Since the Whole Life Challenge rules specify no sugar (including honey and artificial sweeteners) and no grains, you’d think that brownie sundaes would be out of bounds. But where there is a will there is a way.

I started out by making brownies based on this recipe.

It has honey in it so I substituted unsweetened applesauce. I also didn’t add the apricots since I didn’t have any. The brownies turned out kind of bitter since there wasn’t enough sugar to balance the cocoa powder. I wasn’t willing to give up on them though since they have coconut cream in them which is about the same price as gold.

I’ve made banana soft serve before but never really loved that either. Then I had an epiphany. Dates!

I took 2 frozen bananas and 2 dates and mixed them in the food processor with some peanut butter. That made something with almost a dough-like consistency so I thinned it with just a touch of almond milk and vanilla until it was soft serve consistency. The dates gave it just enough sweetness to balance the bitterness of the brownies when you ate them together. Win!