Ice Cream

My wife asked me to post a question to everybody.  What brand of ice cream does everybody use for their protein shakes?  She can find some that say "No sugar added" and some others that say "Low Fat."  We're not sure which is the best to buy. Thanks!  I bet this will be an easy question for everybody here!! --Eric

I have never used ice cream for my shakes. My Dr gave me some recipees and I also buy ready to serve worldwide pure protein with 35 mg protein for 11 oz.  I like banana and vanilla the best but I also like strawberry and the chocolate but I hate the cookies and cream flavor.      The first shakes I made when I first came home were from a book the surgeons office gave out with sample recipees and I used:   4oz skim milk or it says you can use artificially sweetened vanilla yogurt , 1 scoop vanilla protein powder,  1/4- 1/2 cup frozen strawberries , 1/2 banana splenda or equal to taste. I didn't need any sweetener That was my favorite or I made Banana-peanut butter with: 6oz skim milk 1 Tbsp creamy peanut butter 1/4 - 1/2 banana sweetener if needed I had gotten vanilla protein powder and chocolate powder and plain protein powder to make different ones. Those were the 2 I used the most. I hope this helps. I am sure others will post soon.  I have not eaten ice cream yet except the slim a bear  fudge bars for 100 calories on occasion but none of that in the beginning. I am not sure how far out you are. I will look back and check after I post this to you. Good luck. I am sure others will post what they use. Of course different surgeries,surgeons  an even different people have to use different things. I had the RNY. Have a great day. Laurie

I have never used ice cream for the protein shakes. With the powders I have purchased, it is mixed either water or skim milk.  I like it best with water because since surgery, milk doesn't like me too much. If you want to add flavor to your shakes, you can add some sugar free fat free pudding mix to add flavor.

Hi Eric, I am not sure Ice Cream is the best way to go with the protein shakes.   Ice cream, for the most part is either going to be high in sugar or high in fat.   Just as your wife found, it is almost impossible to find one that is both.    There are many yogurts that are no fat/no sugar and some are even frozen (so that they seem to be like ice cream).    But let me hit this in two ways.   At least for me, I need to stay below 5g of fat and 5g of sugar in any one serving of anything.   So, if you are following the same basic guides (I have no idea how it works for sleeve patients), then you (or she) will probably want to avoid ice cream for those reasons.   But the second thing you will deal with, is anything that thick is not going to mix well with the protein powders.    Unless you mix it seperately and then add it to some sort of shake, you are just going to end up with clumps of powder. I have mixed some of the chocolate powders with milk, but have never gone so far as to add ice cream.   I think the whole term "shake" really needs to be dropped.   Most of the recipies out there are really protein drinks or protein smoothies.   They are not really shakes.  Oh well...hope that helps. Dave

No ice cream. You can use any number of items to create the shake- frozen fruits, yogurt, etc.

Just as everyone else has said in here.. I never used ice cream.  I used frozen fruits, and ice cubes.  I would also use soy milk, the light vanilla flavor.  It gave a little bit of a vanilla taste to my protein shake.  One of my favorite shakes I made was the one listed above with the peanut butter.  It was so good that it kind of felt inappropriate... but it was good for me. Kelly G.

OH I forgot to mention... I froze my bananas.  They worked better in the shakes.  It also saved food.. because as the bananas started to turn a little brown, I would put them in there and save them for my protein drinks (they wouldn't go to waste this way).

Kelly,  Freezing the bananas is a great idea. Thanks for sharing. I am going to try that. I love the fruit shakes. I use frozen strawberries but never thought to freeze the bananas. Do you know how long they keep in the freezer? I always end up throwing some out  now (allthough at the picnic we had a great banana bread sugar free)  that is what I used to do with bananas when they turned but not since surgery.Thanks again Love Laurie

They keep for quite a while in the freezer.. not sure how long, but I use them regularly in my shakes.. so they don't last long in my freezer.. :)

Thanks Kelly Love Laurie