Yonanas Frozen Dessert Maker

I saw lots of US youtube demos of this and once it came to the UK I bought the product hoping it would be half as good as the promo suggested - I wasn't disappointed.I'd been making banana ice cream in my friend's Vitamix but can't afford a £500 blender, so that is how I came to find the Yonanas machine. It really does make creamy, fluffy and delicious ice cream in minutes. All you need is some frozen ripe bananas. If you really want to go to town you can add other frozen fruit or flavours like bits of chocolate and biscuits. Comes with a little recipe book but much better recipes to be found on the Yonanas site.I am using this because I'm trying to follow a high raw vegan diet for my health and it really helps to be able to find delicious stuff to eat that isn't full of sugar, dairy etc. But this would be great for anyone who just wants a low fat or low cal alternative to regular ice cream, or if you're on Weight Watchers then you could make 0 points ice creams and sorbets all without additives and artificial sweetner.To use you freeze some whole bananas and then push the frozen bananas through the chute, with the aid of the tamper-type thing. Out of the bottom comes something the texture of soft-scoop ice cream or sorbet. When you get more used to the machine you can add some other diced soft fruit like strawberries or pineapple. Or bits of chocolate etc. The banana really takes on other flavours, so this is quite successful. As it all comes through a chute, the different fruits don't mix as well as they would in a blender, so you might need to give the bowl of ice-cream a quick stir round before serving.Pros - it's not cheap but is really a LOT cheaper than a Vitamix and you can't get the same results with most other blenders because you need a super-strong motor combined with something to push the bananas down into the blades.- Healthy version of ice cream. You can add all sorts to this but it's really great for vegans, raw foodists, dieters, anyone trying to avoid the junk they put in supermarket food, refined sugar or dairy. You'll still get a creamy, delicious pud. Ice cream is one of my favourite things so it's nice to have a healthy alternative that still feels indulgent.- Easy to use after a little practice. it did take me about 4 goes to get this spot on. Follow the instructions carefully the first couple of times. You need to freeze the fruit and then defrost if for about 10 minutes for the best texture, and also the fruit should be very ripe. Not all of my combos have been spot on but once you get the hang of it you can really experiment and make some lovely puds.- Pretty easy to clean. Like many kitchen gadgets a little ice cream gets stuck around the blade bit, so before you serve, unscrew the spout and scrape that out or you'll lose half a bananas worth. Looks solidly made as well.Cons - Best for people who can stomach bananas although you can make non-banana stuff in here. There are recipes for this on the yonana site but would be sorbets such as mango or pineapple. Delicious too. Other combos need a little banana to start them off or combine and others need full banana. Surprisingly once there are other ingredients, like strawberries, you hardly taste the banana but real banana phobes might find this a bit boring.- Doesn't combine added ingredients as well as the Vitamix because it's fed into a chute, so things like Lucuma powder or peanut butter may need to be stirred into the bowl after, although this is really no hassle.I got this for £50 on Amazon but the price seems to have gone up a bit now - although hopefully if they sell a few more then it will come back down again as it's a little cheaper in the US I think. I'm not usually a fan of single use kitchen equipment but I've used this nearly every day since buying it and the family all love the result. So I think it's worth the space, even in a small kitchen. It's only the size of a mini blender really.

We have a two year old who has multiple food allergies currently down to milk, soya, egg, peanuts and treenuts. So that rules out huge amounts of variety in her diet. The other thing that rules out foods is the fact she's two and has an opinion of her own.Last summer she kept saying " me ice " to which we calmly said " not for you, its got cows milk in" to say it broke my heart was an understatement, until you have walked in allergy shoes you just dont get how depressing it can become saying no to such simple things that we all had as children. Yoghurts, milk puddings, ice cream are all no go areas.Then someone told me about the yonana, i couldnt order it fast enough especially as our daughter had just out grown her banana allergy and passed her in hospital food challenge. As she had outgrown the allergy we were told it was important to keep banana in her diet, easier said than done when we have spent two years telling her no as bananas make her sick.The machine is so simple to use, clean, put together, take apart and it works. Genius machine, our daughter has so far tried blueberry and banana, raspberry and banana and plain banana, no small step for a child who used to be allergic. She calls it special ice cream and we explained its just magic fruit ice cream. Its opened up a whole new diet area for her and being fruit its great. She still wont eat banana as it comes but will happily try her yonana'sThank you for creating such a fabulous machine. We adore it and even our 13 year old asks what yonana are we having today.If you want to increase fruit intake, make use of a fruit glut from the allotment or just want to feed everyone a tasty alternative to ice cream buy a yonana. Highly recommend it. Full stars from us.

Do not order this is if you live in the UK! This came with a 2-pin American plug and a great big label, stating that it is only to be used with American voltage - if you plug it into a UK socket (if you have an adapter that is) it will blow up. This was a Christmas present, and needless to say has caused a great deal of disappointment to the giftee and embarrassment to the giver.