I’m always on the look out for fun, frugal things that we can do together as a family. So when I came across this recipe for making homemade ice cream in a bag, I knew that it was the perfect activity for our next family night.

We all love ice cream and I knew we’d enjoy watching the process of the milk turning into yummy ice cream that we had made ourselves. And I was right. In fact, it kind of felt like we were performing magic or something! The worst part about the whole process was how cold our hands got during the shaking process. But by wearing gloves and taking turns shaking, it ended up not being too bad.

Want to try it yourself? Here’s how:

Combine 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1 cup milk or half and half in a small quart sized Ziploc bag and seal tightly.

Then place 1/2 c. salt and enough ice cubes to fill a half gallon sized Ziploc bag half full. Place the smaller bag inside the larger bag and seal the large bag tightly.

Shake the bag. (The gloves help keep your hands from freezing!)

And shake it some more.

And some more—hold on to it, it likes to try to slip out of your hands!

And yet some more until you’ve shaken it for 5 minutes and it gets ice cream consistency.

(If your child gets tired of shaking it, you might have to help them out like my husband did here.)

And then you can open it up and see your ice cream!

Eat it in the bag or do like we did and dump it out into a bowl.

Ours was a little soupy still but we got tired of shaking it. I’m pretty sure it would have gotten a little bit firmer had we just kept at it. But we were impatient and it was good anyway.

This little guy loved it.

Can’t you tell by that grin?

Okay, so here’s the recipe and instructions in an easier to read format.

5 Minute Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag2 tablespoons sugar 1 cup half and half or milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup salt (The bigger the granules, the better. Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.) Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full) 1 pint-size ziplock bag 1 gallon-size ziplock bag

Combine the sugar, half and half and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.

Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag.

Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it’s done.

Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add mix-ins, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag.

Serves 1.