Summer Fun for Kids (and grown ups)

Joey and I went to a wonderful dinner some time ago at movie director Alex Zamm’s home. Alex has directed movie’s such as Inspector Gadget 2 and Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts.

It was a fun dinner with a group of their friends with lots of laughter and great conversation. But the dinner became brilliant when it was time for dessert! Denise, Alex’s wife pulled out two things that I instantly fell in love with!

An ice cream maker and a s’mores kit!!!

I now have my ice cream maker and after two disastrous attempts, I have finally figured out that if I keep it simple, it is SO easy. Actually making ice-cream is so easy that you don’t even need an ice-cream maker!

So here is my recipe to kick summer off.

Chocolate Coconut Banana Sorbet

I have been eating RAW lately in order to kick off my summer healthy eating and came up with this recipe. Perfect for kids since it has NO added sugar.

Ingredients:

2 Thai Coconuts (open and use only the coconut water) chilled
4 banana’s frozen in pieces
2 tablespoons or carob or chocolate powder

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend to smooth.

If you have frozen the banana and kept the coconuts in the fridge it should be a nice cold blend which can go straight into the ice-cream maker.

If your mix isn’t cold then you should put it in the fridge to cool before putting it in the ice cream maker.

2. Pour into the ice-cream maker, it should take 20 – 25 minutes to have your delicious summer chocolate banana sorbet!

Now if you don’t have an ice-cream maker, or just want to have the kids do this step as it is so much fun here is how you make it without an ice-cream maker.

First of all HALVE the ingredients above (even halved you can probably then use the mix for 3-4 kids for the following step)

PER CHILD (see note below)
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
Ice cubes

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put ½ cup of blended coconut water, banana and carob/cocoa in the small bag, and seal it. Leave a little room for it to shake.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
4. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
5. Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. And voila – you have ice-cream!

Note:

A 1/2 cup mix will make about 1 scoop of ice cream/sorbet. But don't increase the proportions more that that -- a large amount might be too big for kids to pick-up because the ice itself is heavy.

If you give this a try let me know - and if you have any fabulous easy summer recipes to share - send them in! Bring on the BBQ's and S'mores!