You Scream, I Scream, We Scream For Vegan Ice Cream

THE OFFICIAL TASTE TESTERS



My very first try at casein-free ice cream was an utter disaster. So I stuck to buying the So Delicious brand for my son. While my son enjoyed it, it wasn't cheap. Plus it didn't have the creaminess of real ice cream.

Recently I did more research. I found an excellent vegan ice cream blog at veganicecream.blogspot.com.

This gave me a guideline for how to make vegan ice cream.

I then decided to convert my old dairy-filled ice cream recipe. It called for whipping cream and half and half. Since those ingredients weren't an option, I picked coconut milk for the fat content.

The ice cream doesn't taste like coconut milk. There is just enough coconut milk in it to give it a creamy texture.

I also added some soy margarine for extra fat. For those who can't have soy, I would replace the margarine with 1/4 cup safflower oil or 1/4 cup canola or an additional 1/4 cup of your milk sub.

My milk sub was vanilla almond milk which also contains soy. Any vanilla milk sub would be good. We are big fans of almond milk and it was on sale. So that's what we used.

So without further ado, here is the ice cream recipe.

Carolyn’s World Famous Vanilla Ice Cream

1 can coconut milk
2 cartons vanilla almond milk (You won’t use all the almond milk)
¼ cup Earth Balance margarine
1 ¾ cups sugar
½ tsp salt
1 TBS vanilla
6 TBS corn starch or 4 TBS arrowroot starch

Mix the coconut milk with enough vanilla milk to make 7 ¾ cups total. Reserve half a cup and pour the rest into a large saucepan.

Add the Earth Balance, sugar and salt to the saucepan with the milk.

Heat just until it starts to boil.

While the saucepan is heating, whisk the corn starch into the reserved half cup of milk.

As soon as the saucepan starts to boil, remove from heat. Add the corn starch/milk mixture and stir until dispersed throughout. The mixture should begin to thicken.

Add the vanilla.

Pour the ingredients into your ice cream freezer. Let cool completely before making ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s directions. It is very important to let it cool completely so you don’t end up with ice cream sludge.

Good luck keeping the rest of the family out of it.

Let me know if you enjoy it as much as we did.

An Excellent IEP!

Sammy had his IEP last week.

It was the biggest one ever. He is transitioning from pre-school to kindergarten so his old team was there to hand him off to his new team.

Developmentally, he has made some huge strides. His physical development was last tested in February 2006. Before he tested at 28 months. Now he tests at 54 months. His self-help skills have gone from 22 months to 53 months. His social/emotional skills have gone from 26 months to 46 months. His cognitive skills have improved from 26 months to 53 months. His communication has progressed from 28 months to 43 months.

He will be going in a mainstream kindergarten class. Our local school offers a charter Montessori class and we were lucky enough to get a spot. Since Montessori consists of so much visual and hands on learning, I feel it is the perfect placement.

The school is going to send in an aide for an hour a day. If they feel an hour isn't enough they are going to offer more individual time with him. I didn't have to fight for this. It was offered! I was flabbergasted but in a good way.

He is going in a brand new socialization program this summer thanks to our local regional center. It is a Montessori based social program. His new kindergarten teacher is very interested in attending so he will get to know her and she can observe the program.

It has taken a village to get to this point; it honestly has.

His pre-school has been wonderful. He's had ST and OT at the pre-school and all the other teachers have been awesome.

He has been receiving ABA at home for six months. Within a few months of starting ABA, his teacher was sending home notes stating that he was blossoming at school.

There is, of course, the diet which has allowed him to focus on the ABA and all the other things he needs to know. Without the diet, we would not have come as far as we have.

If you see my son in public, you see a normal five-year old. He is catching up rapidly. His behaviors are so improved.

Give us ten years or less and we will beat this autism label. Just watch us. The sky is the limit.