Cleverly Disguised as Cake: High Protein, Low Sugar Frozen Yogurt

Mommy's helper, licking the whisk..shhhhh!

Happy Canada Day everyone! Today I have a guest in my kitchen. Let me take a moment to introduce you to Miss Daisy. She's a feisty little thing, don't let those big eyes fool you. Our kitchen mission for Canada Day is two fold- Owen needs a good protein boost, and we need a special dessert. With two weeks left before his scope the milk products are still in his diet. To be honest, I cannot wait until I can take them out again, but that poses problems as well. Milk is an easy protein and fat boost for him. Once I take it out, I will have to search for another source. I suppose it will give me something surf cyberspace for.

About a year ago I happened upon a brand new ice cream maker. Now, I didn't find it at a conventional store so to speak. I found it while bargain hunting at Value Village. I had been longing for an ice cream maker for years and years, but the bottom line is....I'm cheap. Not in a bad way. I just have a hard time justifying a kitchen gadget with a hundred dollar price tag if I don't know how often I will use it. That amount of money will feed our family well for a full week and a bit! I just about had a coronary when I found one, package intact, sitting on a lonely shelf. And the price tag said (ready for this?) $19.99. DONE! I had that machine in my cart and up to the till in about 15 seconds flat. After having the ice cream maker home for about a year, and reading the ingredients in most commercial ice creams, I would have to say that I would have easily spent a hundred bucks on a new one.

A word about cream....Have you ever looked ingredients on the side of the cream container? I know this sounds stupid, but I didn't really think that there would be a need for ingredient listings on cream. I mean, it's CREAM, right? Comes from a cow, floats to the top of the milk, tastes good and rich when it's whipped up with sugar etc. I was shocked one day about a year ago when I noticed that my cream had an ingredient list- with a whole bunch of stuff that I could not pronounce! I have since refined my shopping habit and check ingredients on just about everything we buy. We are very lucky to have access to Reid's Dairy products- which have nothing but milk and cream added to their 5%, 10% and 18% creams. I have yet to find a whipping cream that does not have stabilizers added. If I do happen upon one, I will definitely let you know!

Normally I use my own homemade ridiculously high fat yogurt for this, but today I wanted to try something with a little more protein. Unfortunately, the PC Greek yogurt is also fat free. I made up a bit of fat by using whipping cream instead of milk. The basic recipe is below, please mix it up as much as you like. I think that I would have preferred strawberry or peach flavour. But the kids like raspberry, so I caved. You could also use a tablespoon or so of liqueur (triple sec, chambord, or perhaps a little Godiva White Chocolate?) to keep it from freezing solid.

2 cups President's Choice Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup milk *
1/2 cup sugar or honey
12 oz raspberries, pureed and strained of seeds

Strain pureed raspberries

Combine the yogurt, milk, and sugar in a medium mixing bowl; using a
hand mixer on medium speed, mix until sugar is dissolved, about 1-1/2
to 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the berry purée and mix
until combined, about 30 – 40 seconds. Turn the machine ON, pour
mixture into freezer bowl through ingredient spout and let mix until
thickened, about 25 – 30 minutes. Seriously, there is NOTHING to this- and the result? We were all smiles for hours!