Keeping Kids Cool and Chemical Free!

Kids love to suck on icy poles, slurp on slushies and munch through bowls of ice cream. Harmless enough you might think, but just what goes into commercially made ice confectionery?

The majority of diary-based ice creams are high in fat and sugar. This poses challenges for lactose intolerant children and children who are overweight.

Ice-based treats on the other hand are little more than colourings and sugar. Fun to eat but sure to set the kids on a hyperactive rampage!

Just like all refined and processed foods, ice creams and ice confectionery are loaded with additives like emulsifiers, stabilisers, antifreezants, colourings, flavourings and preservatives to extend their shelf life, improve their taste and make them look more appealing.

Light varieties of ice cream are believed to be healthy by many people. Eating these altered foods often means an even higher concentration of additives and colourants.

A much healthier way to keep your children cool on hot days is making frozen treats yourself with just a few basic ingredients, creating colour and flavour with summer fruits.

Making your own ice cream or ice treats with fruit is also great way to help kids add more fibre to their diet.

With Thermomix preparing cool treats on hot days is easier than you think. How about strawberry ice cream in under 2 minutes? Or a creamy, diary-free sorbet or fruit confectionery in just 60 seconds?

Cool Recipes!

Quick Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients

1/2 litre Low Fat Vanilla Yoghurt, Milk or Soy Milk (frozen in ice cube trays)
500g frozen Strawberries (or fresh fruit in season)
100g Sugar (you can leave it out or add less to taste)

Method

Place sugar into bowl and pulverise for 10 seconds on turbo to create icing sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and mix for 1 minute gradually increasing from speed 1 to turbo until ice cream is formed. Using spatula to assist.

General Tips

Never use large frozen pieces of fruit, frozen milk or yoghurt, always cube them before pulverising. Always freeze liquids in ice cube trays and cut fruit (ie. bananas) before freezing.

QUICK BERRY ICE CREAM

Ingredients

500g Plain or Vanilla Low Fat Yoghurt, Milk or Soy Milk (frozen in ice cube trays)
500g frozen Blueberries, Raspberries or Strawberries or a mixture
100g Sugar (or to taste)

Method

Place sugar into TM bowl and pulverise for 10 seconds on speed 9.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix for 1 minute gradually increasing from speed 1 to speed 10 until ice cream is formed using spatula to assist incorporate.

Best served immediately. Can be returned to the freezer. Remove a few minutes before serving.

General Tips

Never use large frozen pieces of fruit, frozen milk or yoghurt – always cube them before pulverising. Always freeze liquids in ice cube trays and cut fruit (ie. bananas) before freezing.

If all ingredients are frozen solid add 1 tbsp of liquid like milk or yoghurt to help emulsify.

SORBET

Ingredients

300g Fruit in season (oranges, lemons, strawberries, mangos, melons – any fruit of your choice)
700g Ice Cubes
150g Sugar
1 Egg White (optional)

Method

Place sugar into TM bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 9.

Add the fruit followed by the egg white and the ice. Slowly turn the speed dial to speed 10.

Use the spatula to assist in the incorporation of the fruit with the ice.

This takes approximately 1 minute.

General Tips

When using all frozen ingredients (ie. ice cubes and frozen fruit) add a little bit of water.

Experiment with various fruits to make your own simple 'gelatos'.

FRUITY DREAM

Ingredients

60g Sugar
300g Frozen Fruit of your choice, chopped and separated before freezing when using larger fruits like melons, bananas, oranges etc
1 Egg White

Method

Place sugar into TM bowl and pulverise for 20 seconds on speed 9.

Add fruits and chop for 10 seconds on speed 8. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula.

Insert Butterfly and add egg white and mix for 45 seconds on speed 4 or until you have a soft consistency. This is a soft serve dessert and should be served immediately.

A variety of frozen berries can be found in the freezer section of your local supermarket.

Getting More Fruit & Fibre into Kids’ Diets

Fruit is an essential part of a healthy balanced diet. It provides fibre, vitamins and minerals and protective substances like antioxidants, which help in the prevention of developing some cancers.

Children aged between 4 and 11 years need to eat at least one serve of fruit a day, which many children are not doing. One of the reasons is that children find eating whole fruit boring! Making your children juices or smoothies is a great way to increase their fruit intake.

Many parents believe that all fruit juices are healthy options. In fact we often start the family's day with a glass of commercially made or concentrated juice. Many of these juices are high in sugar or high in concentrated fructose and often contain artificial colours, flavours and preservatives. These are linked with undesirable health problems in children including tooth decay, diarrhoea and reduced appetite.

Commercial juices also often lack dietary fibre, which is thrown away during the juicing process.

Making your own juices is the best option to retain fibre and all the other natural goodness in the fruit. Thermomix is a great appliance for doing this. In just a few seconds, you can crush many kinds of fruit with ice or fresh or frozen yoghurt to prepare delicious fruit drinks the whole family can enjoy.

Thermomix juices offer the additional benefit of maintaining all the fruit's fibre, nutrients and enzymes. Best of all, you'll save money and have the peace of mind of knowing there are no unwanted colours, preservatives or additives. And unlike home juicers, Thermomix is quick and easy to clean so making juices is no longer a chore!

Try our Tutti Frutti Crush for a good start to the day!

TUTTI FRUTTI CRUSH

Ingredients

2 oranges, peeled & pith removed, cut into chunks
1 punnet strawberries, hulled
1/2 a fresh pineapple, skin removed, cut into chunks
10 ice cubes
250ml cold water (for thinner consistency)

Method

Place all ingredients into the TM bowl and process on speed 8 for up to 2 minutes.

Makes about 750 ml

Extra Tips

For a thicker texture, add more ice cubes.

To create a fruit smoothie with added goodness, use frozen cubes of yoghurt or milk instead of ice.

Any combination of fruit works ie. passionfruit, banana, kiwi fruit, rockmelon, honey dew, mango or mixed berries.

Find out more about healthy cooking for the whole family by booking your own in home demo. Book a Demo today by completing our Information Request form and we will put a Consultant from your local area in touch with you.

Recipes designed for use in Thermomix.