I love kitchen gadgets. Whether it be a microwave safe toastie maker or an at home slushie machine, when it comes to Christmas or my birthday chances are I’ve got my eye on something new for the kitchen. The Ninja CREAMi is a cool kitchen gadget, and I wanted one. Luckily for me, Vikki wanted one too. We had both seen the hype, and both noticed just how many people were using it to make “healthy” ice cream. I’m not typically a massive ice cream person, sure I’ll enjoy an ice cream on a day out at the seaside, but on the whole, I’m not all that fussed about ice cream. That being said, I am very much fussed about any sort of cheat treat that I can fit into my calorie restricted diet. Lets be honest, on the whole protein bars taste like ass and are no fun at all to eat, they definitely don’t feel like a treat, except for these amazing whipped ones I tried years ago but have been discontinued for some reason. Fruit can be a good snack, but does it feel like a treat and does it satisfy cravings? NO! If people want to pretend otherwise because it helps them stick to their diet then good for them, but the truth is almost all healthy treats are a disappointment. As much as I enjoyed Halo Top ice cream, when comparing it to the full fat ice cream options there is no competition.
Anyway, back to the CREAMi, it is a machine with so much promise, you can make whatever ice cream you want, the problem is not what the machine can do, the problem is trying to find decent recipes. If you search for high protein recipes you’ll find recipes that are either high in calories, high in price, or just overly convoluted. I’m not saying there aren’t any good recipes out there, I’m sure there are some, I just couldn’t find any that ticket all the boxes for me. What I want from ice cream is it tastes good, it has a good texture and consistency, it is cheap to make, it is easy to make, and it uses widely available ingredients. The biggest problem I have now is I need to buy a trumpet, because if it is OK that I say so myself, I nailed it.
How does a bowl of chocolate ice cream with 22.6grams of protein and only 239 calories sound? Or how about Oreo ice cream for 172 calories? Lemon meringue for 148 calories? The list goes on, after a little tweaking so that it didn’t blow your head off I’ve landed on a killer mint chocolate recipe, along with chocolate orange, sticky toffee, and an incredible vanilla (which is NOT plain!). Just imagine being able to have a whole bowl of ice cream for not many more calories than a standard pack of crisps, well imagine no more, call off the pirates, the hunt is over, I’ve found the CREAMi treasure.