Easy No-waste ice cream sandwiches for more sustainability at home

What is a better dessert in summer than an ice cream? Yes, you are right – an ice cream sandwich! (And a healthy one!) this is the third recipe from my no waste series to show you how easy it is to incorporate more sustainability into the kitchen! 

See the video on Instagram here!

What is an Ice cream sandwich?

I think you can already imagine a bunch by reading the name. It usually is some sort of ice cream (this varies greatly but mostly vanilla or chocolate or something like this) inbetween 2 cookies or sandwich cookies. These can also be very different one to another. Chocolate chip, chocolate, oat, what so ever! 

Why including more sustainability in the kitchen?

Waste and especially food waste is an enormous problem in the world of today. One third of the food produced worldwide is thrown away. ONE THRID! That means one third of the agriculture basically is not needed. There are several reasons for why it is important to reduce food waste and waste that comes with fold in general. Here are a fee:

• save money. For example, the average Viennese throws away 40kg of still good and enjoyable food each year. This is worth approximately 300-400€. Imagine: just by reducing food waste you can save up till 400€! 
• Environmental reasons: if you think about it, this seems pretty messed up. We are talking about how polluting and dangerous the agriculture is for the environment but at the end of the day we throw away the food that we don’t wanna eat anymore (which adds up to being 30%)! If we would go shopping more consciously and only buy what we need we would not need to produce as much and therefore this would also have a positive impact on the environment
• The value: each food that lands on our plate has had a journey. If it is a vegetable it had to be seeded, then watered, needed to grow, has bern harvested, packed, shipped, bought by you, carried home and has been prepared into a meal. This is such a long journey including so many people and working hours. If this then is just thrown away this would be a waste of all of these hours of work. I believe that we should start to start thinking more actively about everything we eat and that we should be more grateful for what lands on our plate and that we should appreciate it much.

This recipe though is not only about reducing food waste but also packaging waste in general. Most groceries are packaged in plastic. This then lands in our bins and only rarely is recycled. In Europe plastic waste is handled rather well but it also sometimes lands in the ocean. Plastic, especially in the ocean, is super dangerous for many species. Paper packaging is better than plastic because it can be burned more easily but we still need to cut down trees to produce it. Here I have some ways to reduce packaging waste when getting your groceries:

• reusable shopping bags: with this I mean the large ones you carry your groceries home. There are several ways you can get reusable ones. Oftentimes there are tote bags which you can use over and over again.
• Reusable fruit nets: smaller ones such as nets in which you can place smaller groceries like fruits also are a great way to reduce waste. That way they do not always have to use another small plastic bag when getting groceries.
• Local markets: markets are great ways to go shopping without much packaging. Most of the times fruits and veggies are not packaged there so you can go there (with your reusable fruit nets) and purchase fresh produce without plastic packaging 
• Bulk stores: bulk stores also are a great way to buy produce without extra packaging waste. You can go there and bring your own jars or tupperware or bottles and fill them with the products that are offered in bulk. I love going there especially for things like nuts, oats, rice, quinoa, pasta or other grains. It is super easy and handy and most of the times the store even says where the product is coming from. But you can pretty lich get everything there, even oils, soaps, vinegar or such. 
• Bring your tupperware: for example to the butcher or to the fish shop where you buy your fish or for things like fresh ham or salami. This saves a lot of paper and plastic waste and then you also already have a great way to store it in! 

I hope that these tips are helpful and that they will help you understand that food shopping without producing much waste is not as hard as it seems! 

So now you have all of the theoretical knowledge but what tasty things can you make with this? Well, an ice cream sandwich for example! Or a gazpacho or french toast! But in this blog post it is all about the ice cream sandwich! 

Is the sandwich difficult to make? 

No! It definitely is not difficult, it only is time consuming because Ice cream, obviously, needs some time to freeze. But it is not difficult since it basically comes down to baking cookies and blending up ingredients in a fold processor

Are ice cream sandwiches healthy?

This unfortunately also is a no. Ice cream sandwiches you get at ice cream shops or in the super markets usually are made with conventional ice cream and cookies. These are loaded with sugar and fat and therefore are really unhealthy and high in calories. 

In this recipe though, I made them healthier. Instead of regular ice cream we are making sort of a „nice cream“ with cashews, bananas and greek yoghurt. Also the cookies are made from rolled oats, coconut flakes and coconut sugar (which is way more nutritious than white refined sugar!). So, to sum it up, usually those are not healthy but you CAN make them healthy like in here! 

Substitutes:

For the ice cream:

• greek yoghurt: coconut cream (the firm part of coconut milk) 
• Maple syrup: honey/ agave/ coconut sugar 
• Raspberries: strawberries, blueberries, mango, kiwi, whichever fruit you like

For the cookie: 

• Rolled oats: other rolled grain such as  spelt or substitute for flour 
• Coconut shreds: chia seeds, more oats, although I would not recommend
• Coconut sugar: brown sugar
• Egg: more coconut oil

This is a pretty easy recipe all in all, which just needs some time for freezing. An amazing chance for you to easily try out no/ low waste shopping to increase sustainability in the kitchen!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie