Peanut Butter & Jelly Protein Ice Cream

This one is for the kids (or kids at heart like me.) It tastes just like a PB&J sandwich...


Shelly's Peanut Butter & Jelly Protein Ice Cream

1 cup (plus 1/4 cup) Vanilla Soy Milk (or Regular Milk), divided use
2 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder
2 Tablespoon Powdered Peanut Butter (Chike, PB2, etc.)
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Torani Syrup (any flavor, I used SF Vanilla)
2 Tablespoons Peanuts, chopped
1 Tablespoon Smucker's Sugar Free Strawberry Sauce or Strawberry Simply Fruit, nuked

Mix 1/4 cup Soy milk and PB2 Powdered peanut butter together to reconstitute it. Mix together remaining milk, protein, syrup, and reconstituted PB 2 peanut butter. I used this gadget to mix it up. It makes it airy and lump free. If you don't have one just toss it in a blender on super high. Pour into ice cream maker. Follow your machine's instructions for freezing. 1 minute before done add the peanuts. You can eat it right away it is soft serve-ish but I like to put it in the freezer (in a Tupperware) to set for an hour or so. Top with strawberry sauce for PB&J.


Highlights of the day:

* Got to spend some time with an old friend and her daughter. It was her daughter's birthday. She loves to cook so I bought her this.

A little former teacher hint: children will eat anything thing they have a hand in preparing. I had kids eating all sorts of things they made in my class and Mom's saying, "OMG she would never eat that if I gave it to her." It really was just because they took part in the process.

Children are multi sensory learners. With cooking they get to use all of their senses touching, tasting, feeling, smelling, and listening. There's so much for children to learn in the kitchen...

Reading and following a recipe
Vocabulary: saute, chop, dice, dash, grate...
Math: addition, sequencing, fractions, measuring, temperature, time...
Motor skills: scrubbing veggies, pouring liquids, beating eggs, cutting, mixing...
Science: melting, rising, freezing, dissolving, chemistry, physics, cause & effect...
Cultural awareness
Creativity
Learning family history
Making fun childhood memories
but I think the most important reason to cook with kids is that it lays the groundwork for nutrition awareness which will hopefully start those healthy eating habits early.

* Watching a mini Jane Austen marathon today. The ultimate of chick flicks.

* I made a killer casserole side dish to go with a Roast Chicken I'm making tonight for dinner. I'll post the food porn tomorrow.

Listening to: I almost hate to admit it (guilty pleasure) NKOTB "Summertime" on repeat. You know I'm a ex-NYer Long Island born and raised baby so I get a thrill when they say "Jones Beach 1988 c'mon" in the beginning of the song and ummmm yum Joey McIntyre = total hottie. I wasn't a fan as a teen. My crowd beat up NKOTB fans ;) only joking... sort of.