I have a massive sweet tooth – but I come by it honestly. My parents and sister are all big dessert eaters and we love to get together and bake. But I find that I’m definitely a person who craves a sweet treat after meals and I’m always trying to find something that hits the balance of tasty and healthy-ish.
Enter “Easy Ice-cream Sandwiches”. They’re essentially a watered-down version of an icebox cake, but I love how great the sandwiches taste and how easy they are to customize.
Ingredients:
Tub of Cool Whip
This can be the regular version, or the lite version. You can also choose the non-dairy coconut version.
Box of graham crackers
This can also be any cracker or cookie. I’ve made it with arrowroot cookies. I haven’t tried anything else because I love the taste of graham crackers so much, but I don’t doubt that you could use saltines, Oreos or chocolate chip cookies. Obviously, your cookie base will affect the number of calories and the “healthiness” of the dessert, so just keep that in mind.
Optional Toppings/Mix-Ins:
Chocolate Chips (any flavour)
Peanut Butter
Protein Powder
Fruit
Icing
Custard/Whipped Cream
Directions:
1. Leave the Cool Whip on your counter for a few minutes to soften up enough that you can mix and scoop it with a spoon. This just makes it easier to spread.
2. While you’re waiting for the Cool Whip, prep the crackers on a cookie sheet or container.
3. Once your Cool Whip is easier to work with you can put it directly on the crackers or you can add protein powder. I would suggest starting with a small amount of protein powder – don’t add a plastic scoop’s worth right away – and tasting as you go. I do prefer adding unflavoured collagen but only because I don’t notice the flavour and it mixes in well.
4. Then scoop the Cool Whip over your cracker base and cover with a top cracker. I like to spread it so that I create a layer of Cool Whip. You can cut in between the crackers once the Cool Whip has hardened up.
5. Put the crackers sandwiches back into the freezer while you prep the chocolate topping. The optional chocolate topping is melted chocolate chips (which you measure with your heart) and a little bit of coconut oil, roughly 1-2 teaspoons. If you’re using the microwave, put the chocolate chips in for 30 seconds and then check and mix. If needed, return them to the microwave, but just microwave for 10-15 second intervals. You don’t want to burn your chocolate, so it is important to melt the chips slowly.
6. Take your sandwiches out of the freezer and drizzle with the chocolate.
7. Resist sneaking a bite and place back in the freezer. Wait for the chocolate and the Cool Whip to firm up (roughly an hour). Then cut and enjoy! I would also recommend that you cut all the sandwiches out and put them in a covered container, so they don’t get the “freezer” taste. They’re also even better when they’ve been frozen for a while and the crackers become a little soft. They’ll have a very similar texture to store-bough ice-cream sandwiches.
I love these and my kids love these! They’re so easy and so customizable – you can add fruit puree to the Cool Whip or cut fruit between the crackers. You could even top it with layers of whipped cream or custard to make this more of a dessert square.
With the official beginning of summer, I’m starting a new *insert season* Game-Changers segment. This is where I’m compiling a short list of my favourite things to bring with you into a new season. These are things that make me feel good, motivated and excited for the upcoming months.
Here is my Summer 2025 “Game-Changers” list:
Get your nails done
One Golden Summer (Carly Fortune)
Kobo E-Reader
Pinterest Vibe Board
Phone Restrictions
Writing
Sunscreen – La Roche Posay
Carving Time for Yourself Unapologetically
Running Shorter Distances – Let’s be Sprinters
Chat GPT
Mel Robbins the “Let Them Theory”
Buy New Summer Clothes
Evening Walks
Affirmations
Stop Caring What Others Think
1) Get your nails done
There is something about getting my nails done that makes me feel so put together and ready for all the summer events. Pretty nails can give you a “cool girl” vibe and they obviously go with everything you wear.
For me, when I’m presenting my “best self” I feel more confident, and one of the ways to look like I’m at my “best” is when my hands/nails look healthy and clean. However, this is definitely a luxury I’ll just be indulging in over the summer.
When your house is in chaos and you haven’t washed your hair in a few days, at least your nails will look great!
2) One Golden Summer (Carly Fortune)
I loved this book! It brings the best summer energy and has such a sweet story. I loved the characters and (I may be a little biased) but I loved that it was set back in my hometown again. Every time I read it, I felt like I was at my parent’s house, sitting in the sun, and hanging out by the water. If you want a great summer read with a cute little romance, I highly recommend you give this one a read.
3) Kobo E-Reader
I was given a Kobo for Mother’s Day and I love it so much! I know in my post “How to Read More Books as a Busy Mom – 10 Easy Tips” (link here!) I talk about an e-reader not being crucial to reading more, but it has definitely motivated me to spend even more time reading.
I love the buttons on it and I love how it syncs to my library (Libby) app. It’s so easy to download library books to it and I can even read in bed with the lights off since it has a back-lit screen feature.
I can’t recommend it enough and I wish I had gotten one sooner!
4) Pinterest Vibe Board
I love a good Pinterest Vibe board. It helps you bring the right energy into the season, and it can give you that extra motivation for your goals. I really recommend making it your phone screen and just feeling the good feels every time you unlock your phone. I talk a little bit more about how to make a Pinterest vibe or mood board in my post “12 Easy Steps to Help Moms Mentally Prepare for a Return-to-Work after Parental Leave” (link here!).
5) Phone Restrictions
One of my top priorities for this summer season is to be present with my kids more. They really do grow so fast, and I don’t want to miss any of their cute little moments as they discover and learn about their world. I also don’t want to be the parent who’s glued to their phone and not connecting with their kids. It breaks my heart when I see parents on their phones at the park and their kids are looking over at them for them to watch something they’re doing, and the parent is just completely oblivious.
Look, I’m not shaming anyone here – sometimes you need to be on your phone and that’s just the reality of our present day. I, personally, just want to use my phone mindfully since it is really easy to get sucked into social media scrolling (it’s such a dopamine hit for your brain!). So, this summer, I’m adding screen restrictions between 9-5 during the week, and focusing on being ok without my phone. I’m talking leaving it in another room, going for a run/walk without it, and just being with my kids without it. Just a fun little phone “detox” for the summer.
Photo by Miriam Alonso: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-using-a-smartphone-7623555/
6) Writing
Aside from working out/moving my body, I find writing helps me relax and eases my anxiety. It’s fun to come up with cool sentences and writing helps organize my thoughts into something coherent. So, this summer, I recommend carving out a few minutes every day to write something. It doesn’t have to be anything long and you don’t have to take it super seriously. It can be as simple as writing down 5 things you’re grateful for, what you did yesterday, what you’ll do today, or even just one sentence to describe the current moment that you’re in. Give it a try and see if it makes you feel good.
I do really like Oprah’s “The Life You Want” Planner if you’re looking for a mix of mindfulness, self-help, and prompt-directed writing. It’s also nice because you enter the dates and there is no set calendar. So, if life gets in the way you can put it down and start back up when things calm down. But also, a cute notebook works wonders for motivating yourself to write. Browse Indigo’s notebook aisle for something that speaks to you.
7) Sunscreen – La Roche-Posay
With the warmer weather comes more opportunities to be in the sun and exposed to UV rays. Protect your face and body as much as you can with sunscreen. I’m currently really loving the La Roche-Posay sunscreen, it plays well with my makeup (i.e. it doesn’t pill) and I don’t feel like a greasy mess when I wear it. I also like the price-point and the fact that I can grab it from my local drugstore. I have the tinted version, but the non-tinted one is also great.
8) Carving Time for Yourself Unapologetically
I’ve been observing the moms around me who seem to have a pretty great handle on caring for their young children, and I’ve realized something that they all have in common. They all carve out time for themselves, and they don’t feel guilty about it! To me, this was groundbreaking. Like what?, no guilt?, how???
And they just know that in order to be their best selves for their families, they need their “me-time”, and there’s no reason to feel guilty for that. Parallel this to fathers: my husband plans at least one 6-hour golf day a week, and he has no guilt whatsoever. And I’ve heard similar stories from other moms about their husbands.
So, for this summer, throw away your guilt and go do that thing you want! By yourself or with friends! Because you need an unapologetic break sometimes too.
Photo by Elina Fairytale: https://www.pexels.com/photo/happy-people-standing-at-a-garden-4834151/
9) Running Shorter Distances – Let’s be Sprinters
Ok, running in hot and humid weather is incredibly humbling. You’re breathing harder, your heartrate is so much higher, you’re sweating more, and your pacing is much slower than what you’re used to. Your body is working so much harder to meet the fitness and stress demands that hot weather brings.
So, I’m thinking for the summer, let’s throw in some sprint work instead of long sweaty slogs. Look, you’ll still get extra sweaty, but at least your workout time is minimized so you can get back to relaxing on your porch with a cold bevvy.
Try some sprint intervals of 30 seconds all out followed by 1 min 30 sec – 2 mins of rest. Repeat 3-5 times. Boom, sprints done in less than 15 minutes.
Photo by BOOM 💥: https://www.pexels.com/photo/runner-at-the-starting-line-12659357/
10) Chat GPT
This is something you either love, hate, or have no idea how to use. I’m personally in the “love” group. I find Chat GPT so helpful as a brainstorming and proofreading tool. I just returned back to work after my second baby, and I’ve been a bit rusty on professional email vernacular. Chat GPT has been helping me out a lot with that – it helps me know what the tone of my email is and makes suggestions for flow and readability. I do give the final once-over and make sure the email is in my “voice”.
It’s also been helpful in designing my website and answering any marketing questions I have. Really, I view it as a more direct and concise google search. I don’t have to scroll countless links/website to find what I want, and I can refine searches or even change the vibe of the search.
I know AI can be pretty scary, but its staying, so we might as well get used to using it and using it properly. Obviously, be aware of personal information that you share, and know that it does collect a history of your prompts.
11) Mel Robbins and the “Let Them Theory”
I’ve recently been listening to Mel Robbin’s podcast, and I’ve been enjoying her content. A lot of her interviews are a nice blend of motivational and inspirational without seeming superficial or devoid of any real content.
She recently released a book called the “Let Them Theory”, essentially saying to stop trying to control the things you can’t, and to instead focus on the things you can – such as your own emotional responses. Full disclosure: I haven’t read the whole book. I did find it very repetitive, and I felt like I got the gist of it after a few chapters. I will give it another attempt at a later date though!
But I like the intention behind the “Let Them” idea. And I find myself bringing it into my daily life. Not only does it make me realize how much I let others dictate my life, but how much I actually try and control others. So, bringing this mood into summer, especially when you have some saucy toddlers, might help you tackle any curve-balls life throws you a little easier.
12) Buy New Summer Clothes
I just like this because updating your wardrobe can make you feel like a million bucks. I bought a few pieces from Athleta that were on sale, and I’ve been able to find some things from Winners. So, you don’t have to spend a lot of money or do a whole overhaul – just find a couple pieces that you really love. The key is to also toss out any clothes you no longer wear at the same time. Sometimes having fewer clothes can help make the decision of what to wear a bit easier, rather than being overwhelmed by choice.
Summer in Canada goes by so quickly and I always want to optimize my time outside as much as possible. I’ve found the best way to do this is to go for a lovely evening walk after dinner.
For my kids, it’s also a nice way to wind down and get ready for bed considering it’s bright out until 9pm. Also, it helps to get more steps in if it’s been too hot to walk outside for very long during the day. Ontario is in the middle of a heat wave, and the temperature today is 43 degrees Celsius. So, I’m definitely walking later this evening when the temperate is a little bit more tolerable.
14) Affirmations
I think the way you phrase and choose your affirmations is so important. I’ve found that changes in the way I say my affirmations makes a difference. For example, rather than saying “I am a fast runner”, I’ve started saying “I am a person who is a fast runner”, and I have no idea why, but this slight change makes the difference for me.
Try rephrasing your affirmations with the phrase: “I am a person who …” and let me know if it helps you out!
15) Stop Caring What Other’s Think
I feel like I have to remind this of myself constantly. Sometimes I feel very anxious posting on Instagram, especially when it’s alongside all these influencers with all those perfectly curated pages. I’ve recently tried to change my mind set in regard to image sharing – I’m sharing my life with my friends and family. Maybe someone from high school is curious what I’m up to, maybe my cousin is curious about how old my kids are, maybe my mom’s friend wants to post a comment on my photo etc… I’m going to stop overthinking things and just do what I want in my life. So, I started off this blog post by instagraming this image.
Let me know if you have any of your own “game-changers” that you’re bring with you into summer 2025!
