Miss C's 'Ice Cream Menu Plan'

Last week we all had a good laugh when we found that my eight year old daughter (Miss C) had altered the family menu plan to an ‘ice cream menu plan’! Obviously she was craving ice cream, and just for a laugh I decided to humour her and make a new ice cream each day. Of course, it isn’t really ice cream weather at the moment – but Miss C doesn’t seem to mind eating ice cream even in the dead of winter, so we went ahead with our crazy plan.

When I say ice cream, I don’t mean ice cream in the usual sense – I mean my own quirky style of ice creams! Dairy free, naturally sweetened and healthy. These are even egg free, so if you’re vegan, you’re going to love them. Oh yes, and they are also very quick to make – I mean, who wants to wait a day or so for the ice cream to be ready? You want it when you want it! Ice cream for me is a spur of the moment kind of thing, and I make it up as I go along. That’s what I did with these.

There are some pre-requisites for ‘spur of the moment, dairy free ice creams’ – you need to have the ingredients in the freezer ready for when you want them… frozen bananas, frozen avocados (yes, you heard right!), frozen coconut cream cubes, frozen pineapple, frozen berries, ice… If you have those (or some of those) always on hand, ice cream is only minutes away at any time. And that’s a good thing. 😉 (All these ingredients are perfect smoothie ingredients too, so keep stocked up.) Actually, just about any fruit can be frozen to add to ice creams and smoothies, so if you have a surplus, or something’s on special, chop it up and freeze in ziploc bags so it’s ready to go. Note: make sure your fruit is nice and ripe for the best flavour – but not so ripe it’s sloppy.

Quick ice creams are only limited by your imagination – so take some of my ideas and tweak them to come up with your own fabulous flavours. And please let us all know what you come up with in the comments below – Miss C will be forever grateful!

Oh, and to the lady who requested chocolate beetroot ice cream, that one is next on the ‘must try’ list!

Day 1

~ Breakfast Sorbet ~

This is kind of a mixture between ice cream, sorbet, and muesli.

A great substitute for boring old cereal for breakfast,

and you can add or subtract ingredients to make it to your taste.

Some people don’t like the tahini in it – I do, and it adds calcium!

But leave it out if you like. Click on the link above to get to the recipe for this one.

Serves 6.

Day 2

~ Tropical Delight ~

To make this you need 200g coconut cream frozen in ice cube trays,
280g frozen pineapple (chopped), 250g frozen banana (chopped)
and a couple of passionfruit for topping. Whiz up the frozen
coconut cream on speed 9 for 20 seconds, until fine. Scrape down.
Add frozen pineapple and blend on speed 9 until ground, then add
banana chunks and blend on speed 9, mixing with spatula until it all
comes together into an ice cream consistency. Scrape down bowl
and re-mix if necessary. Scoop into dishes and top with passionfruit.

Serves 6.

Day 3

~ Raw Chocolate Ice Cream (with sprinkles!) ~

Little does she know it’s made with avocado and sweetened with banana and dates!

To make this one, blend 250g frozen avocado (chopped) on speed 9 for 10 seconds;

add 250g frozen bananas (chopped), 160g raw dates,

25g raw cacao powder and a teaspoon of vanilla extract

and blend on speed 9 for 10 seconds. It takes a minute or so to mix until creamy –

use the spatula to help it along. Add some additive-free sprinkles

from Hopper, and you’ll be the most favourite mum around!

Serves 6.

Day 4

~ Lemon-Lime Coconut Cream Ice Cream ~

Whiz up the zests of 1 lime and half a lemon with 50g xylitol and

1/2 tsp green stevia powder on speed 9 for 30 seconds.

Add 300g frozen coconut cream ice cubes and whiz again on speed 9 for 10 seconds.

Add 300g ice and whiz again. Add the lime & lemon flesh (no peel) to bowl

and blend it all up on speed 9 until creamy, mixing with spatula.

[Note: You can use other sugar than xylitol – may need to double it though as xylitol is very sweet.]

Serves 6.

Day 5

~ Salted Caramel Macadamia Banana Ice Cream ~

We just had to make this one again – it’s become a firm favourite!
Frozen banana & macadamia ice cream with a salted caramel syrup
made from Rapadura and coconut cream.
Click on the link above to get the recipe. So good. Really.
Serves 6.

Day 6

~ Banana Dippin’ Dots & Ice Magic with Sprinkles ~

This was a really fun one! ‘Dippin’ Dots’ and ‘Ice Magic’ (or Magic Shell)

were totally lost on my kids – they have no idea what they are, never had them!

But they still loved it… they said it was the best ever.

In case you’ve never heard of Dippin’ Dots ice cream, it’s tiny little coloured balls of ice cream in all sorts of amazing flavours. Up here we only ever see it at the annual show. I’ve never bought any because it’s full of dairy, sugar, colours and flavours – but everyone raves about how great it is. This is my healthy version. 😉 I’m sure most people have heard of Ice Magic though – didn’t we all have it as kids? We just love the way it freezes and cracks when we pour it on our ice cream! Homemade is easy as, and only has two ingredients and no nasties. (If you buy good chocolate, that is! If you’re looking for a naturally sweetened, soy free, dairy free chocolate, try dark organic 70% cocoa Rapunzel chocolate. The ingredients are just cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and Rapadura sugar.)

To make ‘Ice Magic’ chocolate topping, melt 100g dark dairy free chocolate (chopped) and 50g coconut oil in the Thermomix for 3-5 mins on 50 degrees, speed 2, until smooth – set aside.

To make ‘Dippin’ Dots’ style banana ice-cream, you need 500g well frozen banana, chopped into approx. 1 inch pieces. Process in two batches on speed 7 for just a couple of seconds until it turns into little ‘dots’ – serve immediately with homemade ‘ice magic’! And Hopper sprinkles. 🙂

[Note: If you have any leftover ‘Ice Magic’, pour it in a jar and keep it in the cupboard at room temperature. You may need to set it in a bowl of hot water to warm up a bit when you’re ready to use it again.]

Day 7

~ Banana Ice Cream with Ice Magic & Roasted Hazelnuts ~

Make this ice cream just the same as the one above, but first chop some roasted hazelnuts and set them aside. Then blend up the banana on speed 9, stirring through some hazelnuts at the end. Top with ‘Ice Magic’ and sprinkle with remaining chopped roasted hazelnuts.
Serves 6.

I hope you enjoy these fun and healthy ice creams as much as we did!

P.S. I’m sorry to disappoint you if you were hoping for beef stroganoff
& ice cream, or baked or ‘fride’ ice cream with sprinkles –
I’ll let you try those ones out yourselves. 😉

Tags: dairy free desserts Egg Free Gluten Free Naturally Sweetened Snacks Thermomix