I should be writing about our trip last week, but I'll save that for another time. This is a very important post I've been wanting to write for a long time.
I love ice cream. It's cold, creamy, and delicious. The only reason I'm able to hold back on eating it all the time is because I'm lactose intolerant. But of all dairy, ice cream is probably the one I splurge on the most. Therefore it is also the cause of most of my dairy related stomachaches. It's worth it though, most of the time.
When Joanie was a wee little thing she got a rash if I had dairy. So for the first time I cut it out completely (except for what was baked into bread and crackers and cookies). No butter on my bagel, no cream in my coffee, and worst of all no ice cream. That didn't stop me from exploring every alternative :)
First I already knew of So Delicious Coconut frozen dessert. I do like the flavor of coconut and they have some fun kinds to try. But it does lack some of the creaminess of ice cream and all of them have coconut flavor which is different than ice cream. It is a nice treat, though.
My next discovery was Almond Dream frozen dessert. I could get this at a store right in the square and was super happy about that. It got me through many months of cold dessert cravings. It's definitely not as creamy as ice cream and didn't fully satisfy my craving all the time, but it's a pretty good alternative and doesn't have much underlying flavor like the coconut one does.
Creamy ice cream. Mmmmmmmm. I didn't think it was possible to find an alternative in a store that had the soft creamy texture of true ice cream until I tried Trader Joe's coconut milk ice cream. People, this stuff is amazing. The chocolate flavor is good, but the strawberry is spectacular. It tastes like fresh strawberry jam and is oh so creamy!
Finally, I saw an ad for Yonanas - a gadget that makes a frozen dessert out of frozen bananas. Then I saw people on Pinterest doing a similar thing in their food processors. I decided to give it a try. I froze pieces of banana and then processed them until smooth adding a touch of cocoa and some peanut butter. The results were really good! It is super creamy and is a nice healthy option for my ice cream craving self on days when I have enough willpower to resist the real thing. I even made a plain (just banana) batch for Joan and some of her little friends and they all enjoyed it.
When Joan was about 6 months she was no longer sensitive to dairy. So now I give into my ice cream cravings now and again. Nothing quite compares to the real thing. Ice cream is the best.
