Ice Cream

I don't know about you, but I love ice cream! I could seriously eat ice cream every single day, however my stomach will never allow that to happen (probably a good thing!). With Brennan's food allergies we have to be very careful. Many ice creams either contain some type of nuts or the ice cream is made in facility with nuts. Many of the brands we buy have an allergen warning label, but many do not list the warnings. We cannot take him to Dairy Queen or Culver's and Fritz's because the risk of contamination is just too high. There are three places that are safe, if he wants to stick with soft serve. Unfortunately these ice cream shops are a bit of a drive so we tend to stick with store bought ice cream.

A few weeks ago I was in Schnucks doing the weekly grocery shopping and decided to pick up a half  gallon of ice cream. I did the usual label read for allergens and as I read the list of ingredients I stopped and thought about what I was about to place in my cart to take home to feed to my family. How can plain chocolate ice cream contain over eight ingredients? To me ice cream is milk, sugar, eggs and natural flavors not artificial dyes, artificial flavors, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. I put the ice cream back on the shelf and decided we would make fruit smoothies instead. If I make the food at home at least I can control what goes inside the food, right?

Days pass and I am at Target. As I walk down the aisle I see an ice cream maker on clearance for only $8. Without thinking twice about it, I happily place my find in the cart! Once I got home I tore open the ice cream maker box and started reading the directions. Long story short, I can make homemade ice cream in the comfort of my home without a single artificial ingredient! Best of all I know it is 100% safe for Brennan to eat because our home is totally peanut/tree free! I bought organic whole milk, rBGH free whipping cream and half & half and pure vanilla extract (I would like to buy some vanilla beans for the next batch). Those ingredients plus a little sugar made the tastiest ice cream I've had in quite some time. We've also made chocolate using cocoa powder. The boys want to make chocolate chip, cookies & cream and strawberry. I love the fact that Brennan can safely eat his ice cream without any worry of contamination and I especially love the fact that I control what does and doesn't go into our ice cream! Happy summer!