You ready for this one?  I’m not even sure if I’m ready to write about it, but it is DEFINITELY a food story that needs to be told.  Over the summer I took my boys to a popular indoor playground in Los Angeles.  You know the ones where your kids climb, swing, slide and basically wreak havoc for several hours in a padded room while you try desperately to tune out the constant drone of screaming?  Yup, that’s the one.

After an hour or so, I promised the boys they could have a treat from the snack stand.  Thinking they would have a couple of decent options, I was dismayed to find that our choices were limited to electric blue slushies, candy bars or ice cream sandwiches.  I bought the ice cream sandwiches thinking they’d be the better option.  Boy was I wrong.  Take a look at the ingredients in the following comparison.  Pay special attention an ingredient in the enriched flour: Benzoyl Peroxide.  No, this isn’t an ingredient list for Stridex, it’s an ice cream sandwich for kids.

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THE COMPARISON: Blue Bunny Big Bopper Ice Cream Sandwich vs. Out of the Box Ice Cream Sandwich

(All ingredients followed by an * can be referenced at www.wikipedia.org by clicking on the ingredient)

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Blue Bunny Big Bopper Ice Cream Sandwich

INGREDIENTS:

• Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream:
  • milk
  • cream
  • buttermilk
  • sugar
  • whey
  • corn syrup*
  • mono & diglycerides*
  • guar gum*
  • calcium sulfate*
  • carob bean gum*
  • cellulose gum*
  • carrageenan*
  • natural flavor
  • artificial flavor*
• Chocolate Chip Cookie
  • enriched bleached wheat flour (wheat flour, benzoyl peroxide*, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, niacin, reduced iron, folic acid)
  • brown sugar
  • palm oil*
  • chocolate flavored chips (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil*, cocoa processed with alkali, dextrose*, soy lecithin*)
  • sugar
  • pasteurized eggs
  • margarine (palm oil*, water, soybean oil, salt, mono & diglycerides*, soy lecithin*, sodium benzoate* as preservative, citric acid, natural and artificial flavor*, beta carotene for color, vitamin A palmitate, whey)
  • natural and artificial flavors, salt, baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate*

**All listed product ingredients are taken from product’s package label.  Though Out of the Box Food makes every effort to provide complete ingredient information, please check the package for the most current information.

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Out of the Box Food Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 C butter, very soft
• 1/4 C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream (check ingredient label.  Only necessary ingredients are: cream, milk, sugar, eggs and vanilla )

Directions:

Step 1:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and sea salt
• In a larger mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, water and vanilla.
• Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until combined.
• Drop rounded tablespoon full balls of dough onto cookie sheet.
• Bake at 325 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool.

Step 2:

• Soften vanilla ice cream until workable.
• Place one cookie (bottom side up) on tray.  Top with one or two scoops softened ice cream.  Press second cookie (bottom side down) onto ice cream to make sandwich.  Freeze until firm.

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I know we may not all make fresh ice cream sandwiches, I mean come on, I bought my child an ice cream sandwich that could have been used to clear up pimples.  But one thing I’m learning in this process is the importance of Reading Labels! If we all take anything away from this, I hope it is the knowledge that all products are not created equal.  Just check the label.  Until next week…