Ice Cream Alternative

Do you love the sweet and chilly feeling of ice cream? Do you feel sometimes guilty of eating a little more than the serving suggestion on the Nutritional Label? Do you really read it after you buy it? Well, there are lots of alternatives to getting the regular ice cream from a bucket or tiny pint that squeezes out your pocket money.

First, make Popsicles. If it's a chilly, sweet rush that your body craves, then chances are that you'll still be satisfied from eating one, or two. You can easily make them yourself. Avoid buying the boxes that claim to be made of real juice, seeming natural...just buy a Popsicle container-maker, even found in dollar stores, and fill in with your favorite real juice(powdered drinks are bad for you and they just freeze up tasteless). Let it sit while you make dinner and after everyone's stuffed from the delicious suppper you made, then pull out the popcicles! They do take at least 2 hours to get firm all the way, if you put them towards the back of your freezer. My husband gets a sweet tooth late at night and I'm determined to help him with making him a happier, and healthier guy...yes, it's super tough, but he loves what I make and is surprised when I tell him it's so healthy too.

Which brings me to a small sidenote: habits. What we freely give to our children now will create habits for their future. Perfect example, my husband. He's used to eating out...a lot...and has a sweet tooth. To make a long story short, his father was diagnosed with diabetes over a year now and he's in his mid-40s. That's young! My grandmother died of diabetes and I wrote a post on it the day she passed. My father is a pretty healthy guy and self-taught/self-experimented nutritionist and he's so healthy that he ONLY suffers from allergies at his mid-50s and has8 children, the youngest being 4 and 7 year old sons that he still plays horse with and helps build forts for them. Lesson: the habits we create will help maintain us or destroy us and we are responsible for the habits our children learn to create that will eventually lead to a longer or shorter life.

Now, back to normal ice-cream alternatives...frozen yogurt. You can easily find this at the grocery next to the normal ice-cream. Sure it costs a few cents more, but I have a motto: I can pay $1 more for this food I'll eat now, or I can put it in my body and live with it until I medically need to spend hundreds of dollars on medications later...yeah, the $1 sounds better.

Shakes! Oh I just love these! I buy bananas when they're on sale and of course, we sometimes can't finish it all. Partially I just store up in the freezer when it's ripe and the other I bake. The freezer portions are thrown into a soymilk shake and blended until frothy and hmmm....sweet heaven. I love home-made shakes! You can do the same with berries you see on sale. I don't even bother putting these in the frigde, they just go straight to the freezer. They thaw pretty fast too if I'm not using them as shake ingredients.

If you really want to get the sweet craving out of the way, drink a tall glass of water and wait about 30 mintues while you keep yourself busy. Sometimes, you'll forget, but if you don't then grab vanilla yogurt and sprinkle on chocolate chips, frozen berries, or other sweet you have that won't hurt your budget or health.