Gluten Free, Dairy Free Ice Cream

I like ice cream, but my husband has a true addiction to ice cream. We could never keep it in the house because he'll have a scoop here and a scoop there and then he'd be surprised when it was all gone. However things changed when he gave up milk. He hasn't given up dairy completely, but he went from drinking 2 gallons of Vitamin D milk every 10 or so days to 1 64 oz container of Blue Diamond Almond Breeze every 10 days. So he stays away from straight milk, yogurt, or ice cream. The reason why is because he was suffering from severe brain fog. His memory was practically non-existent, he was sluggish and couldn't focus, and he was sort of bland (didn't crack too many jokes, etc.)

Now he recalls the smallest details, and is unbelievably witty! I'm amazed by the difference. However he no longer can have his favorite dessert: ice cream. So we have begun the search for a good alternative ice cream, and have started with one of his favorite flavors, cookie dough, from the Purely Decadent line made with coconut milk, owned by Turtle Mountain. They have a line made from soy milk and a line made from coconut milk. I generally don't like soymilk, so we tried out the coconut milk line. I gave this product 4 stars and Mike gave it 3.5 stars. Check out our full review on episode 12 of GFree TV.

Very Cherry!

About two months ago my husband decided to stop drinking milk and convert to nondairy milk; we now drink almond breeze. He still consumes diary but no longer drinks 2 glasses of straight milk a day. About a month into it we ended up at the Ghirardelli discount store and ice cream parlor on highway five near Tracy, CA, I think, and I was in complete shock that he declined buying a sundae because of the milk.

Now that summer's here, and we're somewhat dairy free, I decided to treat us to some very cherry ice cream. We've had a sampling of dairy free, gluten free ice cream before but I had never purchased the Good Karma brand before. I tried out the very cherry flavor, and it is indeed very cherry. I was happy to find that it did not have any sort of lingering chalky taste that I've gotten with other brands of dairy free ice cream. It's just missing the chocolate chips from Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, but otherwise it gets two thumbs up in flavor and texture.

Mike's thoughts: For a non dairy ice cream, I found it surprisingly rich and creamy. As Debbie said, the cherry flavor is very much there, right down to the cherry bits. I had no idea this ice cream was made with rice, and I bet it would fool a lot of people who are allergen-free.

Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream

Back in the days when I could pick any flavor of ice cream in the freezer section I rarely picked cookies 'n cream, but for some reason I had a craving for it. Maybe it was a subconscious thing since it's Mike's favorite and it's his birthday today, but I saw a recipe in my Blendtec cookbook and decided to go for it. I bought some Glutino Zebra Dream cookies for $4.99 and dropped them in the blender. In the end it turned out to be rather expensive, since I could have bought some Purely Decadent, but then the end result was double the quantity, so it's a give and take thing. Anyhow, it turned out great! It's fairly sweet but then I like things that way, which may explain why I've been to the dentist alot lately. LOL. Anyhow, here's the recipe:

Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream

3/4 cup nondairy creamer
3/4 cup sugar
8 chocolate sandwich cookies (for those of you who aren't gluten free use oreos)
2 1/2 cups ice cubes

I only put 6 cookies in to start, and blended everything together. Then I dropped in the remaining two cookies and used the pulse button to just break up the cookies into smaller bits. Pour it in some Tupperware and pop it in the freezer.

Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream

I have a major sweet tooth; it used to be for candy bars, but now it's for homemade treats. During the summer a frozen treat is a nice change and while I love purely decadent ice cream it's nice to make something fresh. I had been blueberry picking about a month ago and finally decided to make something in the blender. This ice cream is not your typical ice cream but still is quite delicious. The use of flavored creamer really enhanced the sweetness and out of the four people who tasted it the 2 girls loved it and the 2 guys thought it was too sweet. Try it out and share your opinion.

Blueberry Ice Cream

1 cup nondairy creamer (I used french vanilla flavor)
2 cups fresh or froze blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup ice cubes

*can be made in a blender or regular ice cream maker