My six-year-old daughter recently had her first sleepover birthday party. I’m still reeling from it. You see, I’m not really the party-planning type. Or the plan-ahead-at-all type. Or the be-prepared type. Or the crafty-know-how-to-entertain-a-house-full-of-little-girls type. I was almost sunk before we even began. How would I keep these little princesses entertained? (No really, they were dressed as princesses.)

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My party-planning muse spoke up in the ice cream aisle. I had no idea what kind of ice cream to buy. How to make everyone happy? Then the muse whispered, “What if you made your own? This would keep them busy and kiddos could choose their own kind of ice cream.” And, I didn’t have to buy anything, because I had all the ingredients at home.

Here’s what you need to make your own ice cream at home:

  • 1 gallon-sized sturdy zippered storage bag
  • 1 quart-sized sturdy zippered storage bag
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 2 tbsp. sugar
  • “Flavors” such as vanilla, mint extract, lemon extract, orange extract, coconut extract, shredded coconut, chocolate chips, root beer flavoring, peanut butter cups, frozen fruit, crushed nuts, cocoa powder, or anything else you find in your cupboard. 
  • Lots of ice!

Fill the gallon-sized bag about halfway with ice. Then, pour the other ingredients into the smaller bag and seal up tight! Place the quart-sized bag into the gallon-sized bag and then seal that up tight too. Now, start shaking! 

A word about doing this with kiddos. There were two sides to this coin. First off, it kept them busy and tired them out a bit, but most of them were a touch impatient. They wanted their ice cream done with just a few shakes of the bag. Of course, this didn’t happen. You need to shake with conviction for at least 10 minutes in order for the cream to turn into ice cream!

But once it is done … WOW! This was the richest, most delectable ice cream I’ve ever had. Totally worth the effort. It was a big serving for the little mouths at my house, but I had no problem finishing my cup of homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Posted by Robin