Kids in the Kitchen: Ice Cream Floats

Do you have a picky eater in the house? One of my favorite ways to get kids to overcome picky eating is by exploring and understanding flavor combinations in a totally fun way with ice cream floats. Kids already love the simple ingredients of ice cream floats (ice cream and soda), so it will be less intimidating for them to experiment with flavor combinations. Get them in the kitchen scooping, pouring, and tasting some new flavors. Need some inspiration? Here are my favorite ice cream float flavors:

• Root beer and vanilla ice cream
• Cream soda and vanilla ice cream
• Orange soda and vanilla ice cream
• Grape soda and vanilla ice cream
• Cola soda and vanilla ice cream
• Sparkling apple juice and vanilla or cinnamon ice cream
• Lemon-lime soda and lime sherbet
• Lemon-lime soda and pineapple sherbet
• Cherry soda and pineapple sherbet
• Cherry soda and lemon sorbet
• Ginger ale and orange sherbet
• Cherry cola soda and chocolate cherry ice cream

That's a good start, but why not take the kids to the store with you and get inspired? Talk about adding fresh mint or berries or chunks of cookies. Have fun and see what they concoct on their own. They might come up with a new favorite recipe. HINT: The best way to build a float is with this pattern: soda first, then ice cream, then a bit of soda on top. This method will keep the annoying froth off the top!