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8/19/12 8:40 A

Am I the only one who eats coconut milk ice cream from the store? I know I should be avoiding foods with added sugar as the first ingredient, but I let myself have it as a special treat. Coconut milk gives desserts the most amazing flavor ever.

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8/17/12 12:37 A

I also eat

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8/17/12 12:35 A

I freeze my banana ice cream

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7/24/12 4:38 P

That sounds absolutely delicious! I love iced coffee too!

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7/24/12 4:30 P

I make a smoothie treat - frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, whatever I have), a frozen banana, chia seeds, maca powder, protein powder and non-dairy milk. I do find soy milk makes the creamiest most ice cream like consistency.

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7/24/12 1:53 P

Oh, I forgot about iced coffee. I love that too.... I make it without sugar and with vanilla soy milk.

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7/24/12 10:51 A

My favorite sweet cooldown is iced hazelnut coffee. Actually any flavored coffee (or stong coffee with one of the flavored syrups) is a delicious sweet treat. I put some So Delicious creamer in mine. Delicious!

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7/24/12 7:33 A

Thanks everyone for such fantastic suggestions!!! Boni, I always tend to forget about using froze grapes as a summer treat--and why, I don't know! They make a great "quick fix" for cooling down!!! Gotta get me some grapes today!

And Patti, I wish I were more like you and could just grab some red zinger ice tea for a "dessert"...that is a great idea and one I "need" to adopt! So much healthier and less carbs than an actual dessert!

I'll bet the banana and avocado ice cream is delicious! Avocado (to me) taste so much like butter and so I'll bet this is a very rich tasting treat. Might have to try that soon.

And all the other ideas which were great (including froze cherries...had never thought of that! Great way to get a froze treat and some good anti-oxidents at the same time!)

Thanks for your help, folks! Much appretiated!!!

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7/24/12 12:38 A

These aren't quick cool downs, but they're great icy summer treats.

This "ice cream" recipe was in one of my emails today. I fell in love with avocado shakes in my youthful years as a traveler. Most people think of avocados in savory applications, but they're wonderful in sweets as well. This avocado banana "ice cream" looks delicious www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/05/vanilla
-avocado-banana-ice-cream.html

If you're interested in the shake recipe, here's something similar to the one I make www.yumsugar.com/Happy-Hour-Indonesian-Avo
cado-Shake-429378 Here are a couple of recipes for sweetened condensed "milk" www.godairyfree.org/Dairy-Substitutes/Milk
-Subs-Sweetened-Condensed/Sweetened-Co
ndensed-Milk-Recipes.html You can freeze it in ice cube trays and add a couple of cubes with the regular ice. I use canned coconut milk (unshaken, just the creamy part) sometimes, and it's very good in the shakes too.

Edited by: PATTK1220 at: 7/24/2012 (00:39)

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7/23/12 12:14 P

Frozen fruit seems to be the theme here. I like cherries too. They don't freeze really hard so are easy to eat. Making smoothies takes no time at all. I keep a lot of fruit frozen so I can make ice cream and smoothies very quickly. Thank you Vitamix! I also make chia puddings and keep that in the fridge for a quick snack.

I buy fruit in bulk (including bananas) and freeze the majority of it. If you look at the reduced rack at your grocery store you can usually get bananas very cheap. I once bought over 30 of them all because they had spots. When I brought them home there were barely ripe and had to sit for a few days before they were even edible.

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7/23/12 12:03 P

I too keep frozen grapes in the freezer and a Brita filtered jug of water in the fridge. I also have frozen banana chunks in a zip-lock bag in the freezer, but you have to process them and add flavourings to make "ice cream". See www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com for some frozen delights.

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7/23/12 11:13 A

I'm an iced tea gal. I brew a pot of concentrated Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger or Tazo Passion every day. I drink regular black tea, too. And lots of water. LOL - I consume lots of liquids!

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7/23/12 10:53 A

I keep seedless green grapes in the freezer and pop a few if I really want to eat something cold.... I also keep my Britta filter (you could also just use a pitcher) in the fridge so that I can tap out some seriously ice cold water... but what I find on most hot days (like today!) is that I will just hop in the shower for a few seconds to cool off.

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7/23/12 10:44 A

Hi gang,

We've had one of the hottest summers on record in many areas of the country. This drought is even affecting crops. Here on the east coast it's been terribly hot. Temps at 95 to 100 have not been uncommon. In my non-vegan days I would just reach for that "quick fix" of regular ice cream (and have been known to even in my vegan days when I just could not find anything else!)

The problem is that vegan ice cream often takes time to make (banana ice cream, tofu ice cream...heck, I've even made white bean ice cream before!) So what do you do when you need that "quick fix" to cool you down? Vegan ice cream is hard to find in my area and it takes time to make it...and that's not much help when it's 100 degrees outside and you need something cool NOW!!!!

So what do you folks do?

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