Hot Fudge Banana Split

I have almost made it through the entire year denying myself all sorts of gooey, chewy treats. Off and on I get cravings, but I've been able to tame them with natural sweeteners or drinking a ton of water or hot tea. A few days ago, I was hit hard by a craving that came to me out of the blue. It was around the time I usually wander the kitchen and look at what I have to make dinner with. As I picked up my squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and other vegetables, and began envisioning a perfect soup, all of a sudden I started craving a hot fudge sundae...REAL BAD. I immediately quit thinking about dinner and started thinking about how I could satisfy my craving. I HAD to have a sundae. No, make that a banana split. With lots of vanilla ice cream and salty peanuts. I had to have hot fudge--I was obsessed with the thought of cold ice cream drenched in thick, hot chocolate sauce. I ran to the pantry and threw around all kinds of ingredients. Found the peanuts, large and salted. Ice cream....awesome! I had just brought home a container of vanilla Rice Dream the day before. I had ripe bananas on the counter so all I needed was to come up with the best part: hot fudge. I was determined to make it happen no matter what.

The only chocolate in the house that is sugar-free is my pure, organic cocoa. This would have to work. I did not give myself enough time to think this through, because I was lusting after my banana split so badly, so I skimped on making hot fudge. What I should have done was run online and looked up some recipes, but what I ended up doing was making up a hot chocolate sauce. I combined the cocoa with lots of honey and some heavy whipping cream and heated them together. I then added some boiling water to speed up the process, but it made my sauce too runny and thin. As if that was going to stop me. As soon as my chocolate sauce was hot and smelled delicious, I poured it over my Rice Dream and chopped up half a banana and then sprinkled a handful of peanuts on top. No whipped cream. Bummer. I don't like those rubbery cherries used on sundaes, and I think they're mostly for show, anyway.

I ate my banana split so fast I almost made another one. It was delicious. The runny chocolate sauce was not worthy of sharing with anyone, so I still need to look up a tried and true recipe for sugar-free hot fudge. But the next night I made another banana split instead of dinner, again. It was blissful. I highly recommend it.