Curious Creamery Review - Homemade Ice Cream requires no machine!

 

One of my favorite things about summer is cooling off with ice cream. I have an ice cream maker attachment for my stand mixer but have only made homemade ice cream twice, it still takes a lot of work to make the mix. Imagine my happiness with finding The Curious Creamery. Their ice cream mixes make it a breeze to have premium ice cream made fresh at home.

The Curious Creamery Ice Cream Mix requires no ice cream machine. That's right. It can be made with a hand mixer, then popped in the freezer. The mix sample I received for this review is the Unflavored Original Ice Cream Mix. It is a packet that is added to 1/2 cup of milk or other liquid. It takes a high speed hand mixer with a whisk attachment to get the proper consistency. Per the package I began whisking at high speed for up to 7 minutes. The instructions state the volume of the mix should double in size. I did not see that effect happening but I did notice a much creamier texture appearing. Since this was unflavored, I added my own flavor combination after the whisking process was complete. I chose coconut flavoring with diced mango for a tropical treat.

Now that I had it all mixed, the bowl goes in the freezer for 2 to 6 hours. I had a shallow bowl so mine was ready in about 3 hours.

The taste - super creamy! Wow is this ever smooth! It has a velvety texture with a delicious sweetness. The coconut mango combination worked perfectly together. A single packet makes about 1 pint of ice cream. No picture of the finished product, it was devoured too fast before I could snap the photo. It came out looking creamy, smooth white with little orange mango chunks. It could have come from a gourmet ice cream shop!

The Curious Creamery product line includes the Ice Cream mix as well as an Ice Cream Cake mix and for adults only, an Alcoholic Ice Cream mix. Look for these mixes at select markets and available online. Buy a few packets, once you make one and see how easy it is, you will want to make more.

I plan on purchasing more packets. It is the easiest way to make ice cream ever! The taste does not disappoint. I can't wait to try the other pre made flavors of chocolate and strawberry. I do like the unflavored for making creative ice cream flavors. I am already planning my next Curious Creamery Ice Cream treat!

Connect with The Curious Creamery
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram 
Pinterest

Many thanks to The Curious Creamery for providing the review product.
Disclosure: No monetary compensation was offered or accepted for this post. Gratis product was received in order to write my honest and unbiased review. The opinions above are my own and were not influenced in any way. Others experience may vary. 

Giving Soaps - Body Care That Gives Back #giveaway

Giving Soaps bath & body products are not just amazingly good-smelling (they are), but they help keep the environment going strong and give back to charities working worldwide. 

1. Their ingredients are 100% plant-derived

2. Their packaging is all reusable and/or compostable

3. They ship orders in reused boxes stuffed with shredded junk mail (=zero cost passed on to their customers)

4. 20% of sales are donated back to their charity partners (i.e. 'Giving' Soaps ;) )

Connect with Giving Soaps

Website - Facebook

My Thoughts

I LOVED the products sent to me to review. The wonder, Kristie, sent me some amazing things to try and I want to take the time to review each item she sent. I first one to say, the time that was put into packaging the product was noticeable. A little note came on the box, letting me know the box might look a little banged up, but it was being reused. When I opened the box, it was full of shredded paper and the products I was trying were through out all the shredded paper. It is a tad messy when digging through the box to try and find everything inside, but as I dug around, all the smells made me smile.

Item 1: Jasmine Lotion:

I LOVED this lotion. I got the medium size jar and I've used it every day. Even my daughter who has been complaining of dry skin and didn't want to use her usual lotion because she said it didn't really help. She tried this and she's always asking where the jar of lotion is. The scent is strong but not over powering. It was a lotion that I felt really absorbed into my skin and I didn't need to reapply repeatedly through out the day. I also just felt good using it because I knew the ingredients in it were clean. I have getting the Almond and Cherry Bark lotion on my wish list.

Item 2: Diabetic Foot Balm:

I looked over this item at first, to be honest. I'm not diabetic, so I sorta set this aside. But one evening, I was getting ready to grab the Jasmine Lotion from Giving Soaps to apply to my dry feet and then decided to have a loot at the foot balm. Kristie writes a note with each order, so I read over what the foot balm was for and saw that even though it has ingredients in to geared for diabetics to make it safe for them, anyone could use it. So I popped it open and used a little on my feet. It massaged in really well and absorbed quickly. I wasn't a fan of the scent but I really liked how much it helped with my dry skin that I'd use it again.

Item 3: Headache Eraser:

Love this stuff. I suffer from headaches and I'm not new to using essential oils for headaches. I have a tension blend of I usually roll on to my temple and neck when I have a headache. I was excited to try the one Kristie sent. What I really liked about this one over the one I have is the smell is not as strong and it doesn't burn. Sometimes when I apply my other one, it burns my skin a bit. But this went on smooth, a very light scent coming from it, which I needed during a migraine, and in about 15 minutes, it really did start to ease my headache. I've sense put aside the blend I was using before and I keep the Headache Eraser from Giving Soaps close by.

Item 4: Bar Soap:

She sent me a variety of bar soaps to try and so far I've only tried one. The Cherry Bark and Almond (another reason I need the matching lotion). I have to be honest, I've never used homemade soap before. I've always been a body wash person because soap leaves my skin feeling different than body wash. But I gave this a try. I keep the bar of soap in the Soap Sweater she provided. It lathers up really good and glides over my skin. I LOVE the way it smells and always hope I leave the shower still smelling like the soap. I've been using it over a week now and the soap bar is holding up. The only thing I noticed is I keep the soap in the soap sweater and hang it to dry. the bottom of the soap is getting a little smushy, so I'm not sure if that's normal, as I've never used this kind of soap before. The smushy factor doesn't effect use as it's in the soap sweater. 

Item 5: Soap Sweater:

The soap sweater. This thing is awesome. You pop the bar of soap in it, close the bag, get it wet, lather, and go over your skin. Then rinse it off and hang dry. No holding the soap and it slipping from your hands. It's made using bar soap an easy transition for me, coming from the fact that I only used body wash before.

Item 6: Bath Bomb (bonus gift)

Kristie left me a note that in each order, she includes a gift and she wanted to do that for me as well. So she included a "One of those day" bath bombs. I used it on "One of those days", my back was aching and I was just feeling tired. So that evening, I turned on the tub, got it hot the way I like it and before climbing in, dropped the bath bomb in. It fizzled and let out a great smell of peppermint and eucalyptus. Perfect for a cold. But it really helped my back feel better. It's also filled with herbs and that filled the water. My bathroom smelled heavenly for days. Thank you for the bonus gift.

Giveaway

One lucky winner is going to receive a $25 store credit to Giving Soaps! To enter, just fill out the Giveaway Tools form below. This giveaway will end 10/27/16 and is open to the US only. The winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to reply. Thanks again to the sponsor for offering this great prize!

Entry-Form

YoLife Yogurt Maker Review

DIY ALERT! The YoLife™ Yogurt Maker by Tribest Corporation, the leading provider of healthy lifestyle kitchen equipment allows your kids to make their own yogurt— and guess what . . . it’s healthy!

The YoLife™ Yogurt Maker is an easy way to make fresh yogurt from the comfort of your own home. YoLife™ makes delicious, probiotic-rich yogurt in just 8-12 hours. Replenishing the good bacteria in your digestive tract, YoLife™ may help relieve common digestive symptoms.

Accompanied by convenient glass mason jars and larger containers, YoLife™ is perfect for individual and family-sized servings every day of the week.

Our Thoughts

The easiest and tastiest way to add in some health and good gut bacteria. Probiotic pills are all the rage, but eating it in a healthy treat is much more convenient and fun! Also, you know what you're putting in your food and you get to flavor it in any which way possible, completely customizable to your taste. You children can help too, it's so simple, making them feel great that they can help in the kitchen and my girls loved creating their own flavors. You can do it before or after, we prefer to add our flavor after as we always have a ton of fresh fruit on hand. My youngest prefers strawberries and my oldest loves to top hers with bananas.

To make the yogurt you just add this starter to a liter of milk (give or take some minor differences depending on what type of recipe you're making!) and turn on your yogurt maker. Voila! I did not think it was going to be that easy but it really is. A few more steps are added in if you want to add flavoring beforehand, but if you're like me, I do it afterwards with fresh fruit so this is literally all I have to do to make mine. It takes 8-12 hours and I like mine to cook the full 12 hours for my desired consistency.

 

The jars are perfect for up to two servings (for myself at least) so there's pleny for a weeks worth and then you just start up another batch. I like that I can transfer the jars directly to the fridge and store it there all week and just grab and go! They're very easy to wash as well before your next batch gets started. Also, the YoLife comes with an additional, taller lid, if you want to use your own glass jars to create an even bigger batch of yogurt.

The quickest, easiest, simplest way to make healthy, probiotic-rich yogurt from your own kitchen, tastefully designed by yours truly.

Buy yours here and don't forget to check them out on Facebook and Twitter!

Reviewed by Jackie