I’ve had the same machine since April '24. No problems at all using it daily and sometimes twice daily. But I do take care of it. I’ve seen some Reddit posts about people having troubles, but who knows if they’re treating their machines nicely. I’ve heard of some people really abusing them, mostly by adding ingredients made for blenders, not ice-cream churning machines. Gotta read that direction book.
I’d buy from a place with a generous return policy and save the box just in case. But no issues here.
A pina colada is pineapple juice, coconut cream, sugar, rum, and ice. So, here’s my second attempt to make an ice cream version in the Ninja CREAMi machine, minus the booze. Turned out great!
Ingredients:
• 13 oz lite coconut milk (canned, unsweetened)
• 2 scoops vanilla Metabolic Drive
• 1/4 cup of chopped pineapple (canned, water-packed)
• 1 tablespoon of reserved pineapple juice from the can
• 1 teaspoon of coconut flakes for garnish (optional)
Directions:
Whisk your MD Protein into the lite coconut milk. Freeze overnight.
Spin it on the regular ice cream setting.
Dig a hole in the top and add the pineapple juice and chopped pineapples. Hit the mix-in button.
Hit it with coconut flakes.
Notes:
• I tried this first with full-fat coconut milk. The coconut flavor was a bit intense, and of course, it added a lot of calories compared to lite coconut milk. Lite is 250 calories per can. Regular is 700. I still wouldn’t call this a “light” recipe, but I’ve substantially knocked the calories down with lite coconut milk and no-sugar-added pineapples.
• Flavored rum extract does exist, so give that a whirl for a true pina colada flavor.
Does anybody have recipes that don’t use protein powder? Been loving the protein recipes for myself but I wanted to try and make an ice cream for my two year old ideally with only whole food ingredients.
Mix everything but the oats and freeze in your pint cup overnight. At the same time, soak the oats in the fridge.
Run your base on the lite setting, then use the mix-in button to add the soaked oats.
Notes:
• I’ve used instant oats and old-fashioned rolled oats – both work. Old-fashioned gives your ice cream a slightly toothier texture, which I like. Use instant for a smoother texture.
• This one has about 57 grams of protein for the whole pint.
• 10 oz 1% milk
• 2 scoops vanilla Metabolic Drive
• 1/3 or 1/2 cup precooked sweet potato
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Directions:
Bake a sweet potato (around 400 degrees F for 50-60 mins). Cool, then scoop out one-third to one-half cup of the insides.
Add milk, protein powder, sweet potato, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a bowl. Hit it with the immersion blender or just use a regular blender. Pour into pint and freeze overnight. OPTION: Add the mushy sweet potato as the mix-in.
Spin it on the Lite setting. Re-spin with a spoonful of milk for a soft-serve texture. (I didn’t do that for the batch in the photo.)
Note: Lots of options
• I’ve used 1/3 and 1/2 cup sweet potato mush. Both work.
• I’ve also added the sweet potato into the base (pre-freezing) and as a mix-in. Both work.
• I’ve used a whisk, a blender, and an immersion blender. All work. The immersion does froth up the base, though, so you may want to let that settle before freezing.
• Play around with the cinnamon and nutmeg amounts. I’ve doubled the amount in the recipe above, but it was a potent punch to the palate! (Still ate it.)
Whisk the milk, MD Protein, and extract together. Freeze.
Spin it on the Lite setting.
Add sprinkles and hit the mix-in button. Option: If it looks a little icy after the initial spin, add a teaspoon or two of milk along with the sprinkles, then hit mix-in. (I’ve found this works as well as a re-spin, and it’s not so soft-serve in texture.)
Top with more sprinkles, because it’s your birthday… eventually.
Notes:
• I used standard candy sprinkles, but later learned that sugar-free sprinkles exist. Search around on Amazon.
Who’s the goodest boy? Well, not Kipper. He’s kind of a turd. But I made him “ice cream” anyway.
Ingredients:
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup plain unsweetened Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup plain canned pumpkin
• 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
• Splash of low-sodium bone broth
Directions:
Whisk or blend everything together. Pint it up and freeze overnight
Spin on the lite setting.
If it’s crumbly (dogs just hate that), add an extra splash of broth and re-spin.
Toppings or mix-in options: celery, blueberries, grated carrots, etc.
Note:
• It took my big guy Kipper a minute to grasp the concept, but he loved it after a while. He seems to prefer it a little melty and lickable compared to frozen hard.
• If you make any variations, ensure everything is dog safe.
The strawberry ice cream recipe in the book is absolutely incredible. Basically just mushed up strawberries, cream, and sugar but its genuinely better than any strawberry ice cream Ive ever had by a good margin.
For ice cream, I don’t see its value really. Like, you can make soft serve in the regular machine; you just can’t swirl it. Given the higher price and the extra counter space it takes up, I think I’ll skip the swirls. Kids would love it though.
I watched a few review vids of the Soft Serve machine, and while it seems like a nice little feature to have (and probably one I would use if it was there), it seems like it takes a bit of trial and error/experience to really dial in the consistency of the exact recipes youre using.
Also it seems like the only thing it REALLY does is push the already-soft-serve ice cream out of a star shaped hole. AKA the ice-cream-making portion of the machine itself doesnt make the ice cream any differently.
In the video I saw the best results the guy got were actually usually his old Deluxe machine to spin it, and just using that ice cream in the soft serve machine. That and they actually just scooped out some Dreyers and turned that into soft serve, so thats actually kinda neat
Kinda cool, and maybe if there was some way to add it on to my current machine for $100 or something I might consider it, but no way im gonna buy another $350 machine for the feature.
I loved these as a kid. Back then, they contained sherbet (fruit juice plus a little dairy). I wanted to make an ice cream version with those nostalgic flavors, but I also wanted it to be high protein with no added sugar. And just for fun, I bought some push-up pop molds.
Spin on the lite setting. As always, if it looks a little crumbly, add a tablespoon of milk (or even orange juice in this case) and re-spin.
Enjoy it right out of the pint or smash it into some push-pop molds. I made five pops from one pint.
Notes:
You can find several varieties of push-pop molds on Amazon. Mine were technically listed under “cake pops,” but they worked great with no leakage. Reusable, too.
I did a version of this recipe with the juice of one orange and a little less milk. That worked well, too.
For the orange gelatin, choose between 1 and 2 teaspoons. One gives a lighter flavor, which I like. Two gives you more of a candy-ish flavor.
