What a great idea! You should post this over on the Care Givers Forum. Some of the members there might find it very useful.

I've never tasted Ensure, but my mom's doctor wanted her to use it for a while. She never liked milk, malts, or shakes, so drinking Ensure was a problem. She didn't like it at all.

I know that elders usually still enjoy sweets, so making ice cream out of a medical necessity is a wonderful idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: Care Givers Forum

Fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing.

DHs 93 yo grandfather has been told to drink this stuff and as you mentioned, he hates it. He does have a fierce sweet toothe though, so I am sending it along to MIL to see if she can get someone to make it for him.

Thanks!!!!

Alexa

You know, Carnation makes an Instant Breakfast that provides pretty much the same nutrition and it is actually drinkable and it's cheaper. When I was a home health nurse I recommended it to my patients because they couldn't afford Ensure.

I had to drink ensure for a while. I liked the chocolate one the best.

Wow momj47, I didnt know that. Good to learn that.

Thanks JO - nice picture.

Obviously this is an old post, but I'm recently in a position where Ensure is a necessity for me & I'm hoping someone can help me with this Recipe . I'm allergic to Dairy so I'm using the new Plant based Ensure. I want to try this recipe, but I'm confused about the directions. It says to soften the Gelatin with cold water. Am I supposed to make the Gelatin like Jell-O and let that set in the fridge before continuing? Or, just mix the packet with 2 Tbsps. cold water & 3 Tbsps. of sugar, then continue? Also what does  mean? About? Approximately? I'm confused. Any assistance greatly appreciated! Also Ensure is GREAT on cereal instead of milk.

I read it as the latter. Add the gelatin to the water, then add sugars and warm to dissolve. Looks like a really small quantity of liquid so be careful heating.

Don’t worry about the A. Old recipes got garbled up with a program change here. Actually lucky it came out readable. It’s 1.5 cups.

Good luck and please report back - might try this for my dad.

Just to say, Ensure is the foulest tasting stuff I have ever tried. EVER. I was given it in the hospital a few years ago, in liquid and 'pudding" form, and it is god awful. Glucerna, OTOH, is palatable.

The A is a goofy formatting thing...just ignore it. Like foodonastump wrote, it happens sometimes when old posts are brought up again.

No personal experience with Ensure, but my 93 year old father despises the food he is offered in his long term care home. To be fair, he has always been a picky eater. We have discovered that he really likes the chocolate Boost. Says it tastes just like rich chocolate milk.

Boost is excellent, although it is dairy-based. Note that they DO remove the lactose, so if you are only lactose-intolerant (vs allergic to any dairy) I would recommend trying it.

It is much, much better than Ensure! All of these nutritional shakes come in various types: high protein, low-sugar, Plus (high calorie), etc.

I was coming to add a comment about Boost. Mom found it much more palatable than Ensure. We found that adding ice cream and putting it in a blender to make a milk shake was even better.

There are other protein drinks similar to Ensure that taste a lot better. I mostly drink PureProtein, but I also like Owyn Protein Shake but it is a bit more expensive. They have a coffee flavored drink that is especially good, but it has a fair amount of caffeine in it.

IMO you should not be adding sugar and especially not corn syrup to protein drinks. I have occasionally added coffee liqueur or Frangelico to mine, but in very small quantities.

If I were going to make ice cream out of it, I would mix it in a blender with a banana, some yogurt, and some Splenda for sweetener. Or I might mix it with coconut milk. I have an ice cream machine with a compressor, and so I am make ice cream at any time on demand, although I really do not use it that much any more.

Chocolate Boost and a double espresso makes a great mocha, btw.

My mom lives on the Costco version of Ensure. I’ve never tried it. She needs the calories, I don’t.