Ai-See Kweem!

Yup, that's how DN says "ice cream". He's still not very good with the S consonant clusters (/sk/, /sl/, /sm/, /sn/...) and he seperates the /s/ sound from the next consonant sound. So "scoop" becomes "ser-coop", "spud" (Bob The Builder's scarecrow friend) becomes "ser-pud" and "mosquito" becomes "moh-see-kee-toh". Hur hur hur...

Okay, back to ice cream. When he was almost 2 years old, his grandfather gave him some ice cream. He scooped a little bit on a spoon and DN had a little taste. He spat it out straight away (I think he didn't like that it was cold) but a minute later, the area around his mouth burst into red rashes. Oh dear!

For the past 2 months, I'd been searching high and low for ice lolly molds. NTUC, Cold Storage, United Square, Phoon Huat... but no luck. Finally I called Howard's Storage World and hooray! They had a set there for $11. But because I'm such a lazy bum, I didn't go down to Parkway Parade or Harbourfront. In the end, I still got my ice lolly molds, and for only $3.90 at Ikea. Woot! (It's good to be a lazy bum!) And it was DN who found the molds... at the outdoor furniture section, go figure!

So last weekend, I decided to make some safe, milk-free ice cream (or ice lollies rather) for DN. Because I was going to mix fruit and juice together, I needed my blender. I bought some mangosteen juice and soya milk (er yes, I tried to make soya ice cream) and used some leftover fruit I had in the fridge. You can also make juice lollies if you want, just pour juice into the molds, easy peasy. Many recipes I found online suggest mixing yoghurt in for the creamy taste but of course, DN can't take that, so his were just pure fruit and juice.

After blending the fruit with the juice (I made mangosteen-apple-banana ice lollies), I poured them into the molds. The one in the top right is soya-milk-banana. Er... let's just say I'm not trying that again!

I got DN involved too. He helped me pour the juice into blender and helped me put all the lids on. Of course, immediately after he put the lids on, he tried to pick them up straight away and eat his "ai-see-kweem"! LOL.

It took LOTS of explaining before DN would let those ice lollies go into the freezer.

When we got home that night, the ice lollies were nice and frozen. I took one out and tried to shake the lolly out of the mold. *SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE*! But to no avail. After several teeth-chattering moments, I finally used my "blain" and dunked the mold into a cup of water to melt it a little. The lolly slipped out and I presented it grandly to his majesty.

It was DN's FIRST ice cream and he absolutely LOVED it! He finished the entire lolly and has been bugging us for lollies morning, noon and night. I think the next time, I'll try a pure fruit lolly, no juice. That probably wouldn't melt so quickly and turn my son into a sticky, walking, talking mess!

This is definitely going to be a regular treat in our house. It's healthy because it's pure fruit and juice so I really don't mind giving it to DN more often. It's cheap compared to those pure fruit lollies you can find in Cold Storage ($5 for a lolly??!) and it's so easy to make. And of course, it's milk-free. :)

I think I'll try mango-banana-dragonfruit ice lollies next. If you're adventurous enough, you can try mixing some spinach (the salad kind, not the eng chye kind!) into the mix. The sweetness of the fruit should mask the vege taste and it's a way of sneaking vege into your toddler's diet. Oooh, sneaky sneaky. But it works, I read it online somewhere...

I wish I could do something about the colour though. It looks like cement!