I Scream, You Scream...

Monday night was lazy. And I mean, pizza, couch, season finale of Parenthood and a double feature of Breaking Bad lazy. After the crazy weekend, and a movie date on Monday afternoon (J saw Date Night with our "nieces" and I saw Sex and the City 2 with friends) we were tired. And missed each other.

All seemed right with the world as we settled onto the couch to watch 9 By Design (before the aforementioned viewing.) I had a few squares of sausage, spinach, and garlic pie from our new favorite, Villa Nova, in front of me, along with a salad and a giant bottle of water. My broken toe was elevated. And then it hit me. CRAP! I don't have any dessert in the house. Ordinarily, this would not be such a big deal, and I'd eat a piece of fruit or a piece of dark chocolate broken off of a bar reserved for baking. But not after the weekend that wouldn't end. I needed ice cream, or cake, or something only 5 year olds should eat in the  same meal with pizza.

I ate, and pondered, and drowned my confusion in the world of Courtney and Bob Novogratz and their brood. And then got up, and quickly made a batch of lowfat, agave sweetened, vanilla chocolate chip ice cream. Think I'm kidding? I'm not. Once the ice cream maker was done, I threw the soft-serve ice cream in a container and chucked it in the back of the freezer, hoping for a miracle's worth of hardening before I needed to chow down.

After hour 1 Jesse and Walter White's meth-lab shenanigans, we went for it. It wasn't completely hard yet, but I couldn't have cared less. I mowed down a lady-sized bowl.

Back in the freezer now, getting it's well-earned freezing time, this ice cream made me insanely happy. Why? It's exactly what this blog is about. Easy, accessible, created with minimal ingredients in (relatively) minimal time. Naturally, healthfully, and tasty. A kid can do it, a mom can do it.

And yes, a broken-toed, completely wiped, little old me can do it, too.

Lowfat Agave Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
2 1/4 C 1% Organic Milk 
1/2 C agave
1/4 C raw sugar (I think this is probably unnecessary, and am going to try without next time)
vanilla bean, opened and seeded (or you could use 2 TBSP vanilla extract)
1/4 C cream
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 bittersweet chocolate bar (chopped into small chunks)

In a mixing bowl, whisk together milk, agave, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. (You could use a handmixer for this, too.) Mix roughly 2 minutes on low speed.
Stir in vanilla, cream, and sea salt.
With the ice cream machine on, add ingredients to machine. Follow directions for your machine--mine has me add the chips in during the last 5 minutes.

Transfer mixture to air-tight container and freeze until hardened to desired consistency.
**A Note: My ice cream machine directions clearly state that using low fat ingredients and NOT using stabilizers and other things, the consistency of the ice cream may be different than that of a purchased ice cream. This batch did turn out a bit like frozen yogurt, but that's fine with me, given the quality of ingredients and the lack of intense fat. That is all. :)