Two guys fool patrons by driving around in an ice cream truck, but offer vegetables and fruit instead of the frozen treats they desire.  Some find it amusing, but others are clearly not impressed.  Mind the “bleeps” and view before sharing with your kids.  In the end the customers are happy as the pranksters offer free ice cream and treats to those he has pranked.

Ice Cream Season is Here!

It is hot outside and we are all looking for ways to stay cool.  Aside from a day at the beach, a frozen treat like ice cream is at the top of the list for many.  We are not unlike most Canadians and in fact, owned our own ice cream shop for several years.  Bobby Jo’s Ice Cream Shop was our seasonal restaurant that offered approximately 20 delicious flavours of ice cream.  Needless to say,  I have tried them all and certainly have my favourite ice cream flavours.  Likewise, our children love ice cream and it is certainly their choice when we decide to go for a treat.  From blizzards to gelati to revels to sundaes to ice cream cakes to the traditional soft and hard ice cream cones, the choices and variations are endless.

Ice Cream in the Freezer vs. a Trip to the the Local Ice Cream Shop

A tough decsion.  Hands down, it is much cheaper to buy good quality ice cream on sale and store it at home in your freezer for those “sometimes treats”.  I have bought the Breyer’s specialty flavours for as low as $4.99.  When I find them on sale for this price, I will often by a few different flavour options that I know my kids will love.  We can probably get 3 or more whole family trips to the ice cream store for the price of one container of ice cream and at $5 there really is no comparison.

The flip side is a trip to the ice cream shop.  This becomes a family outing and offers more selection, including the obvious soft and hard ice cream choices.  It is much more expensive and takes very little to make it a $20 stop for a family of 4.  However, there is one big advantage.  You are not likely to go to the ice cream shop on a very regular basis because of the cost.  If you don’t have ice cream in your freezer, it simply is not there as a choice when  you are in search of a snack on a hot day or when you are tired and hungry at the end of a long day and don’t have the stamina left to make a good healthy choice.

Dr. Sears: I have an 80/20 rule for my family and my patients. 80 percent of our food choices need to be healthy ones. Home is the 80 percent so I only have healthy food in my house. It’s 10:00 pm and you’re hungry. When you open the pantry and see junk food, it is hard to say no. At 10:00 pm, you don’t have any will power. So we make our decisions in the grocery store, not staring at the pantry. The key is creating healthy habits.

For me, we do a bit of both.  We do not keep ice cream on hand all of the time because I know that when we have it in the house,  my family will want to eat it more often….everyday if I would let them.  However, there are times when we will purchase it.  When we have it in the house the kids probably have ice cream as a treat more often than normal, until it is gone, and then we don’t repurchase it for quite some time.  The trips to the ice cream shop are more rare and thus special, and considered more of a family outing that we can all enjoy.

Ice Cream Shop or In the Freezer – weigh in by commenting at the end of the post.

Ice Cream Alternatives

What I do like to do is try to keep other frozen treats at home for those hot days that offer a much healthier alternative to ice cream.  They can be hit and miss with the kids, but some of the ones that some or all of my family enjoy are:

• frozen grapes
• homemade sugar free fruit based popsicles (see recipe in slurpee post)
• frozen banana treat – I LOVE these!  And you can make so many simple variations.
• smoothy (see recipe in slurpee post)
• Frozen yogurt tubes, simple but always a hit

Click the picture to get the original poster and recipe.