I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM! As fun as that was to chant growing up it was not until I was a mom that I realized it was true. My oldest has started to go insane over the ice cream truck this year. At almost 8, he hasn’t had it more than a time or two but for some reason this year that man in the fun sounding van has captured his attention with the same unrelenting pull that a shiny object attracts a magpie. By and large I am a very frugal person so you can imagine my cringe at him wanting an ice cream pop that costs the same as an entire tub from the store. His argument was the shapes, colors and gum eyeballs are “just so much more fun”. They are pretty cool, even I can admit that, so how do you make something at home that cool? Ice cream in a bag! This tasty and affordable little treat is easy to dress up with little things you already have like sprinkles or nuts, even some gummies or simply leave it plain and delicious. At younger ages they love the magic of watching themselves turn cream into ice cream and at older ages its fun to tie in the science behind it, like how the salt actually makes the ice colder to help freeze your mixture! The salt added to the ice lowers the melting point of the ice, just like it does when we add salt to roads in the winter.... The ice pulls the heat away from the ice cream to melt which allows the ice cream to freeze. Even as an adult I still feel its almost like magic that we shake ice cream into existence. So how do you do it? Easy as pie! Or ice cream! Steps:

1. Add 1 cup half and half
2. Add 1.5 tsp vanilla
3. Add 1 tbsp sugar into a small zip bag and seal well. You can even double bag this mixture to ensure no leaking and to prevent salt from getting into your ice cream.

Then take a large zip bag and add 4 cups of ice and 1/3 cup salt. Set your small bag of ice cream mix into the large bag and seal it tight! Now wrap the large bag in a towel or handle with oven mitts(it gets cold!) Shake for 5-6 minutes then remove and see if your mix is solid. It may need 1-2 more minutes of shaking depending on how hard you shake it. Once it changes from a liquid to a solid all that’s left to do is wipe/rinse the little bag to ensure the salt won’t fall in and then open and enjoy your homemade ice cream!!