Summer Boredom Buster: Yay Labs! Ice Cream Ball

Disclaimer: We received the Yay Labs Ice Cream Ball as part of the #StonyfieldBloggers program. All opinions are my own.

So we’re hitting that “I’m boooooored” part of summer. I’ve pulled out all of my tricks so far: exciting themed library trips, numerous trips to the zoo, fun craft mornings and now I’m just plain out of ideas.  It doesn’t help that the weather has been in the 90s all week. My girls have quite the Teen Beach 2 obsession going on too. I let them watch 20 minute chunks of it at a time so they aren’t zombies in front of the TV all day.

We got the Yay Labs! Ice Cream Ball last month and the girls have been dying to try it. I figured frozen yogurt would be best! Initially, I planned to use our favorite Banilla Stonyfield yogurt, but we gobbled that up too fast.  Plain yogurt is a perfect blank canvas, though!

For more information about the Yay Labs! Ice Cream ball, check out their website.  They're also on Facebook and Instagram!

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Makes: About a pint

What You Need:

• Yay Labs Ice Cream Ball
• 1 cup rock salt
•  I found this by ice cream makers, but it’s also in the salt section
• 2 cups Stonyfield plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup chopped strawberries
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 8-10 cups ice

Combine yogurt, chopped strawberries and honey in a pourable bowl/cup (I love the 4 cup Pyrex one) and mix. On the reverse side of the ball, add rock salt and ice. Ours took about 9 cups. Fill the ice cream side of the ball with yogurt mixture.

Let the kiddos play with it for 10 minutes, then scrape down the sides. Play for an additional 10 minutes. Ours was still a bit soupy in the middle, but once we mixed it together, it was perfect.

We can’t wait to try new flavors! Since the ball is so heavy, be sure to help out the kiddos.  My girls were quite tired after the first 10 minutes.  Also, no kicking the ball---you could break your foot AND the ball.

Overall thoughts: We really had fun with this. It doesn’t make a ton of ice cream, but I could see us taking this on a vacation or camping for a fun activity. I did find it hard to scrape the sides of the container after the yogurt was frozen—be sure to use a metal ice cream scoop.  Next time, I’m going to scrape down the sides every 5 minutes instead of 10.  Also, since the ball is so heavy, be sure to really supervise while they’re playing so no one gets hurt. Older kids would have a much easier time (my twins are 6 and daughter is 4). The kids LOVED this tasty treat and were pretty proud that they made it.  Anything to get the kids excited about cooking is an A+ in my book!

What are your summer boredom busters?