an entire post about ice cream

As you know, we rarely eat processed foods. We cook almost all of our meals from scratch. We buy organic and local as often as possible.

We do these things because it makes us feel better - stronger, more energetic, less ill, smarter, happier - all of that and more. I'm not pulling your leg. Food is medicine...for your body, heart, and mind.

an entire post about ice cream 1

I should point out, though, that we still go to ice cream shops from time-to-time. Our girls inevitably pick the most unnatural and neon-colored ice cream of all - bubble gum or birthday cake or something like that. And we let them enjoy it.

We also like self-serve frozen yogurt shops. Have you tried mango or raspberry? So delicious. We usually forgo toppings because it's so good exactly as-is.

Also - gelato is very good. I hear it's healthier than regular ice cream, but I'm not exactly sure why.

I'd like to see bigger ice cream brands (Breyers, Dreyer's, Blue Bunny, Blue Bell, Ben & Jerry's, etc.) focus on creating higher quality products with fewer ingredients. The Five line by Haagen Dazs is like this. It's pricey, but good.

My favorite flavors of ice cream are vanilla, mint, coffee, and peach. For gelato, I like cheesecake. But frozen yogurt is my favorite.

Do you prefer ice cream, gelato, or frozen yogurt? What are your favorite flavors?

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38 comments on “an entire post about ice cream”

  1. Ice creeeeammm! Love it. The summer I spent in France I ate a huge 3 scoop cone every day (and still lost weight because I was biking so much!). American grocery store ice cream though is kind of meh, agreed.

  2. I went to Italy for missions trip in 2002 and fell in love with gelato. I couldn't find a place that sells until about 2 years ago. So now we get gelato about once a month at Paciugo's in downtown St. Pete. I also love frozen custard. There's a place in Bradenton, FL that sells "concretes", which is frozen custard with fresh fruit, nuts or candy mixed in. When they hand it to you, they flip it upside down and nothing falls out. It is SO GOOD! But now I have an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer and I am so excited to make all kinds of frozen treats like Thai Tea ice cream and fruity sorbets.

  3. Ice cream is definitely a treat in our house so I try not to worry about the unhealthiness of it too much. That said, I'm like you in that every other thing in my house, even treats, are homemade EXCEPT ice cream. So I get where you're coming from. I guess I just let this one roll off my back since I'm really trying to do everything else the "right" way.

    We have two national-award-winning ice cream shops near our house and we go there a few times a summer. They make all their own ice cream and even make their own waffle cones. I don't know if that makes it healthier but it does make me feel better to buy something local and handmade.

    1. It's gotta be healthier if the ice cream is made right there on the premises, don't you think? I bet it is.

  4. We usually get our ice cream from a local place (the same place we get our milk). They make yummy flavors and don't use HFCS (unless it happens to be in the candy additions or something). Their strawberry is so yummy and I don't usually even like strawberry ice cream that much. I'm usually a chocolate with something kind of girl. They also have strawberry with chocolate chips, which is super yummy.

  5. a fro yo place opened up across the street from my apartment...I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've visited. Ice cream is my fave though...just can't eat it every day--I wish I could!

  6. Back when Edy's had an ice cream shop in Berkeley/Oakland - I became addicted to their ice cream, all flavors :) I love butter pecan. I also like frozen custard, frozen yogurt and gelato. I don't buy ice cream often though - usually we make vanilla ice cream at home - using the recipe in the ice cream maker book that has the eggs in it. Sooo good!

  7. Your girls couldn't be any cuter.

    Lately, I've gotten into ice cream made with coconut milk instead of cow's milk. It's still fattening, but no dairy issues there.

  8. Mmmmm....all of the above! :)
    My favorite frozen yogurt flavor is "original"...the tangy flavor made from plain yogurt...soo good. When you get your ice cream maker...this is the recipe we love: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/a-frozen-yogurt-recipe-to-rival-pinkberrys-recipe.html

    For ice cream, Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream is my all-time favorite, but the only place you can really find it is in Michigan (so keep your eye out if you pass through there). Otherwise I am a mint chocolate chip or french vanilla...or chocolate...actually, the only flavor I'm not a fan of is cookie dough. I think it's because I LOVE raw cookie dough so much and the cookie dough in the ice cream doesn't compare to the real stuff from scratch.

    Basically, I will eat almost any kind of frozen goodness. Have you tried ice cream made from coconut milk?? super yummy!

    oh, and breyers actually used to have really respectable ingredients, but they have gone the way of ease and added tons of processed unpronounceables... :(

    1. I'm not a fan of cookie dough ice cream either, but my reason is different. I don't like to eat unbaked cookie dough at all (crazy, I know). ;)

  9. My husband's single favorite treat is ice cream, so we eat too much of it. ;) We do have a white mountain ice cream maker, though, so I do try to make our own as often as possible. My very favorite thing to do? Take some vanilla ice cream, chop up some candy bars, and mix 'em in. So unhealthy, but oh... my... :)

  10. Love Gelato from Gelato Paradiso next to my work. Hazelnut, Lemon, Coconut, Mango, Mint Chocolate Chip... I don't discriminate :)

  11. I guess I don't understand what is wrong with Breyer's. The only ingredients in their natural vanilla are: Milk, Cream, Sugar, Natural Tara Gum, Natural Vanilla Flavor. We are huge supporters of Breyer's and Haagan Dazs because my husband has dietary restrictions and most of their flavors do have milk, cream, and sugar (along with some flavoring) as their ingredients so we know what those ingredients are and that they are safe for my husband to eat.

    We almost never eat gelato because there are invariably mystery ingredients, although my husband does love him some gelato. Maybe someday we will get an ice cream maker and I'll make some for him!

    1. Thanks for pointing out that Breyers has pretty decent ingredients. I'm suspicious of that tara gum though. Do you know anything about it?

      I agree that Haagen-Dazs is one of the best ice cream brands.

  12. We love the Haagen Daz Five line! Me, Vanilla. NY, Chocolate.
    I am also in love with Pink Berry. The original flavor please although I occasionally want Mango or Pomegranate. ;D

    1. I was just reading ice cream nutrition labels at the grocery store yesterday and I'm pretty impressed by Haagen-Dazs overall. The brand appears to stay away from HFCS and to use high-quality ingredients in almost all of their ice cream flavors.

  13. I like all of the above. We live in Wisconsin, and frozen custard is the big thing here. Frozen custard has more egg yolk than ice cream so it's thicker and a little creamier.

    I'm with your girls....cake batter is the best! :)

    1. I don't think I've ever tasted frozen custard. If we drive through Wisconsin, I will have to try it.

  14. Seriously, if I was in Willy Wonka's factory and he forced me to pick one and only one sweet, it would be ice cream. {Except I don't think they have Wonka ice cream, but anyway, you get the idea} So I don't care if it comes in dairy, yogurt, gelato, custard, etc....it has ALWAYS been my favorite treat!

    As for my favorite flavors, I like SO many that it is easier to say that I actually DON'T like anything chocolate in ice cream {or cakes, for that matter}, so candies in ice cream, fruity flavors, caramel based, toffee inspired...I'll take it all. My most recent discovery is Firehouse 31 at Baskin Robbins - vanilla and cinnamon mixed together - pretty yummy! But only get 1 scoop of that flavor at a time or you will DEF go into cinnamon overload....and since I love cinnamon too, I didn't think that was possible!

  15. Due to lactose intolerance (blah) I only eat sorbet or soy ice cream. I love soy ice cream but it is so expensive.

    1. Nancy, I'm lactose intolerant too so I eat lactose free ice cream made by Breyer's! It only comes in vanilla but it's easy to find at all the grocery stores near me. I LOVE eating ice cream again. We also make our own a lot using lactose-free whole milk in our I've cream maker, and it always turns out soooo good!

  16. Self-serve yogurt shops are the best! I almost always get some sort of fruit flavored yogurt (must current favorite is the raspberry at Kona-Berri) and add in fresh fruit like blackberries. Delish!

  17. I try to buy Stonyfield brand, they use only a few ingredients and they are organic.

    I am afraid to take my kids to icecream stores because of food allergies: I cannot read all the ingredients and I am never sure they are careful enough to use different spoons for different ice-creams

    1. I'm not sure I've seen the Stonyfield brand of ice cream. What grocery store do you shop at?

      We do, however, have Stonyfield plain yogurt in our fridge right now. :)

      1. My kids refuse to eat plain yogurt, no matter how many berries I mix in :)

        I buy Stonyfield icecream in Publix, there are not many varieties - I think just vanilla and chocolate, though

        There is anothe brand they sell in Publix that has only a few ingredients and no corn syrup, buy I cant remember the name now

  18. I find my tastes depend on the quality. I really enjoy good gelato but don't have a shop nearby. I also live for boutique ice cream. I feel lucky to live less than 10 miles from a local dairy that makes great ice cream. I find that it is a challenge to find frozen yogurt that tastes good to me, but I sometimes get a hankering.

    When we were in Japan we used to eat organic locally made ice cream from a shop called Picco almost every day. I loved that single portions were in fact single portions. The biggest challenge I have now that we are home is being honest with myself and limiting my portion size. When faced with scooping from a pint, I find that I just don't have that self control.

  19. We occasionally indulge in high quality (usual local dairies) ice creamery ice cream. But most major brands contain antifreeze. They aren't even required to disclose this in the ingredients. So I rarely buy ice cream at the grocery store. I have to be pretty desperate. We do have an ice cream maker, and I make it at home a lot. I use pastured egg yolks and heavy cream from a local farm and maple syrup for sweetener rather than sugar. I let my kids eat it for breakfast because I believe it is highly nutritious the way we make it. When you have more room (when you aren't living in an RV, lol) I would recommend getting the Cuisinart ice cream maker. You can get it at Amazon. :-)

    1. Antifreeze! That's terrible. Our food industry really needs to clean up its act - ASAP.

      Of course, I do realize that much of the change needs to begin with the consumer. As they say, we vote with our wallets.

      P.S. That Cuisinart ice cream maker is on my Amazon Wish List: http://amzn.to/lLtI11. :)

  20. I love ice cream! We recently got an ice cream maker and now I love ice cream even more. This weekend I made frozen yogurt and I don't think I've ever tasted anything so yummy! I love vanilla ice cream the best. I don't think I've really tried gelato.

      1. Well I got the Cuisinart ice cream maker and I made the low fat strawberry frozen yogurt recipe that came with it only I used mixed berries and of course I used less sugar then it called for. Everything always seems to be extra sweet. I also used my homemade nonfat yogurt (made with greek yogurt as a starter so its much thicker). I've been trying to eat more calcium, but for some reason I've been having a hard time with just eating yogurt ...but in a smoothie or this frozen yogurt is perfect!

      2. Oh I made cake batter ice cream for a birthday recently and homemade cake batter...WOW! So yummy!

  21. I don't really like frozen yogurt at all. Gelato is good I think because it's usually more like sorbet, which I love. If it's ice cream it must be something chocolate/caramel or possibly berry flavored. No neon weird flavors for me! Although I do like rainbow sherbet! :)

  22. I prefer ice cream and gelato about the same. THEN fro-yo. I LIKE the tarter taste of fro-yo but there's something about the sweet cream of ice cream that I like BETTER!

    I agree that there should be MORE improvement in ice creams WITHOUT the jack up in price. WHY is it that the LESS ingredients they use the MORE expensive it is!?

    My favorite flavors are: vanilla bean, cookies & cream, and raspberry chocolate chip (very hard to find!).

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