Best Ice Cream | Delicious Ice Cream | Ice Cream Treats For Any Season

Archive for Ice-cream

100 Calorie Ice Cream Sandwich by Julie’s Organic Ice-Cream

By Dessert Darling · Comments (0)

Friday, May 11th, 2012

It’s hard to find an actual ice-cream sandwich, you know, made with real ice-cream, that comes in a 100 Calorie serving size. I scoured the shelves at Whole Foods, my eyes cruising by the soy, coconut milk, yogurt, and even goat-milk options before I landed on on Julie’s Organic Ice-Cream sandwiches.

The “Juliette” has thin chocolate wafers that neatly contain a bar of delicious vanilla ice-cream. Made with natural and organic ingredients, Julie’s Organic “Juliette’s” won my heart.

For more info on Julie’s Organic Ice-Cream, click here.

Click here to see ice creams that I won’t eat anymore, delicious or not!

Comments (0)

Favorite Ice Creams I’ll Never Eat Again & Why: Baskin-Robbins, Haagen Dazs, Breyers and Dreyers with rBGH

By Dessert Darling · Comments (2)

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

There are many articles, like this fabulous one in the Huffington Post, about Bovine Growth Hormones, or rBGH. But I’ll break it down into simple language for you here this Thinny Thursday.

Monsanto, the chemical company that’s determined to run the world’s food supply (and thus, the world), created genetically engineered growth hormones to make cows produce more milk. The cows utters get extremely large, tender, and soar.

This swelling and pain makes the cows get infections, which makes them need antibiotics. Furthermore, the infections lead to blood and puss being released into the milk.

So now, dairy from cows injected with rBGH have:

Genetically Engineered Hormones
Antibiotics
Puss and Blood

“Food is information,” per this article by Dr. Franklipman. What we eat directly interacts with our genes and can make us healthy and happy, or diseased and sick. Wonder why some kids are hitting puberty as early as six years old?! Consuming milk from affected cows with artificial hormones and antibiotics directly and adversely affects our own bodies.

Sadly, my ALL TIME FAVORITE ice cream brands: Baskin-Robbins, Haagen Dazs, Breyers, and Dreyers, all use dairy from cows injected with rBGH. Seriously guys, this is like the Day the Music Died for me. People often ask what my favorite dessert is, and it’s ice cream. I’m so bummed that my childhood staples are so careless with the quality of their ingredients. Furthermore, some have the audacity to outright lie with labels like “All Natural”- UGH!!! Good news though..

Ben and Jerry’s has always taken a firm stance against using rBGH dairy, long before I even knew what the labels meant. All Organic ice creams are safe as well, like Stonyfield, Alden’s, Julie’s, and pretty much any brand that you’d find in a health food store.

Hopefully, if enough of us demand quality ingredients with our shopping dollars, Baskin-Robbins, Haagen Dazs, Bryers, and Dryers will catch on and make the shift to natural milk products. Hey, it worked for Starbucks! Who, I’m happy to share, also refuses to use dairy with rBGH.

Comments (2)

FUN! Ice Cream Filled Brownies- Easiest Giveaway ever :)

By Dessert Darling · Comments (4)

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Yay! You might remember this post about these awesome, all natural, ice cream filled “brown-ees” by Q-bees.

You may have also noticed that I just published an Ebook on Wedding Planning.

Well, the amazing people at Q-bee treats are sending FIVE fans a FREE box of ice cream filled brownies if you tweet me, mention my ebook, or #Follow @DessertDarling, and #Brownees.

For example:

#Follow @DessertDarling! She just wrote an ebook on Wedding Planning! http://wedding-darling.com/ebook/ #Brownees

Or any variation of those sentiments that you please

I’ll put all the Tweeters names in a hat and the first 5 I pull get a free box in the mail. How EASY is that?! Fun fun. I’ll announce a winner next week.

Ready- set- GO!

ps: I’m SOOOOOO Craving a Q-bees Brownee right now– AhhhhhH!

Comments (4)

Crazy Coachella Fashion… but Dessert First ;)

By Dessert Darling · Comments (3)

Monday, April 16th, 2012

This past weekend was the Coachella rock festival in the Palm Springs area that my guy and I attend every year with friends. While my diet for the weekend consists of Heineken and Spicy Pie Pizza (BEST pizza ever), I do manage to find some desserts to sweeten it up.

The most refreshing treat I had was this amazing Snow Cone by Hulu Girls Shave Ice at the GUESS Pool Party. Like real Hawaiian shaved ice, the Snow Cone has feathery flakes of snow that melt on your tongue (versus crunchy balls of ice).

Here I am enjoying my cone with hot friends, Nicole Taylor and Claudia Schiffer.

Since the flavors were made with real fruit juices and no corn syrup, they didn’t leave an artificial aftertaste, which was great.

But it did leave my tongue blue!

I also swooned over this dessert platter at the Hugo Boss pool party.

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte was UH-maaaaaazing.

Finally, I met my match the Neon Carnival, The Cookie Monster!

If anyone is wondering “How does she eat all that junk and stay thin” this answer this year is: I don’t. Señor Scale told me that I put on 7 pounds this weekend. Is that possible?! In one weekend!? Ugh- ok, back to ORGANIC veggies and lean meat this week (Bleh! and I worked so hard to get bikini ready….grumble grumble grumble)

To see more pictures of Crazy Coachella Fashion, click after the break to continue.

Comments (3)

Organic Rice Divine Carrot Cake Frozen Dessert- YUM

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)

Monday, March 19th, 2012

Love Ice Cream but avoiding dairy? Love Carrot Cake? Are you Vegan or Gluten Free? Well this glorious pint of Organic Rice Divine, Carrot Cake is just the treat for you then. I discovered this Good Karma treat in the frozen aisle of Whole Foods and it sat in my freezer for days before I finally caved in and tried it. The extremely flavorful and sweet dessert totally surprised and delighted me. Not only did the “ice cream” part sing of carrot cake, but also it contained actual chunks of carrot cake bites in there for fun texture. YUM. While dairy substitutes are never quite as creamy as the real deal, Rice Divine is still fantastic, thus earning itself a solid 4 cherries!

ps: I bet their Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge is amazing too!

For more info on Good Karma Foods, click here.

Comments (1)

Dairy Free Gelato at Akasha Restaurant in Culver City

By Dessert Darling · Comments (0)

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

I adore Akasha Restaurant in Culver City for serving delicious, sustainable, and organic food for carnivores and herbivores alike. Their desserts have always delighted me, so it was no surprise that I inhaled these scoops of Dairy Free Gelato that you see here. I had two scoops of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip made with soy milk (YUM!) and one scoop of the Chocolate made with hemp (decent). This gelato was a little on the sweet side since it lacked dairy fat to temper the sugar. However, if you can handle sweet desserts, the Peanut Butter Chocolate chip was a delicious dairy-free alternative to real gelato.

For more info on Akasha Restaurant in the newly happening and hip Culver City, click here.

Comments (0)

Famous Ice Cream Sandwiches at Diddy Riese – Major YUM

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

After indulging in the Pizookie at BJ’s in Westwood (post here) I sauntered across the street to try a famous Diddy Riese ice cream sandwich. Diddy Riese notoriously has a long line of UCLA students waiting for their buck fifty ice cream sandwich. As if that weren’t cheap enough for two delicious cookies encasing premium ice cream, a lone cookie itself is only 35 cents. Amazing.

I ordered an m&m cookie top with a White Chocolate cookie bottom and filled it with Butter Pecan ice cream. This sweet and buttery combination was Heaven. Mmmmmmmm- SO good! Ice cream sandwiches can be tricky to pull off: sometimes the ice cream freezes the cookie, thus neutralizing it of its flavor. Other times, all the ice cream squirts out to the sides when you eat it, making it a messy and tricky ordeal. Somehow, Diddy Reise’s treats avoid these pitfalls, making them the quintisential ice cream sandwich. With superior ingredients, this cookie- ice cream delight clearly triumphs over the Pizookie across the street. While I grant Diddy Reise 5 cherries now, they will surely win the Golden Cherry by the end of the year! Delish!

My friend snapped this photo of me shooting the outside of Diddy Riese- there, you can see me in action.

For more information on Diddy Riese, click here.

Comments (1)

The Pizookie at BJ’s Brewhouse in Westwood

By Dessert Darling · Comments (6)

Friday, January 20th, 2012

If you’re familiar with the BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse chain, you’ve surely had a run-in with the Pizookie. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, a Pizzokie is a Pizza Cookie, of course! Also known as one of the greatest dessert inventions ever. However, as beautifully conceived as this concept is…a hot, melting, gooey cookie in your own little pan, topped with heaping scoops of vanilla ice cream, BJ’s falls short of brilliant by using crappy ingredients. I could tell that they didn’t use real butter in the cookies and the vanilla ice cream could not have been more bland. Really, it’s hard to mess up vanilla ice cream, people. Alas, I did nail the order by getting half Chocolate Chip cookie and half Red Velvet Cookie with White Chocolate Chips. The combo was awesome and the Red Velvet cookie better masked the poor quality of the ingredients. After the Pizookie, I went across the street to Diddy Riese for a good ol’ comparison. Ooooh, Very interesting. Tune in next week for the results!

PS: Freak-out alert- the Pizookie has roughly 1,120 calories. WTF!? I NEVER count calories or fat, but freaking BJ’s has it right there on the menu. I would have totally inhaled the whole thing had I not known. (Sigh) Ignorance is Bliss~

For more info on BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, click here.

Comments (6)

Apple Tart and Chocolate Stout Ice Cream Float at Churchill on 3rd St.

By Dessert Darling · Comments (2)

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

I get giddy when a new establishment opens its doors on 3rd Street in my Beverly- Grove neighborhood. The other night I had dinner at Churchill, a rustic, two-story gastropub with a cozy and masculine vibe. Despite the hip environment though, the service and desserts were so disappointing, I wonder if I’ll ever return. When my order finally did arrive, I was greeted with this average, lemony Apple Tart enveloped in a bland blanket of thick crust. To improve upon this item they need to calm down on the lemon, add more apple filling, sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the crust, and drizzle more of that caramel sauce on top.

Far more interesting, though not that much more palatable, was the Chocolate Stout Float. Don’t let the word “Chocolate” fool you. The stout was a hoppy beer with hints of caramel flavor and the saving grace of the operation was the vanilla ice cream. I attacked the ice cream spoon first, letting most of the beer spill off to the sides for just a hint of flavor and soupy texture. Otherwise, creamy beer? Not my thing.

((Sigh)).. I really wanted to love this place, but Churchill needs to revamp its dessert menu, hiring, and staff training to lure me back.

For more info on Churchill, click here.

Comments (2)

A Darling Christmas Party

By Dessert Darling · Comments (3)

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

LA makes it pretty hard to feel like the Christmas holidays, but damn if I don’t try! Every year I throw a holiday party for my book club and girlfriends, replete with delicious nibbles.

The dessert of the hour were these incredible, gourmet Cake Truffles by 95th Street Bakery.

Made with only the finest dark chocolate (versus cheap candy melts), these divine truffles had all the girls’ eyes rolling back into their heads! I wish I had taped their reactions to eating them- it was comical! We enjoyed unique flavors like Eggnog, Panettone, Red Velvet, Holiday Mint, Candied Orange, Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate. GOOD LORD did you see all those flavors!? GOLDEN CHERRY Truffles I tell you! (Photo by Lynn Chen)

Allyson of 95th Street Bakery also brought us these delectable, homemade Ice Cream cups for everyone. How’bout them flavors?! Maple Whiskey Bacon, Nutella, White Russian Christmas, and my favorite, Mistletoe Mint Oreo. YUM-MERS!

And while these Chocolate Peppermint Pretzels from Trader Joe’s were store bought, I couldn’t get enough of them. But horray! I just found out that Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry any items with GMOs!

Look at all the lovely ladies!

OK, I know this is a dessert blog, but I just have to share that this is the BEST Mac and Cheese in the WOOOOORLD. I got it at Erewhon natural foods store on Beverly. Mmmmmmmm. I die.

Check out Lynn Chen’s post from the Actor’s Diet on my little soire here.

I hope you are all having Very Merry Holidays yourself!

XOXO