ice-cream sandwiches

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups steel-cut oats
• ¼ cup peanut butter
• 1 ripe banana
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Pulse steel-cut oats in a food processor until coarse oat flour forms (about 1 minute of pulsing)
• In a medium bowl, mix oat flour, peanut butter, mashed banana and maple syrup to form cookie dough
• Scoop dough into 6 even balls and flatten to desired thickness
• Bake cookies for about 15 minutes until browned. Let the cookies cool so they become stiff before putting ice cream in the middle so they can support the ice cream

Strawberry Nice Cream

 Ingredients

• 1-2 frozen bananas
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup

Directions

Place bananas, strawberries and maple syrup in the food processor and blend until it becomes smooth and creamy

Make the Sandwiches!

• Scoop your strawberry nice cream onto a cookie and top with a second cookie. The nice cream melts VERY easily so it may be necessary to freeze the cookies + nice cream together to create a stable sandwich. Otherwise, enjoy your messy sandwich with a spoon in a bowl!

Congratulations once again to Megan for taking home first prize and the t-shirt, and thanks to all who participated!

Andy De Santis RD MPH